American National Bank of Texas / Account on Hold

Scam-Emails.com Where Moogu's come to LEARN!
Contents - List of Scams by Type and by profession. Click Here to Enter Search Engine for Scam Emails	Analysis of this letter Dear Member, All ANBTX Service Centers and Internet Banking will be closed on Saturday, March 1th and Monday, March 3th during the Memorial Day Holiday weekend for a scheduled computer upgrade. Your participation is required at this event ! We need you to confirm your personal data with our existing database. To continue this application we kindly ask you to *click here* and update your ANBTX profile. Our Member Call Center Representatives will be available on: Saturday, March 1th 8:00 a.m. -9:00 a.m. EST and Sunday, March 2th 11:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. EST at (800) 552-4475 to assist you with your financial needs. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you. Sincerly, J.M. "Tray" Rankin ANB President & CEO. Copyright © 2008 American National Bank of Texas. All rights reserved. How do I know this is a scam? I do not have an account at ANBT! Then there is the problem of the misspelling of the dates, and the Holiday. (shhh I know but dont tell they might learn something) This email is one of Millions that go out that target emails in a region and the banks in that region. If you click on the "Click Here" you will get a page that looks just like that of ANBT.. but the address if you put your cursor on the "click here" will go to www.goingonabout.com which is NOT affiliated with the bank. You would then enter your normal bank information and password and someone out there would have access to your bank account. They could send out bogus checks and drain the account, get your Social Security number possibly, though that may not be ON the information the bank has on you.. on their website. Still this allows them to get more info on how to steal your identity or to transfer funds to themselves OUT of the country.

	How do I avoid making this mistake? VERY SIMPLE.. never EVER simply click on a link for your bank. MOST banks if not all including Paypal will tell you that they do not include links in their emails. Type the Website into the browser bar yourself. Beyond that when you visit a site look at the Browser Bar and make sure that the address matches that of your bank, but look C-a-r-e-f-u-l-l-y they may have the name of the bank somewhere IN the address to fool you. Look at the first few letters.. http://www. this area is the address. com If the address area does not include the EXACT domain name then it is a phony.. It may include what is called a subdomain.. which is valid.. for example.. I will use a fictitious bank name.. Jimsbankandtrust.com If you are on Jim's Bank and Trust you might see this http://www.signon.jimsbankandtrust.com that is most likely legitimate and part of the bank.. jimsbankandtrust.com is what HAS to be before the .com or the .net or .org for the address to go to that website. If for instance you get this.. http://www.signon.abcvideononsense.com/jimsbankandtrust.html You are not at Jim's Bank and Trust you are at ABC Video Nonsense.. Or any other name of a website you could imagine.. Also watch that the domain ending.. the Dot Com, Net, or Org is not something else like a country domain.. YOU HAVE TO KNOW YOUR BANKS ADDRESS .. and any deviation may be an attempt by someone to Phish you. Watch for single letter changes or dyslexic like changes of letters that are meant to LOOK like the real address. In the end... the absolute safest way to check your account is to type the domain in yourself and they save it to favorites if it is a difficult name.. BE CAREFUL to check the address each time. I imagine it is possible to get a Browser Tool Bar Virus that could kidnap your information.. but if that happens you already have bigger problems. If you get a notice from your bank, most likely it will ask you to check your messages on your account. All correspondence from your bank will be ON your account, as it will with Paypal.com. Should you get a notice of a charge, or a hold on your account, do NOT click on the link on the notice. Go directly to your bank account and check it. You will most likely find that there is no hold, charge and no message from the bank. By not sending you email about your account banks make it possible for you to KNOW that an email with a link in it is a scam. "IF IN DOUBT, go directly to your Account.. "