Ok, I got an e-mail a few minutes ago from "webmaster", it said:

We recently reviewed your account, and suspect that your Suntrust Internet Banking account may have been accessed by an unauthorized third party. Protecting the security of your account and of the Suntrust network is our primary concern. Therefore, as a preventative measure, we have temporarily limited access to sensitive account features.

To restore your account access, please take the following steps to ensure that your account has not been compromised:

1. Login to your Suntrust Internet Banking account. In case you are not enrolled for Internet Banking, you will have to use your Social Security Number as both your Personal ID and Password and fill in all the required information, including your name and your account number.

2. Review your recent account history for any unauthorized withdrawals or deposits, and check your account profile to make sure not changes have been made. If any unauthorized activity has taken place on your account, report this to Suntrust Bank staff immediately.

To get started, please click the link below:

Now, I have never heard of this "suntrust", But it looks pretty official and serious. So, what do I do? Heeelp.

[ September 04, 2004, 21:50: Message edited by: Taluntain ]

Ignore it.

If you haven't heard of Suntrust, clearly you don't have an account with them, and even if you did, almost all of emails like these are scams.

Are you absolutely sure? I just checked out their site, its all proffessional. Also it says that to restore my account I need to do all the stuff it says.

Do you have an account with them to restore in the first place?

Well that's why I thought I'd post here. Like I said, I've never heard of them, but perhaps I do, so i'm really not sure. Perhaps they were a feature in my internet banking that came with my account when I set it up.

Definitely just ignore it, then. There are millions of emails like this sent out to random people to try and get their account details and so on.

Ask your bank. This is most likely a scam though. And "professional-looking" websites mean nothing, i could come up with one in a hour.

It is a scam. Check this link: http://www.suntrust.com/alert/index.asp

Chimera, you rule! Thanks very much everyone else too, I appreciate the help. Ah well, crisis over. Thanks.

Yeah, all information entered would then go into their database. Dont do anything with the link provided.

Email the b*st*rd back to them, thats what I'd do.

...And yet another hapless scam-victim saved... :shake:

@ Erebus

That will only mean that you will be permanently added to their spam-lists -it's all automatic so you just end up harming yourself. ;)

Scam. I've been receiving account-related e-mails from Citibank the same way, although I don't have any account with them. Impostors or someone springing the automated procedure of sending mails. Don't know. But some kind of scam at any rate.

i received one from U.S. Bank impostor and i really have an usbank account! It was a well designed email with usbank logo and everything. How i nearly got cheated. i clicked on the link, already keyed in half page and realized that the page was not under usbank.com domain!

Never, ever give away private information about bank accounts etc. unless you are the person to initiate the transaction.

Never click on a link from an email that purports to take you to a place where you can log in with your information. If you have such logins, you already know what the correct site is.

That's the easiest way to check whether something is legit or not - check the domain of the url (what actually comes up in your browser, not what's written in the mail). If the domain's not right, it's a fraud.

I can't believe how many of these scams are floating around at the moment. I get several of them a week. It's a bit of a nightmare. On a related note, someone did get hold of my account details recently and has been using them to incur over a $1,000 of expenses before I froze my account. Now I have to deal with my bank to prove them that it wasn't me and try and get my money back. Grrrrr!! Criminals! :mad:

check the domain of the url You've got to be careful with giving that advice. It is only valid if the destination site doesn't use frames. It is possible to do "phishing" in a single frame of an otherwise legit URL. The only way of being certain that you are where you expect to be would be following what Blackthorne TA advises: never follow a link, always go to the desired URL by manually typing it into the address field.

As far as I know, any bank won't ask you for your information as they will already have it. No bank has a right to demand you give them information becuase the money in your bank account is YOUR money.

Never ever respond to these types of emails. Generally, a legitimate company will not ask for online line verification of sensitive information. If you get such an email, phone them and ask whether it is legitimate (and obviously don’t use a phone number in the email, if one is provided).

This particular one sounds like an attempt at identity theft.

Darkthrone, true, but every single one of the scams I got in the mail were using much simpler techniques, and all could be easily recgonized by the domain as fake.

And you can always call the bank. Most banks will leave a contact number in the e-mail that you can call to verify anything. My bank never sends me e-mails unless I made an e-mail transfer, and that's a confirmation note. Most banks, in my experience will call you first or will only call, never e-mail.

And you can always call the bank. Most banks will leave a contact number in the e-mail that you can call to verify anything. As I said above, never use the phone number provided in the email; if the email is a scam, then the phone number is going to be a fake.

Use the phone book, or use a search engine to find the bank, and use a number listed in their web site.

I recieved one of those emails about a year ago. I had just opened an Orange Savings Account. I forgot if I went through my bank were I have a checking account or somewhere else, but all I did was ask them to pull up a list of all my accounts. I went into the branch for it.
If you live in the states, you can go to yout states treasury department to the unclaimed funds division. They can also run a check of any opened accounts you may have. I found one from where I grew up. The account had grown interest upto roughly $100! I thought I closed it after highschool. Go figure.

If the email includes things like "dear valued customer", then it's most probably fake. There's no reason why the bank wouldn't use your full name the way you provided it to them when you opened your account.