Scam of the Day
Scam of the day – January 14, 2020 – Bill Gates Is Not Offering To Give You Money
It has been more than a year since I first warned you about scams related to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, but after receiving an email from a Scamicide reader telling me his story about almost becoming a victim of this particular scam, I decided that it was a good time to remind you all about this scam. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is a well-known, legitimate charity founded by Microsoft creator Bill Gates and his wife. It does not give random grants to people, however since 2015 a scam based on that premise has been victimizing people. Sometimes potential victims of this scam are targeted through emails. Other times, such as in the case of the Scamicide reader it was through a Facebook message. Below is a copy of the Facebook post that has been used to perpetrate this scam.. As with many similar scams, when someone responds to the email or social media post they are told that they need to pay a fee in order to receive their prize. One recent victim paid $11,000 to the scammers before she realized that it was a scam. The Scamicide reader was told that through the scam he was told he had to pay a delivery charge of approximately $625.
The Facebook post presently circulating appears to come from the “Bill Gate Foundation,” which right away is an indication that it is a scam since it is missing the “s” at the end of Bill Gates’ name. The post also contains a photograph of Gates helping a family. Here is a copy of the Facebook post presently circulating which again misspells Gates’ name.
“MY NAME IS BILL GATE, I AM THE RICHEST MAN IN THE WORLD
Tell me one thing you need from me, and i will do it for you
1. M0NEY – 5OOK
2. CAR
3. PHONE
4. VISA
5. SCHOLARSHIP TO STUDY ABROAD
6. PROMOTE YOUR BUSINESS
7. OTHERS SIGNIFY
Use the (SEND MESSAGE) button below and send me a message today, and I will surprise you..
Start now!”
TIPS
Lottery and sweepstakes scams continue to snare people because too many of us get blinded by our own greed to remember that while it is difficult to win any lottery, it is impossible to win one that you have never entered. Further, no legitimate lottery ever will ask you to pay anything to claim your prize. While income taxes are owed on lottery winnings, those taxes are either deducted from your prize before you receive your prize as with state sponsored lotteries or you receive the entire prize and are responsible on your own for paying the income taxes on your winnings. No legitimate lottery or sweepstakes ever collects income tax payments from lottery winners.
Another telltale indication that this is a scam is the poor grammar used in the Facebook post which often is an indication that the scam is originating in a country where English is not the primary language.
The real Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has a page on their website where they warn you about the various scams linked to their foundation. https://www.gatesfoundation.org/media-center/press-releases/2012/11/reporting-email-scams It should be noted that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation does not give grants to individuals, does not give grants that have not been applied for and do not charge any fees.
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Scam of the day – January 13, 2020 – Legislators Urge FCC to Action Against SIM Swapping
SIM card swapping is a major problem. A Subscriber Identity Module, more commonly known as a SIM card, is an integrated circuit that stores information used to authenticate subscribers on mobile devices, such as a cell phone. The SIM card is able to be transferred between different devices, and often is, when people update into a newer cell phone. However, as more and more financial transactions, such as online banking, are now done through cell phones, identity thieves with access to their victims’ SIM cards are also increasingly becoming able to intercept security codes sent by text messages for online banking as part of dual factor authentication and thereby providing the identity thief with the opportunity to empty their victims’ bank accounts and cause other financial havoc.
SIM card swapping or porting as it is sometimes referred to is the name for the crime where someone convinces your phone carrier to transfer your SIM card to a phone controlled by the criminal. By SIM swaps criminals can reset passwords on online accounts and requested dual factor authentication codes be sent to their phones which will render dual factor authentication useless as a security measure. Sometimes criminals contact the mobile service providers for their victims posing as the victims and trick the mobile service provider employees to swap the SIM cards to phones controlled by the criminals Other times criminals bribe employees at their victims’ mobile service providers to achieve the SIM swap.
