It does'nt take them long

[Harrythedog]

This is from the "Halifax Bank of Scotland"

Valued Account Holder,
Personal details of your Halifax account has engage an error which made your online banking in-active.
For security, we strongly recommend you to make your online account active by following the instructions below
Instructions
* Click on Resolution Center below
* Provide the required information correctly
RESOLUTION CENTER <
Note: Failure to do so will lead to service suspension
Thank you
HALIFAX

 

[renault12ts]

Don't open the links.

 

[Harrythedog]

Links removed, just in case

 

[neilz]

There are dozens of those sent weekly for all different banks. My son set up a resource (initially for scambaiters hence the name which automatically receives and posts most scam email/phishing emails sent (Scamtacular's scam email database :: Index) so you can see just how many of these are around (~100 a day received on the site). Scams were sent after the Haiti earthquake asking for money, the various tsunamis, the Nigeria plane crash etc. - despicable scams!

 

[Rory]

Yes, if you've never had these before you've been lucky. They're not related to the bank's current issues.

 

[Colin_b]

It is ridiculously easy to do. Download a virus making kit, a couple of hours following the youtube instructions, and away you go.

The virus kits aren't that up to date, more a tool to sell the wannabe scammers a cleverer kit - or scam them.

Provided you keep automatic updates on, good anti malware software installed and running plus common sense there isn't a huge amount to worry about.

 

[markjay]

Many of these scams exploit people's gullibility.

Some years ago there were these chain emails that warned of a serious virus and asked users to look-up some files in the Windows folder on their computers, and delete them immediately if found.

Our help desk was inundated with calls from users complaining that they have found the 'virus' but are unable to delete the files... (users in business environment do not have full admin permissions for their PCs - for precisely this reason - so can not delete or change files in the Windows folder).

But quite a few home users - who would typically not have such restrictions - just went ahead and deleted the files, then forwarded the email to everyone on their contact list.

Needless to say the files that the emails asked to delete were perfectly legitimate Windows OS files and found on every Windows PC.

Luckily, the people who came-up with this scam in the first place must have been good natured... and the files they asked the users to delete were not crucial ones, so now real harm done.

But this just goes to show how gullible people can be... and there are criminal gangs out there who regularly try and exploit it.