Getting a several hundred dollar cellular bill is something that can make anyone’s blood boil. Upon receiving my Verizon Wireless bill email, I noticed that my normal $50 charge had been replaced with $933.49. A call to Verizon confirmed what I suspected, that it was a mistake. Upon further inspection, it was not their mistake.
As is my normal procedure, I always take note when I receive a legitimate looking bill that is out of the ordinary. This email bill looked normal, but the amount was far in excess of what I would have expected.
A quick call into Verizon Wireless (would have been quicker without navigating the robot menu) provided me with the assurance that my bill had not in fact skyrocketed. The rep initially said that a few other customers had also received inaccurate bills and that I could ignore it. To be sure, I requested that proof of the proper bill be sent to me via snail mail, just in case.
Now taking a closer look at the email itself reveals that it is a cleverly disguised phishing email. It is rare that one of these gets through the Google Gmail-based spam filter.
Actually clicking on links from a phishing email can be very dangerous, as there may be multiple objectives of the fraud. One may be to install malware onto your computer so that they can track banking passwords and other sensitive information. Another may be to trick you into revealing your private information on the phishing website, such as your social security number or bank account number.
You can check the validity of the links without actually clicking on them by hovering over the link with your mouse and the looking to see what link it takes you too. The link typically shows up in the bottom left portion of your screen, which can show you where a link will take you before you actually take a ride.
The link that appears to be for “View and Pay Your Bill” instead takes me to some Bulgarian website. That is certainly not where Verizon Wireless would have me go to view and pay my bill.
Had I followed the link and gullibly provided my private information, I could be the next victim of this phishing scam. Following this approach can provide some protection against phishing and other email scams.
There is one more step that I took to further insulate myself from this scam. By reporting the email as spam, it allows Google to update their email filters so that hopefully future phishing emails related to this scam will be filtered out harmlessly for all Gmail individual and corporate users.
Long is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a B.A. in Industrial Relations. He subsequently received his Certificate in Nonprofit Management from Duke University. His Certificate in Financial Planning was issued by Florida State University.
Long has achieved the Accredited Credit Counselor and Accredited Financial Counselor certifications through the Association for Financial Counseling, Planning and Education. Long originally achieved the Certified Credit Counselor designation through the National Institute for Financial Education.
In addition to years of nonprofit leadership, Long has been an innovator in the field of volunteer tax return preparation programs. He assists volunteer associations and nonprofit organizations who seek to integrate credit counseling and asset-building programs with free personal income tax preparation. His approach to using free credit reports as both an incentive and a screening tool for placement into asset-building programs has been shared with members of the National Community Tax Coalition, the EITC-Carolinas Initiative of MDC, Inc. and nonprofit groups across the Carolinas.
Long assists members of our armed forces in the Carolinas, Iowa, Rhode Island, Georgia and Germany with financial readiness. Please support our Soldiers, Marines, Airmen and Sailors!
Favorite quote:
"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not."
Thomas Jefferson
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