< Notes...

“You were specially selected to receive a GO2bank offer because you’ve used one of our banking products in the past OR you opted in to receive marketing from one of our trusted third-party partners. No credit check was performed, no one filled out an application on your behalf and no account was opened in your name. The card sent to you is not active and has no value until you choose to activate it and deposit money into your account.”

Kid received not one, but two of these offers on the mail today. Both have a full blown plastic, RFID chip, debit card in it. When someone wonder how, or why, the bank went belly up, remember this.

Receiving an SMS alledgedly from Bank of America in the middle of the night, asking whether or not we authorise a check for a specific amount, on a certain account, and directing us to follow a link to confirm the depositor’s name, and view the check image seemed like the perfect phishing, just like some Redditors thought it could be. Can we be blamed, after all?

I called BofA and, yes, it was valid. But so many wrongs on this one. The short code number they used is not listed anywhere, so that we can verify it really came from BofA. The link on it, instead of simply telling us to use their mobile app, or to login at the bank portal, and the Bank of America image they added to the SMS. It is as if they are training us to fall for phishing.

Schwab almost gave us a heart attack, when we saw half of our account gone at the end of the trade day today. Then this “urgent” message popped:

Account balance information may be inaccurate.
“Certain online account information may be inaccurate. Please accept our apologies as our teams work to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. For assistance, please call us at 800-435-4000.”

Yo, mates, come on! 🩺