No rest for the wicked, or at least that’s the way it seems to be with scams. Yet another series of phishing text messages have been sent out to unsuspecting cell phone users. The fraudulent text messages claimed to be sent by Alliance Bank were actually attempts by criminals to persuade recipients to divulge card and account information.
Alliance Bank customers and non-customers alike received the messages, but the bank has announced that no information has been compromised. The messages referenced an account number using a common card number prefix in an attempt to gain the rest of the card number from the scam target.
Alliance Bank said that it appears the criminals only sent the messages to cell phone numbers commonly used in the areas that Alliance Bank serves – a commonly-used scam called “phishing.”
This method is by no means a new scam, as this type of criminal activity has become increasingly prevalent in recent years. Phishing scams often target bank and retail customers in an attempt to get information like account numbers, social security numbers, passwords, and all kinds of other personal information with the intent to steal cash from their marks.
Alliance Bank does not utilize account numbers or whole tax identification numbers to verify identities, and strongly advises all customers to never divulge that information to anyone. If you receive a request for information by any means, call the bank at their regular phone number to ensure the call is legit.
