Be Careful With Your Bank Account Information

This article discusses some things you must be aware of when giving your bank account information to others, especially in situations where you are not present, e.g., via telephone, email or the internet. A major problem over the last few years is that of identity theft.

One of the major causes of this, is the ease with which people give away their personal details like their bank account information.

You definitely have to be careful who you give your bank account information especially if you make online transactions. Anyone who has email may know about “phishing” (pronounced "fishing") that some corrupt individuals use to get personal information from unsuspecting people. The individuals who use this practice often contact the person in the guise of someone else.

My sister received an alarming email that stated that someone tried to make an unauthorized transaction through her Pay Pal account. The email requested that she verify her bank account information to help them clear things up. She followed the instructions but she soon found that she had made an awful mistake.

About a week after responding to the email my sister received a phone call from her bank. Fortunately, she is very familiar with the ladies who work in the institution. One of the workers noticed that someone was trying to purchase airline tickets on my sister’s account. The employee also knew that my sister was not going anywhere and the purchase would have left the account dangerously low.

At first, my sister did not make the connection with giving her bank account information to the dummy email. The employees at the financial institution asked her about any online transactions or any unusual incidents. This immediately reminded her about giving her bank account information through the email.

PayPal was diligent in its cooperation with the financial institution as well as working to find out who was behind the phishing email. The company notes that they never, ever ask you to give your bank account information through an email. You can forward any suspicious correspondence to the PayPal spoof email address which can be found on their website. The company is great at giving you a response about the questionable emails.

Since this incident occurred, I have had several emails asking for my bank account information. Some of these wind up in my junk mail folder but others land in my regular email page. I just forward them to PayPal and let the company handle the situation. I usually receive a message confirming that the correspondence was an attempt at phishing bank account information.

These phishing messages are very professionally done. They can appear to be from PayPal or eBay, or even your credit card company; and they are extremely well designed and well written. Hopefully, the company can find the individuals behind the scams. Until then, I just know to never give my bank account information to anyone and I know that Pay Pal, eBay and most financial institutions don't ask for it in an email message.

Nowadays, most reputable companies will never ask for personal information via email. So if you do receive something which you are not sure about, then its best to phone them up and confirm if the email was actually from them. Also, you should never reply to any suspicious email, as it will alert the scammer that your email account is active and a real live person is behind it, which will result in you receiving more and more phishing type emails.

Another tip is if you are called on the phone by anyone claiming to be from the bank or credit card company, they should never ask you for personal bank account information; especially pin numbers. The best thing to do if you do recieve a call, is to ask the person their name and contact number  of the company, and that you will call them back directly. This usullay weeds out the scammers from the proper establishments.  Once again,  please be careful with your bank account information. It may save you time, money and unwanted stress.