'M&T Bank' Email Scam

Fraudsters are disseminating deceiving emails in an attempt to lure users into opening a phishing portal. The emails are presented as being sent by the M&T Bank, a legitimate bank holding institution with over 700 branches spread across several U.S. states. The fake emails exploit both the company's name and logo. Users should be warned that the M&T Bank has absolutely no connection to these misleading emails.

The con artists claim that a payment of more than $400 will be transferred from the recipients checking account as a payment for a purchase from Amazon. The email also will include a date when the supposed order took place. The hoax email claims that to stop the transaction, users must follow the included link. 

This is a typical tactic used in phishing schemes. The fraudsters want to lure their victims into visiting a dedicated phishing portal that scrapes all information entered into it. In most cases, the site will be designed to appear as a login page asking users to provide account credentials (username and password), phone numbers and other potentially sensitive information. However, at least for now, the link found in the 'M&T Bank' phishing emails takes users to a non-functional page.    

Users should be careful when interacting with unexpected emails urging them to follow a provided link or clicking a displayed button. The consequences of falling for a phishing scheme could be severe. The attackers may be able to access confidential information and use it to take over the victim's social media accounts, banking accounts or crypto wallets. The compromised accounts may be used for nefarious purposes or have any funds stored in them siphoned out.