Memphis TN., Nov. 18, 2011 – The BBB is warning consumers to be wary of emails
that look like they are coming from the National Automated Clearing House
Association (NACHA). The Automated Clearing House Network serves as a secure,
reliable network for direct consumer, business, and government payments, and
annually facilitates billions of payments such as Direct Deposit and Direct
Payment.
Here’s how the scam works.
You get an email, supposedly from NACHA. The email claims that an ACH transfer
involving your bank account was rejected by the other financial institution. The
email typically contains an attachment or link that will theoretically give you
more information about the rejected transaction. It asks you to click on the
link or open the attachment to see the details.
The email is really just an
attempt to get you to reveal your banking information so the scammers can clean
out your account or to download a virus. Hundreds of thousands of these spam
emails may be sent at one time. When BBB President, Randy Hutchinson, checked
his spam filter this morning he found five “NACHA” emails. The scammers are
hoping you’ll react without thinking and click on the link to make sure your
bills get paid on time.
The BBB frequently warns
consumers about phishing scams – emails designed to look like they are coming
from legitimate businesses - that ask the receiver to click on a link to verify
account information. The most common ones use the names of banks, credit card
companies or government agencies like the IRS.
According to their website, nacha.org,
NACHA does not send communications to persons or organizations about individual
ACH transactions.
If you receive these emails
in your inbox, the BBB recommends that you:
- Don’t respond!
- Don’t open any attachments. They may download a
virus to your computer.
- Don’t click on any links or disclose any personal
or financial information.
- Remember that corporate and government logos can
easily be copied from the Internet to make the email look more authentic.
Scammers often misappropriate
the names of legitimate financial institutions and organizations like NACHA to
make their offers seem legitimate. If you believe that such an email might be
legitimate, independently locate a phone number or email address for the sender
and contact the organization directly.
