The holiday is a perfect opportunity for scammers to launch their campaigns

Nov 24, 2011 08:36 GMT  ·  By

Researchers noticed that the Thanksgiving celebration not only brings joy and laughter but also a lot of phishing campaigns that rely on the reputations of financial institutions.

GFI Labs came across two samples at the moment, one replicating SunTrust, and the other, Bank of America, but it shouldn't surprise anyone if more names were involved.

The emails that bring the scam come with an html form attached in which the user is requested to provide information such as state, city, user ID, ATM PIN number, password, account number, routing number and credit card number.

Internet users are advised never to hand over sensitive information that's requested in an email, even if the links it contains point to locations that resemble the bank's websites. Financial institutions will never require PIN numbers and account numbers online.