Billing Failure #8341

This one deserves a comment. Most of the phishing emails received recently have just been plain text, but this one took plenty of time to use colours and a logo to try to convince recipients that it was real. Pointers that it's a fake and not really from the bank:

1 - it addresses 'Dear Customer' - banks would address by name...

2 - the threat to close the account is there to make you worry - why would they close the account if there had been a billing failure and you owed them money?

3 - Copyright notice - I've never seen this on a genuine email - why do all phishers think it's required?

4 - Apart from that, I don't have an account with them, so it must be fake!

Here's the email:


Dear Customer,

First National Bank of Santa Fe temporarily suspended your account.
Reason: Billing failure.
We require you to complete an account update so we can unlock your account.

To start the update process click here.

Once you have completed the update, you can access your account at any time.
The information provided will be treated in confidence and stored in our secure database.


Please be Aware!!
Your account will be deleted if you fail to complete the update process.


© 2005 First National Bank of Santa Fe