A particularly devious phishing scam

"Phishing" scams -- faked emails supposedly sent by trusted organizations like banks, eBay, or Paypal, and asking for "reconfirmation" of account information -- are so common now that many people have learned to be cautious about clicking links in emails.

But the scammers keep evolving and coming up with new angles. This one received yesterday is the most devious I've seen yet. It actually uses the possibility of being phished to lure people into making a telephone call to give up their personal financial information.

This communication was sent to safeguard your account against any
unauthorized activity.

Credit Union National Association is aware of new phishing e-mails that are circulating.
These e-mails request consumers to click a link due to acompromise of a credit card account. You should not respond to this message.

We had reason to believe that you recently receive a phising email.
For your security we have deactivate your card.

How to reactivate your ATM Card :

* Please call us [ASAP] at: +1 (419)-465-8427

Our automated system allows you to quickly reactivate your ATM
Card!

What you need to reactivate your card online?

* ATM Card Number
* ATM Card Expiration Date (MM/YY)
* ATM Personal Identification Number (ATM PIN Code)

ATM Card activation will take approximately one minute to
complete.

Notice the clumsy grammar, typical of many foreign-based scammers. And after warning of phishing scams, they overtly say they need your PIN.

I called the number to test it out, it really is a crude automated system to record your data. Incredibly, the message starts out by saying that they 'would never ask for your personal financial information' yet they ask you to key in the PIN not once, but twice!

Be very careful out there. NEVER give your PIN to anyone. EVER. No bank will ever ask for it in any way, shape or form. Anyone who does is a scammer. Period!

Anyone who falls for this email will find their bank account emptied in a matter of hours.

I have been seeing these in a high-traffic public email account for about a year now. It's called "vishing" and is getting increasingly popular as people get more suspicious of links in emails. Follow the same rule for phone numbers as links--if you get a bank email, etc. go to one of your statements or log into your account by typing in the actual URL, and get the phone number that way.

Not to mention, NEVER give your PIN number to anyone. No bank will ever ask for it. That's a hard and fast rule!