Recently three senators and three members of the House of Representatives sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) urging the FCC to do more to protect consumers from SIM card swapping and asked seven detailed questions related to actions necessary to prevent SIM card swapping. The legislators set a deadline of February 14th for the FCC to respond. Here is a link to their letter. https://www.wyden.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/010920%20SIM%20Swap%20Scam%20Letter%20to%20FTC.pdf
TIPS
The best protection for your phone starts with a strong password, facial recognition or fingerprint scanner. Also, set your phone so that it locks when you are not using it. Make sure that you back up everything in your phone regularly. Install the Find My iPhone app if you have an iPhone or the Find My Device app if you have an Android phone. These will enable you to locate your cellphone if it is lost or stolen and also allow you to send a command to erase everything in your cellphone even if the phone has been turned off. If your phone is lost or stolen, you should immediately contact your wireless provider to have them disable the SIM card in your phone so that your phone cannot be used by someone else. As for protecting your phone from cyberattacks, it is important to both download and continually update security software.
Perhaps the best thing you can do to protect your SIM card from porting is to set up a PIN or password to be used for access to your mobile service provider account. This will help prevent a criminal from calling your carrier posing as you and convincing your mobile carrier to swap your SIM card to the criminal’s phone merely by providing personal identifying information or answering a security question.
AT&T will allow you to set up a passcode for your account that is different from the password that you use to log into your account online. Without this passcode, AT&T will not swap your SIM card. Here is a link with instructions as to how to set up the passcode. https://www.att.com/esupport/article.html#!/wireless/KM1051397?gsi=9bi24i
Verizon enables customers to set up a PIN or password to be used for purposes of authentication when they contact a call center. Here is a link with information and instructions for setting up a PIN with Verizon. https://www.verizonwireless.com/support/account-pin-faqs/
T-Mobile will allow you to set up a passcode that is different from the one you use to access your account online. This new passcode is used when changes to your account are attempted to be made such as swapping a SIM card. This code will not only protect you from criminals attempting to call T-Mobile and swap your SIM card, but will also prevent someone with a fake ID from making changes to your account at a T-Mobile store. Here is a link to information and instructions for adding a new passcode to your account. https://www.t-mobile.com/customers/secure
Sprint customers can establish a PIN that must be provided when doing a SIM swap, in addition to merely answering a security question, the answer to which may be able to be learned by a clever identity thief. Here is a link to information about adding a PIN to your Sprint account. https://www.sprint.com/en/support/solutions/account-and-billing/update-your-pin-and-security-questions-on-sprint-com.html
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Scam of the day – January 12, 2020 – Fake Draft Notices Cause Panic Among Young Men
Although the United States has not had a military draft since 1973 at the end of the Vietnam War, young men are still required to register for the draft upon reaching the age of eighteen. Presently there are no plans whatsoever for the re-institution of draft, however, following the developments in Iran last week following the killing of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani, there have been many false stories floating on the Internet regarding the military draft being reinstated. In addition, many people received text messages telling them that they had been drafted into the Army and must report for immediate departure to Iran. The texts also have been threatening imprisonment if the person receiving the text message ignored the text message. All of the text messages and stories about a new military draft are false although this did not stop concerned young men receiving the text messages from shutting down the website of the Selective Service System by flooding it with more traffic than the website could handle in attempting to find out the truth.
The truth is that there is no draft. New legislation that is not even being considered would be required to reinstate the draft.
TIPS
This particular scam appears to have been done merely for purposes of disruption and not for profit. The text messages did not ask for any personal information that could be used for purposes of identity theft. In regard to the draft, it is important to know that the Selective Service does not contact people by text messages, emails or phone calls. Nor do other federal agencies. Impostor scams in which the scammer poses as a governmental agent from the IRS, Medicare, the Social Security Administration or some other governmental agency are exceedingly common. Generally, they attempt to frighten people into either paying money to resolve some problem or providing personal information that can be used to make the person a victim of identity theft. The best course of action if you do receive a telephone call, text message or email appearing to come from a governmental agency asking for either personal information or a payment is to confirm with that agency whether or not the communication was legitimate. Generally, they are not.
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Scam of the day – January 11, 2020 – Natural Disaster Charity Scams
Natural disasters, such as the massive bushfires in Australia and the recent earthquake and aftershocks in Puerto Rico have been devastating. Natural disasters such as these bring out the best in people who want to donate to charities to help the victims. Unfortunately natural disasters also bring out the worst in scammers who are quick to take advantage of the generosity of people by contacting them posing as charities, but instead of collecting funds to help the victims of the storms, these scam artists steal the money for themselves under false pretenses. Charities are not subject to the federal Do Not Call List so even if you are enrolled in the Do Not Call List, legitimate charities are able to contact you. The problem is that whenever you are contacted on the phone, you can never be sure as to who is really calling you so you may be contacted either by a phony charity or a scammer posing as a legitimate charity. Similarly, when you are solicited for a charitable contribution by email or text message you cannot be sure as to whether the person contacting you is legitimate or not.
