From Security Pipeline:
FrontBridge cautions all users to follow these simple rules when receiving and responding to e-mail:
* Do not open or reply to email or attachments that request personal or financial information.
* Check online statements frequently to make sure your money is where it belongs.
* Look for secure websites when logging on to a link sent by e-mail.
* Report suspicious activity if a financial institution appears to be asking for inappropriate information.
* Don't buy "Spamvertised" holiday gifts.
* Pay attention when filling out online forms and be sure not to disclose unnecessary information.
* Be careful giving your email address to strangers.
From our own experience, there has been a rash of Citibank, Paypal, Wells Fargo Bank, and nearly any other bank you can think of spam emails. These are not sent by who they look like they are from. Make sure if you do online banking, to go to the site directly rather than through links in an email. Some of them look quite genuine. Also look on your financial instutitions site for warnings about these emails and report it if you think you have received one.
One good test is that the spammers can make it "look" like it comes from citibank.com or any other domain but when you click on the link, it goes to somewhere else, usually a website with numbers at the top or the institutions name somewhere in the URL (that's the address at the top of your browser). If you do login to one of these sites by mistake, report it to your financial institution immediately because they will now have your login and it will need to be changed.
Take care all. The crooks don't have any Christmas spirit and seem to take advantage of the confusion of the holidays.
