How to stop American Express Card Deactivation email scam

What is “American Express Card Deactivation” Email Spam

Subject: Excess Purchase Alert: Confirm Your Card Possession
American Express Alert - New Additional Card Member
ACCOUNT ENDING: xxxx
Dear Value Customer,We've temporarily deactivated your card
We are providing this security measures to protect all our customers from an unauthorised use.
Our fraud department has placed a lock on your card due to the excess purchase you made recently.
 
We wanted to double-check the authenticity of your card account. And protect our customers from an unauthorised use.Kindly login below to reactivate and verify account ownership
Reactivate//americanexpress/card
Your account security is important to us. We are sorry for any inconviniences.
Thank you for your Card Membership.
Sincerely,
The American Express Fraud protection Team

American Express Card Deactivation email spam is a common phishing scam that targets American Express cardholders. These fraudulent emails often claim that the recipient’s American Express card has been deactivated or suspended due to suspicious activity or security concerns. The email will typically prompt the recipient to click on a link or provide personal information, such as account numbers or passwords, in order to reactivate their card. However, clicking on these links or providing sensitive information can lead to identity theft, financial fraud, and unauthorized access to personal accounts.

American Express Card Deactivation spam campaigns can infect computers through malicious links or attachments contained in the email. These links may direct the recipient to a fake website that appears to be legitimate, where they are prompted to enter their personal information. Alternatively, clicking on the link could trigger the download of malware onto the recipient’s computer, compromising their security and privacy. It is important to be cautious when receiving emails claiming to be from American Express or any other financial institution, and to verify the legitimacy of the email with the company directly before taking any action.

Interacting with American Express Card Deactivation email scams poses significant risks to individuals, including the potential for financial loss and identity theft. Providing personal information to scammers can result in unauthorized access to bank accounts, credit cards, and other sensitive data. Additionally, clicking on malicious links or downloading malware can compromise the security of the recipient’s computer and put their personal information at risk. It is essential to exercise caution and skepticism when receiving unsolicited emails claiming to be from financial institutions, and to verify the legitimacy of the communication before taking any action.

How to stop email spam like “American Express Card Deactivation”

You can use an anti-spam filter which will block most known sources of spam before they even reach your inbox. MailWasher is a program you may try. It filters spam and lets you preview emails on a server without downloading them onto your computer. MailWasher has customizable spam filters, uses bayesian filtering and works with all major email programs: Outlook, Outlook Express, Thunderbird, GMail, etc.

Download MailWasher

Types of spam email

Spam email messages can be approximately divided into three categories: those that prompt you to download and run something, those that ask for your personal data, and those asking you to make payments. Let’s take a closer look at each one so we can better protect ourselves from these scams.

1. Emails with attachments

   In the first case the email contains an attachment which it prompts you to open. Those attachments may consist of executable files or they may be Microsoft Word or Excel documents containing malicious macro scripts. Once you launch the executable file or allow the document to run its macros, malware downloads onto your device and wreaks all kinds of havoc with it.

   The malware may range from adware showing extra ads on your browsers to ransomware that encrypts your files and aks for payment to decrypt them.

2. Phishing emails

   The second type of spam (phishing emails) try to trick you into entering your name, logins, passwords, credit card details, etc. on what you think are legitimate and respectable websites.

   Those emails usually pretend to be messages from well-known websites that you are probably registered on, and prompt you to follow a link to their site for some reason (for example, there is something wrong with your account). The provided link leads to fake site of course, and the data you enter ends up in the hands of cybercriminals.

3. Advance-fee scam and sextortion scam emails

   Finally there are the emails urging people make payments. These can be further divided into two types: the first type, asking people to invest into something, to pay some money now and get back much more later (the advance-fee scam); the second one, scaring people into paying to prevent something bad from happening.

   An example of the first one is the well-known Nigerian Prince email. A example of the second is sextortion scam: emails that claim that the email author has access to the victims’s web cam and has the victims intimate videos, which the criminal threatens to publish unless paid off.

How to find out that the email is scam

1. Check the sender’s address – if the address doesn’t match up with what you expect from that company, then it’s very likely that the email is scam. Be aware though that the sender address can be faked, so if the address looks legitimate it is not guaranteed that the email is legit.
2. Look for spelling and grammar mistakes and weird phrasing – real emails from reputable companies are far less likely to have those.
3. Watch for urgent requests – legitimate companies will never ask customers for sensitive information such as credit card numbers via email, so if an email suddenly asks for urgent action like requesting payment details within few hours, chances are high this could potentially be a scam attempt.

How to protect yourself from email scam

• Use an email filtering service – email filtering services like MailWasher Pro allow you to filter out unwanted messages before they reach your inbox. These services use sophisticated algorithms to identify suspicious content in incoming emails and block them automatically so that only legitimate messages make it through the filter.
• Avoid clicking on suspicious links – if you receive an email with a link that looks suspicious, do not click on it! Even if the sender appears familiar, chances are high that the link is malicious and could lead you down a path of malware infection or identity theft. It is best not to open any unknown links at all.
• Don’t respond directly – never reply directly to spam emails as this will confirm for spammers that your address is active which may result in more unsolicited mail being sent your way. Instead, mark these messages as “Spam” within your email client/service provider so that their filters can better detect similar types of mail next time.
• Keep software up-to-date – make sure all software installed onto devices such as computers and smartphones is kept up-to date with latest security patches released by developers; this helps reduce risk posed by cyber criminals who exploit vulnerabilities found in outdated versions of programs including email clients.
• Use anti virus protection – install reputable antivirus solutions onto any device receiving emails; most modern day anti viruses come equipped with advanced features such as real time scanning which help detect potential threats immediately upon opening files attached to emails.