TechWinter

Have you just received an email from PayPal soliciting their UK Mobile pay system? Did you delete it thinking it was a Phishing email well it may have been, but mine email certainly isn’t Phishing.

Phishing is a huge fraud problem and getting worse costing consumers and financial institutions billions in losses every year. Long ago banks decided to informally (I believe) to take a stand on the issue of Phishing and decided to only use email for one way communication e.g. news and announcements, and never as a form of two way communication e.g. solicitation of services. This was done so that consumer would know if they were asked for their details via email that clearly this wasn’t from their bank and was an attempt to defraud.

So I did a little research first to confirm my understanding that this sort of foolish practice was indeed a common financial industry practice. Please see below for links. If you want to see the Flickr photos of my email and how it linked me to PayPal check here.

What do you think? Fraud or legitimate business? If banks break with this tried and true practice, what can only be described as chaos will certainly ensue.

*Family WebWatch Blog - PayPal email fraud
*Royal Bank - The Powell River Peak - Royal Bank warns of bogus emails

“The bank has been working to educate clients, both online and through other means, that it would never communicate with them in this manner, Rodeck added. “We would never ask for confidential or proprietary information.”

*About.com - U.S Bank Email Scam