# Is there anyone I could report this to? (phishing scam in my email) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 2, 2005, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anyone-i-could-report-this-to-phishing-scam-in-my-email/306531 "2005-06-02T12:20:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Stillwell\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/96bed5/32.png) [@Stillwell\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stillwell_Angel)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2005, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anyone-i-could-report-this-to-phishing-scam-in-my-email/306531/1 "2005-06-02T12:20:38Z")
I received an email this morning from “BankOne” with whom I do not have an account. It was titled “Security Measures!” They say my account may have been compromised and I should log into the link provided and verify that no unauthorized activity has taken place with my account (again I have no account at BankOne). It even has a BankOne Logo in the email, although to me it looks like something made with a free logo maker program. Since I have no account there I’m not at risk to lose anything, but I would like to report this if there is some agency out there that handles these things, before someone who DOES have an account and may be gullible enough to click that link. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2005, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anyone-i-could-report-this-to-phishing-scam-in-my-email/306531/2 "2005-06-02T12:24:11Z")
Usual procedure is to report it to the real version of whoever it’s purporting to be from - assuming BankOne is in fact a legitimate operation (I’ve never heard of it, but that’s not necessarily surprising). ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2005, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anyone-i-could-report-this-to-phishing-scam-in-my-email/306531/3 "2005-06-02T12:27:14Z")
[Here’s](http://www.bankone.com/answers/BolAnswersSeg.aspx?top=all&segment=ABO&topic=PrivacySecurityTermsofUse.BankOnecomSecurity.UpdateontheLatestPhishingIncident&item=) what the bank in question say. ---
**Author:** ![DMC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dmc/32/18049_2.png) [@DMC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMC)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2005, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anyone-i-could-report-this-to-phishing-scam-in-my-email/306531/4 "2005-06-02T12:27:52Z")
I used to report them, but the larger banks are well aware of them now, and are trying to educate their customers about the problem, so you can probably just ignore this. [Here](http://www.bankone.com/answers/BolAnswersDetail.aspx?top=all&segment=ABO&topic=PrivacySecurityTermsofUse.IdentityTheft&item=UpdateontheLatestEmailFraud) is a link showing that they are familiar with your issue. ---
**Author:** ![Stillwell\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/96bed5/32.png) [@Stillwell\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stillwell_Angel)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2005, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anyone-i-could-report-this-to-phishing-scam-in-my-email/306531/5 "2005-06-02T12:32:16Z")
Thanks everyone. I couldn’t report it to the sender, they had a little disclaimer on the bottom saying do not reply, no one will see it. It then said if I had any questions to log in using the link and click on help. This is my first experience with receiving an email like this, but I’ve heard so much about these scams that I wanted to do my part to report it if that was possible. ---
**Author:** ![Canadjun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@Canadjun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Canadjun)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2005, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anyone-i-could-report-this-to-phishing-scam-in-my-email/306531/6 "2005-06-02T12:33:29Z")
This is your **first** phishing e-mail?! Lucky you - I probably get at least half a dozen a week (mostly Paypal in my case). I have read a number of articles (sorry, no cites) that a number of organizations are going after the phishing sites as fast as they show up, so your phishing site has almost certainly been noticed by somebody appropriate already, but [here](http://www.antiphishing.org/) is one site you can go to to report it. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2005, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anyone-i-could-report-this-to-phishing-scam-in-my-email/306531/7 "2005-06-02T13:06:37Z")
> [@Stillwell Angel](#): > > Thanks everyone. I couldn’t report it to the sender, they had a little disclaimer on the bottom saying do not reply, no one will see it. I wouldn’t recommend trying to report it to the sender anyway; the thing to do is _independently_ contact the company that _it’s pretending to be from_ and find out if they want it reported; so if you get one _pretending to be_ from ebay, go to [ebay.com](http://ebay.com) (independently - not by following any links in the spoof message) and search their site for info about what to do (for eBay and PayPal, it’s just a case of forwarding the message to [spoof@ebay.com](mailto:spoof@ebay.com) or [spoof@paypal.com](mailto:spoof@paypal.com)). It is still worth doing this, if the company is one that takes an active role in fighting the problem - the scam relies on two things - 1) people believing that the message is real and 2) the link in the email message remaining alive long enough to capture some useful data - if you report it to the legitimate company, and if they’re on their toes, they can have the ISP hosting the scam page shut it down to limit the damage caused by that particular phishing incident. ---
**Author:** ![DMC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dmc/32/18049_2.png) [@DMC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMC)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2005, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anyone-i-could-report-this-to-phishing-scam-in-my-email/306531/8 "2005-06-02T13:12:30Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > It is still worth doing this, if the company is one that takes an active role in fighting the problem - the scam relies on two things - 1) people believing that the message is real and 2) **the link in the email message remaining alive long enough to capture some useful data - if you report it to the legitimate company, and if they’re on their toes, they can have the ISP hosting the scam page shut it down to limit the damage caused by that particular phishing incident**. I’d forgotten about the constantly changing link aspect of the phishing scams, so ignore my advice above and report it, like Mangetout advises. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2005, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anyone-i-could-report-this-to-phishing-scam-in-my-email/306531/9 "2005-06-02T13:20:01Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Usual procedure is to report it to the real version of whoever it’s purporting to be from - assuming BankOne is in fact a legitimate operation (I’ve never heard of it, but that’s not necessarily surprising). BankOne was a legitimate issuer of credit cards, but they were recently bought out by Chase and their credit cards transferred. So the phishers are even using a nonexistant bank. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![JerH](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bb73d2/32.png) [@JerH](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JerH)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2005, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anyone-i-could-report-this-to-phishing-scam-in-my-email/306531/10 "2005-06-02T14:50:36Z")
If you’re feeling industrious, you can dig a bit and find out who their web hosting company is - I’ve gotten a couple ISP’s to take down phishing sites put up by their users. ---
**Author:** ![anson2995](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@anson2995](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anson2995)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2005, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anyone-i-could-report-this-to-phishing-scam-in-my-email/306531/11 "2005-06-02T15:50:54Z")
The proper place to report these sort of things, if you’re so inclined, is the [Federal Trade Commission](http://www.ftc.gov/spam/). You can file a complaint online, or simply forward the email to them: > [@](#): > > If you get spam email that you think is deceptive, forward it to [spam@uce.gov](mailto:spam@uce.gov). The FTC uses the spam stored in this database to pursue law enforcement actions against people who send deceptive email.