Fake AmEx “Security Verification” phishing emails doing rounds

Malicious spam emails impersonating American Express have been hitting inboxes in the last few days, trying to make recipients open the file in the attachment.

The email purports to be a notification about a “Membership Security Verification,” and warns the users that a “slight error” has been detected in their AmEx accounts. To make it right – and not loose access to their accounts in the next 48 hours – the victims are urged to download the attached HTML file and open it in a browser.

As you can see in the screenshot above, the phishers are looking for every bit of personal and financial information they can get, including the users’ name, address, home and work telephone numbers, Social Security number, mother’s maiden name and date of birth, users’ date of birth, AmEx credit card number, expiry date, card security code, ATM PIN, email address and the password for it.

Unfortunately, as Hoax-Slayer points out, all of the information submitted on the fake form will be sent to online criminals and subsequently used to steal the identities of victims as well as use their credit card details to conduct fraudulent transactions.

“American Express would never ask its customers to verify account details by filling in an insecure form contained in an email attachment or accessed via a clicked link,” he concludes, and bids users to be wary of any similar email purportedly coming from any of the various credit cards service providers out there.