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Better Business Bureau Says Watch Out For Scam Emails

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The Better Business Bureau serving Western Michigan has issued a warning to local consumers.  They say it’s an email scam with emails allegedly coming from Chase Bank. 

“This is a particularly scary scam because it is targeting current customers of Chase Bank. And it is an email being sent to these people that essentially looks exactly like an email you would get from Chase Bank.

John Masterson is the Marketing Director for the Better Business Bureau serving West Michigan.  He says they were recently made aware of what they’re calling an email scam about a week ago.  He says this issue is complicated by the fact that the emails look legit.

“Most scam emails are easy to pick out, because they got something absurd in them like a prince from Nigeria, or a lot of misspelled words, or weird links, but this is very close to the real thing.”

Masterson encourages consumers to be vigilant and wary before clicking on items in an email, because if it is part of the scam, he says one click could open the door to trouble.

“Anything from just monitoring your computer, tracking your keys strokes, get users names or passwords, or it could just go for applications that are finance related.”

A couple tips from Masterson include, being on the lookout for any urgent calls to action in any emails, especially those that encourage you to act quickly.  He also says to watch attachments as they could be laden with malicious code.  He says if you have received a suspicious email, you can call the Better Business Bureau at 616 774 8236. 

He says you’ll be connected with their Scam Tracker resources.

Jennifer is an award winning broadcast news journalist with more than two decades of professional television news experience including the nation's fifth largest news market. She's worked as both news reporter and news anchor for television and radio in markets from Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo all the way to San Francisco, California.