TIPS
Never provide credit card information over the phone to anyone whom you have not called or in response to an email or text message. Before you give to any charity, you may wish to check out the charity with http://www.charitynavigator.org where you can learn whether or not the charity itself is a scam. You can also see how much of the money that the charity collects actually goes toward its charitable purposes and how much it uses for fund raising and administrative costs. Charity Navigator has a listing of specific charities that it has vetted that are good choices for anyone wishing to help the victims of the Australia bushfires and the Puerto Rico earthquake. Among the charities recommended by Charity Navigator for the Australian bushfires are GlobalGiving and Direct Relief. Among the charities recommended by Charity Navigator for the Puerto Rico earthquake are Mercy Corps and Hispanic Federation. You can find specific information about these charities and other recommended charities at http://www.charitynavigator.org.
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Scam of the day – January 10, 2020 – Fortune Teller Charged With Scamming a Woman Out of $71,000
Palm reader Tracey Milanovich was recently arrested and charged with scamming a Somerset, Massachusetts woman out of $71,000 after convincing the woman that her daughter was possessed by a demon. Police allege that Milanovich convinced her victim that if she paid Milanovich $71,000, she would be able to “banish the spirit from her daughter” according to police. I have written about similar scams for years. In 2013 four people were convicted of grand theft charges in San Francisco involving a scam that has become known as the “Blessing scam.” The scam starts when elderly people are approached on the street by the scammers who start up conversations in which the scammer informs the victim that the scammer is a clairvoyant and that the scammer foresees horrible events, such as deaths of household members unless the victim gives the scammer, money and jewelry to scare the evil spirits. Too many times, vulnerable people have fallen for this scam and given the scammers what they asked for. More recently in 2017 Sally Ann Johnson was convicted in federal court in Boston of failing to report more than 3.5 million dollars paid to her by an elderly Massachusetts woman who paid Johnson $3,567,000 according to the IRS to perform “spiritual cleaning and healing services to rid her of demons.”
I have written many times over the years about phony psychic scams. Often they begin with letters, email or telephone calls from psychics either offering good fortune or the ending of bad fortune. The positive psychic scams occur when the psychic promises to share a secret with you that will bring you fame and fortune. Often the psychic offers to sell you a special good luck charm that is guaranteed to bring you good fortune. The negative psychic scam occurs when you are told that you are in danger from a demonic force and that if you do not send money to the psychic to ward off the threatening force, something terrible will happen to you.
TIPS
Phony clairvoyants and psychics have been using their “powers” to steal the money of unwary people for thousands of years. As always, the best remedy for a scam is to not be scammed in the first place. Never pay someone to scare away bad spirits. The scammers who do this kind of scam are very convincing so the most important thing you can do is to not get involved with them in any fashion.
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Scam of the day – January 9, 2020 – Amazon Phishing Email
Shopping on Amazon is extremely popular both with consumers and scammers seeking to exploit Amazon’s popularity. I have warned you many times over the years about scammers who send various types of phishing emails which purport to be from Amazon attempting to lure you into either clicking on links which can download malware, such as ransomware or providing personal information that can be used to make you a victim of identity theft.
The latest Amazon phishing scam starts with an email that appears to come from Amazon informing you that there is a problem with your account and you need to verify your account. You are then directed to an Amazon log-in page where you are instructed to enter your user name and password. The log-in page looks legitimate, but it is not. It is a scam and if you provide this information, you will quickly find that items are fraudulently purchased using your account.
Here is a copy of the email sent to me by a Scamicide reader.
We have lοcĸed your account because our service detected two unauthorized devices From Philippines. Our service has protected your account from someone who accessed your account from another devices and location.
Before someone can change your account information or order some item with your credit / debit card bill. For your security , We have verify your account.
 |
***********
Thank you for your concern.
