I got two e-mails seemingly from UBS Bank that I’m sure shouldn’t have come to me. I have no account with them. One the one hand, they seem to be legitimate but simply mis-directed (they came from ubs.com and are full of links that really point to ubs.com, not to some other nefarious place). On the other hand, they seem to report that my e-mail address has been updated in their records, but are NOT addressed to me (or anyone else) by actual name, nor do they contain the last 4 digits of an account number, or any other identifying information. That, of course, smells phishy.
So I forwarded both of them to an address I found at ubs.com for forwarding fraudulent e-mails. Within a few hours, I got an e-mail all in German. (It looks like a form letter, possibly auto-generated.) Can someone translate it, or at least some salient part of it, or give a summary? Danke!
(I’m thinking that the original e-mails might have been legitimate but mis-directed messages for a real customer whose last name is the same as mine and whose e-mail is very similar to mine.)
In a nutshell, it is a form letter thanking you for letting them know and explaining you probably got an email “phishing” for your bank pin number and ID and other info.
They provided a link that goes into more detail on this type of scam and warn you not to give your pin number or other bank information to anyone else. Also not to respond to such emails or ever think of opening an attached file, etc. etc.
Most certainly is is a form letter, but simply acknowledging receipt of your email and standard warnings about keeping your information private.
Thank you, DMark for that synopsis. This confirms what I suspected it is.
The irony is, I three-quarters suspect the letters weren’t phishing, but instead were legitimate notices to another same-named customer whose e-mail address is similar to mine. On the one hand, all the links throughout the notices were bona-fide links to UBS; on the other hand, the notices contained NO hint of the customer’s identification (like, for example, a name or last four digits of account number), which is a common trait of phishings.
If I had to bet, I’d guess that the notices are actually legit. This leads one to wonder: Will any live human at UBS actually take a look, and make the same conclusion, and attempt to contact the REAL Herr J****** to get his correct e-mail?
Or will I continue, for the rest of eternity, to receive on-line documents from UBS that are meant for a different person?