Title: Account currently unavailable??

I was a bit suspicious to start with as it was in my 'junk' box and not my inbox. Then they called me 'customer' when they always call you by your name.
Anyway I didn't click on the 'restore account' link and I have forwarded it to Lloyds.

Better to be safe than sorry. Hopefully they will let me know soon whether it is or isn't a scam.

Any one else had one of these?

Theres quite a few go round and usually are scams- they also pretend to be from ebay and paypal too amongst others

I had one the other day, it looked very 'real' asking for my bank details so my online account could be reactivated. I was a bit suspicious though, because it came from a bank I'm not even with ;-)
Had them from Paypal and Ebay as well :rolleyes:

I wouldn't click on any link provided in an e-mail like this.  It's easy enough to phone the bank or company.

Just found out it IS a scam

Then got another fright, I logged on to my bank, and no it wasn't from that link, and after I had checked my account I logged off. Twenty minutes ago I logged on again to find out about their security and it said that there will be a padlock at the bottom right of the screen on a secure page. I looked down and no, there wasn't. So I quickly logged off again. Again I clicked on my faves and brought the 'logging in' page up, no padlock. Luckily Lyndsay was on line and she told me that there should be as it was there on hers so - to cut a long panick stricken story short - she gave me the phone number and a very nice man checked my account for me. Phew my money was still there. But he couldn't help cos he wasn't 'internet' banking and I now have to wait till morning to phone them and change passwords, security numbers etc.
Interestingly, on their security warnings, a false page can be set up so that you put in your password etc and it is 'pinched' by the fraudsters I just pray that hasn't happened :( :(

I know I won't get much sleep tonight :(

Edited: I have also received them from Nat West, asking me about my account but as I don't bank with them I (wrongly) assumed it was just a mistake, now I know it wasn't!

I don't know if all email programmes work the same but in Thunderbird, it is easy to tell with these scams. Rest your mouse cursor on any link (WITHOUT clicking it) and the URL will show at the bottom of your screen. Every single time with these scams, be it banks, eBay or PayPal, the URL that hides behind what is written is ALWAYS different to what it looks like. I.e. it goes elsewhere, to trick you. Say it says http://www.ebay.com in the mail you have received. You rest your cursor over it and the true URL shows up, which will then show a different website address altogether and not at all eBay.

Nice easy way to check, and I'd imagine all e-mail programmes will have a similar function.

As it was in my junk mail, it disables any links that come with it unless I mark it as safe. So I know I couldn't of accessed my account through that scam cos I definately didn't unmark it, I only opened the email to show.
I really believe that somehow a false page has been set up and I may have fell victim to it :( I hope I'm lucky that I spotted it at the right time.
Please make sure everyone, that the 'padlock' is there before you log in. It may not happen to everyone at the same time but I will double check from now on in the future.

see? I'm still up, worrying :rolleyes: :P

Hi Missie,

Just had a look at mine.  When I log into banking, the address in the address bar starts with https://  I think, that 'S' at the end is supposed to mean it's secure.  I don't know how true that is, or indeed how safe it is, but I check for that anyway. 

I hope everything is ok.

Strangely enough, it was NatWest I had one from too.

Hi
Yes the 's' means secure, thats whats confusing also cos the https is still there. Have you still got the padlock?

Hiya Missie,

Just checked (I'm with the same bank as you) my padlock is there.

I'm sure it will be fine.

I just checked again, and mine definately isn't :(
gonna have to delete from faves now.

Thanks x

Good grief.

Thanks for mentioning the padlock.  I didn't know about that.

Try not to worry (much easier said than done I know) and get everything changed in the morning.

I'll try ;)

Cheers

And Lyndsay, if you're looking in, thank you sooo much for getting me the numbers earlier :)

Hope everything is ok!

I bought some items from Amazon yesterday and was worried as there was no padlock - a colleague mentioned about the https being a secure site - I hope so!

I get several of these types of emails every week :rolleyes: and very often from Banks which I do not hold an account with which makes it easy to spot that they are devious little monkeys!
Just out of interest, I did click on one of the links and it took me to a replica page of my own bank, but with a completely different web address and Norton went balistic :D telling me it was a fraudulant page etc.

I also seem to be getting them every other day, (I seem to have a lot of accounts :-D ) the upsetting thing is there will be many people who will be tricked into clicking on to the link and putting in their account number and passwords.  Whoever is doing it has gone overboard and is sending every possible bank and credit card to all internet users.

Does anyone know where we can forward all of these e-mails, to hopefully trace back to the fraudsters?

The address for Lloyds is
emailscam@lloydstsb.co.uk
I just forwarded mine to that address.