Sincerely,
Services Team
TIPS
There are a number of indications that phishing emails are not legitimate emails from Amazon, but instead is a phishing email. Legitimate emails from Amazon would be directed to you by name rather than being addressed to your email address as this phishing email was. It also is sent from an address that has no relation to Amazon, but was made to look as if it was a legitimate Amazon email address. As with all phishing emails, two things can happen if you click on the links provided. Either you will be sent to a legitimate looking, but phony webpage where you will be prompted to input personal information that will be used to make you a victim of identity theft or, even worse, merely by clicking on the link, you may download keystroke logging malware that will steal all of your personal information from your computer or smartphone and use it to make you a victim of identity theft. Some scammers manage to send emails directed specifically to you by name and appear to be sent from Amazon so you can never be too careful. Trust me, you can’t trust anyone. This phishing email also is filled with grammatical errors which may indicate that the scammers are from a country where English is not the primary language. Although the Amazon logo looks real, it is a simple matter to counterfeit the logo.
If you receive an email like this and think it may possibly be legitimate, merely call the customer service number for Amazon where you can confirm that it is a scam.
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Scam of the day – January 8, 2020 – Ohio Woman Victimized by Publishers Clearing House Scam
Publishers Clearing House, the sponsor of some of the most popular legitimate lotteries in the country no longer limits its contests to one or two a year, but has numerous lotteries each month. Recently there has been an increase in reports of scammers calling people on the telephone and telling them that they have won one of the Publishers Clearing House lotteries, but that they have to pay fees or taxes before being able to claim their prize. In addition there are reports of targeted victims receiving phony notifications by regular mail that they have won a Publishers Clearing House lottery, but that again they must pay fees or taxes before being able to receive their prize. Recently, Larenda Jackson of Cincinnati, Ohio became a victim of another variation of the Publishers Clearing House scam in which she lost $5,000. The scam began with a letter she received that appeared to be a notification from Publishers Clearing House that she had won three million dollars. The letter included a check for $6,000 to cover costs involved in her claiming her prize including $5,000 for attorneys fees. She was directed to deposit the check into her bank account and wire $5,000 to the designated attorneys. The letter also explained that she would be receiving her three million dollars in a few weeks. Thinking she was acting prudently, Ms. Jackson waited a few days until she thought the check had cleared before wiring the $5,000. Unfortunately, the check had not cleared and she had only received what is referred to as “provisional credit.” Provisional credit is only temporary and is given after a few days, but is rescinded once a check bounces. Whenever you receive a check, wait for your bank to tell you that the check has fully cleared before you consider the funds as actually being in your account. Thinking that the $6,000 check to her had cleared, Ms. Jackson wired $5,000 from her account to the scammers and because the check given to her by the scammers bounced, the entire $5,000 she wired came out of her own funds in her bank account and are lost forever.
It is hard to win any lottery. It is impossible to win one that you have not even entered and yet scam artists have found that it is extremely lucrative to scam people by convincing them that they have won various lotteries. With so many people entered into the Publishers Clearing House lotteries, it is easier for scammers to convince people that they have won.
Most lottery scams involve the victim being told that they need to pay taxes or administrative fees directly to the lottery sponsor; however no legitimate lottery requires you to do so. As with many effective scams, the pitch of the scammer seems legitimate. Income taxes are due on lottery winnings, but with legitimate lotteries they are either deducted from the lottery winnings before you receive your prize or you are responsible for paying the taxes directly to the IRS. No legitimate lottery collects taxes on behalf of the IRS from lottery winners. Other times, the scammer tell the “winners” that in order to collect their prizes, they need to pay administrative fees. Often, the victims are told to send the fees back to the scammer by prepaid gift cards or Green Dot MoneyPak cards. Prepaid cards are a favorite of scammers because they are the equivalent of sending cash. They are impossible to stop or trace. Again, no legitimate lottery requires you to pay administrative fees in order to claim your prize.
TIPS
Fortunately, there is an easy way to know, when you are contacted by Publishers Clearing House by phone, email or text message informing you that you have won one of its major multi-million dollar prizes, whether you have been contacted by the real Publishers Clearing House. Publishers Clearing House only contacts major prize winners in person or by regular mail. They do not contact winners by phone, email or text message so if you do receive a notification of your winning one of their major multi-million dollar prizes by those means of communication you know it is a scam. In addition, no winners of the Publishers Clearinghouse sweepstakes are ever required to make a payment of any kind to claim their prize so if you are notified by regular mail , as was the case with Larenda Jackson, that you have won, but are required to make any kind of payment before you can claim your prize, you can be sure that it is a scam. As for other lotteries, remember, you can’t win a lottery you haven’t entered and no legitimate lottery asks you to pay them administrative fees or taxes.
