It's getting to be as predictable as the seasons - when we have turmoil or crisis in almost any area of life, we have customized phishing attacks. Right now, the financial world's troubles have led to more bank related phishing. I've even received some via email, and even odder, by phone.
I was sitting in my home office, working away when the house line rang. A recorded voice clicked on and said, "I'm calling from the customer service department of your credit card. There is no reason to be concerned but we have an offer to help reduce your interest rate. With these uncertain times, it can save you thousands of dollars just to get a lower rate." Like me, you probably noticed a few odd things about the call. To start, no one was actually on the line, it was an auto-dialer and if I were to click "1" for yes or "2" for no, a real live operator would probably come on.
Secondly, they didn't identity my bank since they didn't actually represent one I do business with. It's hard for me to imagine who might fall for this but there is such hysteria in the market, perhaps people do. We also got a call from a credit card company we do have, offering us a cash advance at 23%. 23%!! That's insane but I'm sure a number of people caught short by their market transactions might need to seize such an offer in this time of tight credit. A broker I know told me that he's seeing huge amounts of selling and little buying, despite the stock market being an amazing buy opportunity. Sadly, those clients are just locking in their paper losses to become real losses. I seem to recall a professor of mine at Wharton who said, "buy low, sell high." You don't have to have an MBA from Wharton to know that old chestnut, do you?
Anyway, back to phishing. Anytime headlines get into the bigger font sizes, you can be sure the phishers are busy at work. Katrina, the Tsunami, Hurricane Ike, all of these natural disasters were followed by criminal phishing efforts to get people to donate their contributions at fraudulent websites. With today's financial chaos, people will be duped by offers for better interest rates, or confused about which bank holds their mortgage or their bank accounts. Remember, you can still visit your bank's website, even if they were purchased or taken over. There will be instructions on those sites to help you continue banking or making payments.
You can visit the FTC.gov website for more important consumer financial information.
Don't panic. Stay calm. And try to have a great weekend.