After I came off line last night, I checked my security site. There were loads of attempts from some port or other trying to access my pc and at the times shown most of them were when I was looking at the 'logging in' page Its telling me access was denied, I just hope so. Going to phone the internet banking number I was given last night now.

I had a clever one yesterday from 'Egg' saying I had one personal message in my in box and it gives you a URL link to go to.:rolleyes: That is going a step further as targeting people curiosity :rolleyes:

I've just had another one from NW !!

Okay, phoned the bank and everything is ok. Still haven't got the padlock and toolbar up but the lady said that as long as the site address starts with https its secure.

Right, it seems that my toolbar that comes with this padlock has disappeared?? Anyone got any idea how I can find it again? I've clicked on the 'view' at the top and all buttons are clicked for toolbars so I've no idea where to look for it :(

Hi Missie,

do you have IE 7 as your browser?  Some secured sites using IE7 have the padlock at the top right hand side of the address bar rather than on the page / form your using or bottom bar as in IE 6  :)  Might be worth checking.

Hope you've already got things sorted - scary isn't it :(

Teri x

Hi Teri
IE 7? I don't know :D
The padlock thingy, yes like on Tescos its not on a toolbar but at the top of the page somewhere, I checked it earlier. But the bank page brings up a grey toolbar slide above my own toolbar at the bottom. Well it did, its disappeared and I can't find it  :P
Did a pc scan earlier and my word I have 110 pages, and probably a lot more now I am back on line, that had ports of some kind or other trying to gain access to my pc from far away places such as Amsterdam and Calgary and I've been 'pinged' apparently, whatever that means. but it was an unsuccessful ping - well pings cos there were loads of them too
I just don't know whats happening lately, I've never had this trouble before. Even a 'ghost' came up on msn this morning and was talking nonsense in my friends window, using her name not mine, saying the same thing over and over again,  but how or who we don't know?
I'm going to get some email protection now, but I think I will have to buy the disk and not reveal my card details on line :(

I get loads it is called Phisshing trying to get you to give over info.  I never open them.  delete them wthout opening.

I have 3 email accounts and have had the 'scam bank' emails posted to all of them!
I have had them from Lloyds, Natwest, HSBC bank, Halifax, etc.
I have also had alot from Paypal, Ebay, egg etc
I have also had loads of emails stating I have won the lottery!!! just have to send them my bank details!! I just delete them :(

Not only do I delete them, I bounce them as well. This bounces the mail back to the sender and makes it appear as though your email adress is defunct. This often prevents them spamming you again.

How do you you make them bounce? (PC challenged here!)

Kay

I use a free program called mailwasher  http://www.mailwasher.net/   .  It gives you lots of options. You can actually view your mail BEFORE downloading it to your computer, so ensuring that you dont ccidentally open something with a virus in it. This progamme then gives you the option of deleting, or deleting and bouncing the mail back to the sender. You can set it to filter mail from all different mail programs such as hotmail, orange etc. you can choose to view all the message titles and choose which to delete, or to set filters to auto filter your mail. I think this programme is great for anyone getting lots of junk and phishing mail.

I get loads too, especially at work for some reason! Anyway I don't even look at them now, even if its from my own bank it goes straight in the trash! If my bank need to contact me they can do it through the bank website or by phone! If they manage to get into my mailbox rather than the junk mail then I report them as spam too.

Depending on what email you use you should have an option to report phishing scams- I have that on hotmail (about the only useful feature it has...). When I had telewest cable they provided me with an email address and all I got was junk on it- obviously they sell your details on to any dodgy person they want

Have a look on wikipedia (my favourite thing) and look up some of the email scams- I can't believe how many fall for them like the Nigerian 419 scams where some diplomat or another will email you and say I have millions I can't get to so send me your bank details and I'll give you a cut. Or they reply to an online advert you posted sending you more money than you asked for and asking you to send back the difference- they write you dodgy cheques basically. I wish that these people could use their ingenuity (and they obviously have some given the schemes they concoct) to create something good instead of scams and spam and my own personal least favourite- internet pop-ups!

I have just g9t an email from 'Nat west'
For experience I clicked on the lickj and added details, Ok I added dods names etc.
They asked for account number PIN number, now you are never asked to disclose pin number!!!
And all the Cr*p I put in!!! It was ALL make believe,
BUT got through to the main pages.
So If I had put everything in they would NOW know my name, my account number, my expiry date AND more worryingly than the other MY PIN NUMBER!!!!!!!
Luckily I have good virus protectionm (I hope!!!) and didnt add anything that leads them to me!!!!

Other people will not be so lucky :(

Hi Guys,

any emails that are supposed to be from Natwest can you forward them to nwolb@natwest.com.

Thanks