If you receive an email similar to the one below, DO NOT click on the link, and do not enter any information on the forms there.

The website that the link leads to is a spoof; a bogus website. When you enter the bank account information they ( scammer) ask for, you will simply be handing the thieves the keys to your bank accounts. That is how spoofing and phishing works.

Remember, no honest business would send you an email requesting your personal account information. Any such email you receive asking for this information should be considered scam and brought to the attention of the business being 'phished'.

Anytime you need to go to a website for your bank, credit card companies or other personal, financial or confidential information; do not follow a link in an email;

Below are actual phishing email

E-mail Example #2

The last couple of decades have seen huge changes in how we do our banking and pay for goods and services. Unfortunately, scammers are taking advantage of new technology to generate a number of potentially very costly scams.

These scams aim to steal your account information and your money. Many of these scams can look and sound like the real thing, but there are ways of picking up on the warning signs so that you don't lose out.

Fake checks

Fake checks and money orders are key elements in many advance-fee scams , such as auction/classified listing overpayment, lottery scams, inheritance scams, etc., and can be used in almost any scam when a "payment" to the victim is required to gain, regain or further solidify the victims' trust and confidence in the validity of the scheme.

The use of checks in a scam hinges on a US law (and common practice in other countries) concerning checks: when an account holder presents a check for deposit or to cash, the bank must (or in other countries, usually) make the funds available to the account holder within 1–5 business days, regardless of how long it actually takes for the check to clear and funds to be transferred from the issuing bank. The checks clearing process normally takes 7–10 days and can in fact take up to a month when dealing with foreign banks. The time between the funds appearing as available to the account holder and the check clearing is known as the "float", during which time the bank could technically be said to have floated a loan to the account holder to be covered with the funds from the bank clearing the check.

Regardless of the amount of time involved, once the cashing bank is alerted that the check is fraudulent, the transaction is reversed and the money removed from the victim's account. In many cases, this puts victims in debt to their banks as the victim has usually sent a large portion of the check by some non-reversible 'wire transfer' means (typically Western Union) to the scammer and, since more uncollected funds have been sent than funds otherwise present in the victim's account, an overdraft results.