Even if the Caller ID on your phone indicates the call is actually from Publishers Clearing House, it is very easy for a scammer to use a technique called “spoofing” to make it appear that the call is coming from Publishers Clearing House rather than the scammer who is really making the call. Trust me, you can’t trust anyone.
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Scam of the day – January 7, 2020 – Apple Tech Support Robocall Scam
Tech support scams in which consumers are tricked by scammers into believing there is a problem with their computers that require the expensive services of the scammers is a major problem. Tech support scams are increasingly common and victimize consumers 60 years or older about five times more than people between the ages of 20 and 59 according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). While often these scams start with a popup on your screen that informs you that a tech company with which you do business has found a problem with your computer, they also can originate with a phone call. The FTC has taken action against telemarketers who convince consumers to provide access to their computers to the scammers who would then purport to run diagnostic tests. These diagnostic tests were totally bogus and always resulted in the consumer being told that he or she needed computer repair as well as antivirus software and services that would be provided at a high cost.
Recently a Scamicide reader received a robocall from a scammer posing as an Apple employee. In the call, the scammer indicated that technical problems had been discovered by Apple that needed to be corrected and provided a telephone number for the targeted victim to call to fix the problem. Of course, this is a scam even though the call appeared on the targeted victim’s Caller ID as coming from Apple. Through a technique called spoofing, the scammers are able to manipulate your Caller ID to make it appear as if the call is legitimate when it is not. Fortunately, the Scamicide reader recognized the telltale signs of a scam and did not call the number from the robocall, but instead called Apple where she was told that Apple never makes such calls and that it was a scam.
TIPS
Providing remote access to anyone to your computer can lead to a myriad of problems including identity theft and the downloading of ransomware. Neither AOL, Yahoo, Apple, Microsoft or any of the other tech companies ever ask for remote access to your computer to fix problems. The most common tech support scams start with popups on your computer that provide notices of security problems that contain telephone numbers for you to call to fix the problem, Whenever you get a pop-up, email, or text message that appears to tell you that you have a security problem with your computer, you should never click on any links contained in the message or call the telephone number provided. If your screen freezes, all you need to do is just turn off your computer and restart it. If you are concerned that you may be experiencing a real security problem you can contact tech support at the real tech companies directly by phone or by email using the phone number and email addresses you find on their respective websites.
Tech companies do not use robocalls such as this to contact their customers so if you receive one, you can be sure that it is a scam.
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Scam of the day – January 6, 2020 – Mariah Carey’s Twitter Account Hacked
Last week hackers took over the Twitter account of singer Mariah Carey and sent out sexually explicit messages to her 21.4 million followers that appeared to come from Carey. After several hours her Twitter account was secured. I reported to you in September aboutTwitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s own Twitter account was hacked. I have reported to you in the past about numerous celebrities whose Twitter accounts were hacked and almost always it was because they failed to use dual factor authentication. More and more companies such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Google, Tumblr, Yahoo, WhatsApp and others use dual factor authentication which most commonly works such that when your password is used to access your account, a special code is sent to your smartphone that must be used in order to complete access to the account. This provides dramatically enhanced security. Whenever you are able to use dual factor authentication for a particular website, account or app, you should take advantage of this. Some dual factor authentication protocols do not require it to be used when you are accessing the account from the computer or smartphone that you usually use, but only if the request to access the account comes from a different device. Although we do not know if Mariah Carey’s account was protected by dual factor authentication, in the case of Jack Dorsey, he used dual factor authentication, however, it was able to be bypassed because the hackers gained access to his account by taking over his phone through SIM card swapping. SIM card swapping is a major problem. A Subscriber Identity Module, more commonly known as a SIM card, is an integrated circuit that stores information used to authenticate subscribers on mobile devices, such as a cell phone. The SIM card can be transferred between different devices, and often is, when people update into a newer cell phone. As more and more financial transactions, such as online banking, are now done through cell phones, identity thieves with access to their victims’ SIM cards are also increasingly becoming able to intercept security codes sent by text messages for online banking as part of dual factor authentication and thereby providing the identity thief with the opportunity to empty their victims’ bank accounts and cause other financial havoc.
