A couple of months ago, MBNA sold my MasterCard account to Bank of America. Since then I’ve received a stream of unsolicited emails from BofA. With all the phishing fraud these days, I only deal with a financial institution when I initiate it, never from an email coming from God-only-knows.
I’m in the midst of canceling many newsletter subscriptions and mail lists generally, so I’ve grown accustomed to an Unsubscribe button at the bottom of the page. Bank of America takes a different approach. There’s no button. Instead, there’s tiny, light gray stating:
Email Preferences
This is a service email from Bank of America. Please note that you may receive service email in accordance with your Bank of America service agreements, whether or not you elect to receive promotional email.
This bank needs to read The Cluetrain Manifesto in the worst way. I really don’t care if it has the legal right to send me unsolicited email. I have the customer right to specify what clutters my inbox. Or to choose a different bank.
If banks wanted to hold on to customers by providing superior service, how about maintaining records of transactions forever? Storage is nearly free. If I want to look at something that happened more than a year ago, why can’t I look it up online?
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
The bigger they are, the harder they shall fall.
Jay,
You apparently missed the fact that MBNA and Bank of America merged. Your account was not sold.
I don’t think Bank of America sends spam, so you are likely being targeted by off-shore phishers, just like everyone else that has an email account. Don’t fall for it and don’t blame Bank of America, or any bank for that matter, for something they can’t totally avoid. Such is the result of an open internet.
Dan, yes, I was sloppy with my language. I should have said that BofA acquired MBNA; no matter what the accounting, the large devour the small.
The Bank of America emails appear quite genuine but you’re probably right. They did have my name and last four digits. I’ve forward a couple of samples to abuse@bankofamerica.com
Sorry, BofA, if I maligned you unfairly.
jay
Received this from Bank of America today:
Bank of America Customer Service
7:13 am (56 minutes ago)
Dear Jay Cross,
Thank you for your inquiry dated 8/6/07 regarding a suspicious e-mail in
question. We are committed to providing you with the best banking
experience possible and we will be happy to assist you.
The e-mail you received was not fraudulent.
Please contact Customer Care at 1.800.732.9194, for assistance.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. We value you
as a customer and appreciate your business. If we may be of further
assistance, please contact us again by e-mail. Thank you for choosing
Bank of America.
Sincerely,
Christopher Wadsworth
Bank of America
Okay, big bank. Today I received this email:
from Bank of America
Sep 15 (1 day ago)
date Sep 15, 2007 4:38 PM
subject Unauthorized Activity
Warning: This message may not be from whom it claims to be. Beware of following any links in it or of providing the sender with any personal information. Learn more
Dear Bank of America client,
You have received this email because you or someone had used your account from different locations.For security purpose, we are required to open an investigation into this matter.
In order to safeguard your account, we require that you confirm your banking details.
The help speeed up to this process, please access the following link so we ca complete the verification of your Bank of America Online Banking Account registration information.
203.121.164.2/boa/online/online_secure/
If we do no receive the appropriate account verification within 48 hours, then we will assume this Bank of America account is fraudulent and will be suspended.
The purpose of this verification is to ensure that your bank account has not been fraudulently used and to combat the fraud from our community. We appreciate your support and understanding and thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.
——————
I’ll send this one to abuse@bankofamerica.com. It smells phishy and is the very reason I think it imprudent of the Bank to spam its customers.
Within a minute, I received this response:
noreply@bankofamerica.com” hide details 9:22 pm (0 minutes ago)
to jaycross@gmail.com
date Sep 16, 2007 9:22 PM
subject In response to your Abuse Inquiry
mailed-by bankofamerica.com
Thank you for contacting Bank of America to report a potentially fraudulent email, commonly referred to as a “phishing” email. We take your security very seriously and will investigate this matter immediately. If our investigation determines that the email is fraudulent, we will take steps to have the site shut down.
Please note that you will not receive any further response from this mailbox.
For general account inquiries, or other fraud-related events that do not include fraudulent emails, please call the customer service number located on your account statement or refer to the Reporting Fraud section of http://www.bankofamerica.com/privacy.
——
“We take your security very seriously…,” and they show it by sending unsigned email back from an address that does not accept replies.
I’ve heard nothing back from the bank but this morning I received another email along the lines of the prior one. I’ll forward it to Bank of America as well.