Lloyds TSB scam email

Published on 09 November 2010

In the last two weeks, I have had two emails claiming to be from my Lloyds TSB online account. In them, they tell me that due to “suspicious” activity on my online account (log ins from multiple IP addresses) my account has been temporarily limited, and I need to take one of two courses of action:

  1. Click on the provided link to log into my account and re-enable it.
  2. Complete the attachment

Now, both of the above things made me a little suspicious, but looking at the email closer, there were a few tell tale signs that this was a scam email, and that it should be deleted and not looked at.

Firstly, the “from” address of the email:

From Email Address

You should notice a couple things from the above:

  1. It is from “Loyds TSB”. This is a spelling mistake, and would unlikely happen on a legitimate email.
  2. The registered domain name is also incorrect @loydstsb.com
  3. The user name for the email is “supporti”. Again, this is unlikely in a legitimate email.

Looking in to the body of the email, I was then presented with:

Suspicious URL

Notice here that the URL for the link goes to lloydstsb.co.uk. Although the spelling of Lloyds is correct this time, the actual URL for my Lloyds TSB account goes to lloydstsb.com. A subtle difference, but in the world of the internet, this is the difference between a legitimate site, and a bogus one.

Bottom line is, if you receive any emails like this, ALWAYS err on the side of caution. Don’t click any direct links from these emails, and don’t open any attachments. If in any doubt, phone your bank, or whoever is the subject of the email, they will be able to help you

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