Beware Phishing Schemes

Yesterday I wrote a joke post about how I won about a billion dollars in an “international lottery.” Hopefully everyone understood I didn’t actually win a billion dollars but I was just pointing out how obvious a scam that was. Everyone with an email address has gotten email from “Bank of America” (not really BoA, a farce BoA) or “Paypal,” requesting personal information. I’m sure you’ve even been asked by the envoy of a recently deceased monarch (Nigerian?) to “hold funds” if you are willing to send them some bank information. Maybe you’ve been asked to verify your account information at Ebay… but bottom line, they’re all phishing scams and you shouldn’t respond to any request by anyone to provide sensitive information.

What if someone calls you and asks you to verify information? If it’s Bank of America (and you actually have a BoA account, which I don’t), then say thank you, hang up, and then call them back. Look on the back of your Bank of America card and call them. If anyone ever asks you for information, call them back and go through the official channels if you’re seriously concerned. 99.999% of the time it will be a scam. Don’t become a statistic!