Porting is the name for the crime where someone convinces your phone carrier to transfer your SIM card to a phone controlled by the criminal. They often do this by answering security questions after gathering information about you. To prevent someone from stealing access to your phone through porting, you should have a PIN added to your account so that no one can call your cell phone provider posing as you and ask to have your SIM card transferred. If Jack Dorsey had done this, his account would have been secure.
TIPS
The first step to protecting your Twitter account from being hacked is to set up dual factor authentication. Here is the link to information about setting up dual factor authentication for your Twitter account. https://help.twitter.com/en/managing-your-account/two-factor-authentication
The best thing you can do to protect your SIM card from porting is to set up a PIN or password to be used for access to your mobile service provider account. This will help prevent a criminal from calling your carrier posing as you and convincing your mobile carrier to swap your SIM card to the criminal’s phone merely by providing personal identifying information or answering a security question.
AT&T will allow you to set up a passcode for your account that is different from the password that you use to log into your account online. Without this passcode, AT&T will not swap your SIM card. Here is a link with instructions as to how to set up the passcode. https://www.att.com/esupport/article.html#!/wireless/KM1051397?gsi=9bi24i
Verizon enables customers to set up a PIN or password to be used for purposes of authentication when they contact a call center. Here is a link with information and instructions for setting up a PIN with Verizon. https://www.verizonwireless.com/support/account-pin-faqs/
T-Mobile will allow you to set up a passcode that is different from the one you use to access your account online. This new passcode is used when changes to your account are attempted to be made such as swapping a SIM card. This code will not only protect you from criminals attempting to call T-Mobile and swap your SIM card, but will also prevent someone with a fake ID from making changes to your account at a T-Mobile store. Here is a link to information and instructions for adding a new passcode to your account. https://www.t-mobile.com/customers/secure
Sprint customers can establish a PIN that must be provided when doing a SIM swap, in addition to merely answering a security question, the answer to which may be able to be learned by a clever identity thief. Here is a link to information about adding a PIN to your Sprint account. https://www.sprint.com/en/support/solutions/account-and-billing/update-your-pin-and-security-questions-on-sprint-com.html
You also may want to consider protecting your dual factor authentication from being threatened by a SIM swap by using a dual factor authentication app such as Google Authenticator which is not tied to your cell phone. Here is a link with more information about Google Authenticator. https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/1066447?hl=en&ref_topic=2954345
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Scam of the day – January 5, 2020 – Another Wells Fargo Phishing Email
Here is another good example of a phishing email that is presently being circulated. It was sent to me by a Scamicide reader who received it. It makes for compelling reading, but it is a scam. Phishing emails, by which scammers and identity thieves attempt to lure you into either clicking on links contained within the email which will download malware or providing personal information that will be used to make you a victim of identity theft, are nothing new. They are a staple of identity thieves and scammers and with good reason because they work. As always, they lure you by making it appear that there is an emergency that requires your immediate attention or else dire consequences will occur. Copied below is a new phishing email presently being sent to unsuspecting people that appears to come from Wells Fargo. This particular one came without a Wells Fargo logo and was sent from an email address that had no relationship to Wells Fargo which are indications it is a scam.
Here is the email.
TIPS
An indication that this is a phishing email is that the email address from which it was sent had nothing to do with Wells Fargo but most likely was sent from a computer that was part of a botnet of computers hacked into and controlled remotely by the scammer. In addition, legitimate emails from your bank would include the last four digits of your account and include your name in the salutation rather than the generic “Dear Customer” of this phishing email. Often such phishing emails originate in countries where English is not the primary language and the spelling and grammar are poor. This email contains a couple of grammatical errors. Obviously, if you are not a Wells Fargo customer, you will recognize immediately that this is a scam.
As with all phishing emails, two things can happen if you click on the links provided. Either you will be sent to a legitimate looking, but phony webpage where you will be prompted to input personal information that will be used to make you a victim of identity theft or, even worse, merely by clicking on the link, you will download keystroke logging malware that will steal all of your personal information from your computer and use it to make you a victim of identity theft. If you receive an email like this and think it may possibly be legitimate, merely call your bank or other institution from which the email purports to originate at a telephone number that you know is accurate and you will be able to confirm that it is a scam.
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