Scam Alert: Merrill Lynch Account Holders Beware

A few days ago, I received the email above. I knew right away that this email was a scam. Why? Because I am not even a Merrill Lynch customer, thats why. So please if you receive this email, immediately delete it.

Luckily for users of Mozilla Firefox 2.0, the browser recognizes the link in the email as a fraudulent website and will block its access.

Basically, the sender of the email is spamming this email to 1000's of people, hoping to catch just a handful that are Merrill Lynch customers that are unaware of the scam. When those poor unfortunate users click the link, fill in the "Secure Login" form, their account username and password has then been handed over to the criminal.

Words of advice, 99% of businesses today will not ask you for your username and password, they will not have you login to a special server on account of a hacker, nor will they request any special personal information via email to verify if your account has been "hacked". In a situation where your account has been hacked or they is a problem, they will call you. If you are unsure, call them. Never click without doing some research first.

Chris