Visa email? fake?

mooshoepork

I recently received this message in my junk mail.



Dear Customer,

The access to your VISA Card has been locked during the last transaction,30 Oct
2006, amount 89.99 GBP
(Reason: User Identification Failed). According to VISA Security Policy your
VISA Card and transaction
details are not shown in this message. The full report is attached to this
message.

To unlock your VISA Card please, confirm the transaction to the Customer Support
Service. Or if there was
some mistake, please let us know immediately so that we
can get this situation resolved.

Learn about the benefits of Verified by Visa to prevent unauthorized use of
credit card protect your Visa
Card online with a personal password. VISA provides reassurance that only you
can use your VISA Card online.

Regards
VISA Tech Service
It has an attachment called TL-0990214.zip that has nothing in it. I have not used my credit card in the UK or on the 30th of October. Is this a fake email? I got a similar one not long ago.

Thanatos

You should probably virus-scan your computer. It's fake. If you're hella paranoid, you can call Visa and ask.

EggyToast

Either it's a virus/spyware email, and they expect you to open the zip. Or it's legit, and you just call the # on the back of your card to ask what's up.

Nearly all CC correspondence includes your card number in the format XXXX XXXX XXXX 1234 so you can identify which card it is they're talking about, as many people have multiple cards from VISA.

a penguin

most likely fake.

Make sure that attachment wasn't a trojan or virus of some type. That'd be my suspicion.

If you want to check on oyur account, I'd recommend using the phone, just in case you did contract a nasty keylogger or the like.

Remember kids, never open attachments that you aren't expecting.

Proto

FAKE FAKE FAKE.

Visa never emails you, they'll call.

vonPoonBurGer

Thanatos wrote:

you can call Visa and ask

While I'm almost certain this is fake, it's never a bad idea to verify with the credit card company. They put their number right on the card itself, so it's not like they don't want you calling.

MichaelLC

Agreed. Fake.

Got to watch out too, I've gotten ones with the Chase logo & everything.

EggyToast wrote:

Or it's legit, and you just call the # on the back of your card to ask what's up.

Exactly. Always call the number on your card, never the one in an email or other corispondance.

MagicToaster

Visa, or any card company for that matter, will never email you to discuss anything short of promotional items. When problems arise, they'll call you.

It's totally fake.

Deusfaux

Visa, or any card company for that matter, will never email you to discuss anything short of promotional items. When problems arise, they'll call you.

freek

Yeah, fake. I've gotten two. They're the same amount as yours, same attachment, same bull.

I've never been to the UK and they didn't address me by my name or mention the card number were big points of non-authenticity for me.

MagicToaster

freek wrote:

I've never been to the UK and they didn't address me by my name or mention the card number were big points of non-authenticity for me.

You've brought up an interesting point. Even if you do recive a message from Visa where they address you by your name and mention your card number it's still a fake.

When I worked at the Credit Card Fraud Prevention Department we had alot of phishing cases where ppl recieved mail containing this kind of information.

Remember, theives can't make purchases online with just the card number, you need other information like the security number and personal client information. This is what some of these 'give you the whole number' schemes might try to get out of you.

EDIT:
To be fair, in everyone of those cases it's someone the client knew.

Mooshoepork, I'd forward this email to your credit card company or the card issuing bank.

Marty81

"Dear customer" is, 99.999% of the time, a fake.

mooshoepork

Okay thankyou everyone! I'll ring them just incase. Is there a spesific visa email I should forward it to? Thankyou

drinkinstout

mooshoepork wrote:

I recently received this message in my junk mail.

[snip]

It has an attachment called TL-0990214.zip that has nothing in it. I have not used my credit card in the UK or on the 30th of October. Is this a fake email? I got a similar one not long ago.

Wait, you say it was empty.... did you open the ZIP file? if so, you need to scan your computer post haste. You do have some anti-virus software, correct?

mooshoepork

Yeh I have anti-virus protection and I scanned multiple times and it came up with nothing.

WeeSneak

No company like Visa would EVER send you an attachment. Especially a ZIP file. With matters such as this they would simply arrange to phone you to clear up the mess or more likely ask you to contact them through phone or email.

And as these other guys said scan your computer granted that its not already broke. :P