SCAM SPAN or GENUINE??

[Stillhomewardbound]

Fellow board members ... are any of you getting this email? I take it to be utterly bogus but I would just like to make sure.

SHB



Dear Users,

Due to the congestion in all (btinternet,talk21 and btopenworld) users and removal of all unused Accounts,

BT would be shutting down all unused Accounts, You will have to confirm your E-mail by filling out your Login Information below after clicking the reply button,

* Username:...... ...
* Password:..........
* Date of Birth:......
* Country Or Territory:....
After following the instructions in the sheet, your account will not be interrupted and will continue as normal. Thanks for your attention to this request. We apologize for any inconveniences.

Warning!!!: Account owner that refuses to update his/her account after two days of receiving this warning stands the risk of losing his or her account permanently.

All BT User Should Reply Now!!
Thank you for your co-operation.
BT Account Support
Warning Code :ID67565434

[John Wright]

There's a few pointers to it being fake. A few grammatical errors, 'BT would be....', 'Thanks for....', Account owner that....', the word 'territory' is not used in UK geography, the 'z' in apologize, 'All BT user....'.

[DracoM]

Yup, it's a fake. Phoned BT and they are FURIOUS.

[johnb]

It's pretty obvious that the e-mail is spam, and fraudulent spam at that.

I suggest you forward it to BT, if they are your ISP.

[ahinton]

BT almost certainly will do nothing about it, but fake it is. Look out for https in any websites that you;re encouraged to visit by any of these scams (and you won't find it) and bear in mind that, if you really are a bona fide customer of the organisation purporting to be sending these emails, most such organisations don't conduct this kind of business via email anyway and, when they do write to you, they use your name which is registered with them. If you see "Dear Customer", "Valued Customer" or anything impersonal like that from amywhere, spam it and then delete it.

[Old Grumpy]

It also asks for Username and Password - this information would not be requested in an email from a genuine source of this kind (e.g. ISP)

[Word]

Never give out your password as you should never be asked for it.
In the unlikely event of them having a legitimate need to access your account they would reset your password, log in as required, then issue you with a new one.

[ahinton]

All good and sound advice above.

[Petrushka]

Thanks for the alert. I have warned those friends and relatives who are on btinternet etc.

[Ferretfancy]

This is the pre Christmas scam build up. I'm afraid. In the last few days I've had half a dozen emails, all purporting to be from banks and building societies asking for information. As I don't bank online it hasn't been a temptation, but some people must be taken in out of the millions targeted.

[Stillhomewardbound]

Thanks very much for the feedback people. I was 90% certain it was spam and, yes, any invitation to provide the likes of a username/password has to be wholly bogus.

My concern was that my main mail account is with BT.

[VodkaDilc]

This is the pre Christmas scam build up. I'm afraid. In the last few days I've had half a dozen emails, all purporting to be from banks and building societies asking for information. As I don't bank online it hasn't been a temptation, but some people must be taken in out of the millions targeted.

I was surprised to see on the television news this week that many students have been caught with an online scam which asked them to confirm the details of their student loans. Like Ferretfancy, I keep banking matters strictly 'off-line', so I am able to confidently ignore all financial emails. I was shocked to see that the supposedly 'computer-aware' younger generation should be vulnerable to such things and should fall into the trap, losing thousands in some cases. I might have expected those of an older generation to be caught, while youngsters, brought up on all the possible scams, should be too 'streetwise' to be caught! Wrong again!