I am very conscientious about paying my bills as soon as
they arrive so I post-date them to be paid on the due date by the bank. In general, this works very well. But for the second month in a row, I received an
email saying that Bell had been unable to process my last payment.
Last month I had clicked the link provided in the email and
was led to a page asking for a great deal of information including my credit
card. I recognized it immediately as a
phishing attempt and called Bell to report it.
After the obligatory wait period, I was connected to agent Tom who
assured me that this was indeed a scam and I should disregard it.
Again this month, I received the “Your last payment cannot
be processed” email. Once again, it
looked very official and this time the link to My Bell took me to a page that looked exactly as the legitimate
site looks including photos and links, most of which worked. Two blank rectangles eagerly awaited my
account name and password but the URL at the top looked a little suspicious so
I stopped there and, after the obligatory wait, commenced a chat with Rhoda,
this month’s cheery Bell agent.
Once again I provided the appropriate information for her to
verify my authenticity and when I explained the situation she agreed that this
was a very common scam that I should ignore.
She also asked if I would be willing to forward the offending email to
be used as evidence and, after a short waiting period, she was able to provide
me with an email address that would lead, I understood, straight to the sleuths
at Bell Accounts. I ended the chat
session, assured Rhoda that there was nothing else she could do for me and
fired off the email along with the offending email and a screenshot of the
purported My Bell page.
Two seconds later I received the message from the
ever-vigilant Postmaster informing me that my email could not be delivered. I shook my head and questioned the
authenticity of Rhoda.
I then picked up the phone and, after the obligatory waiting
and authentication periods, explained the situation to Camille. She launched into a long explanation of the
scam, etc. I assured her I knew all
about this, and wanted to know if she could provide the CORRECT Bell abuse
address. Obviously unaware of this she
offered to find it for me. After yet another obligatory waiting period she
cheerily rhymed off not an email address but a website. When I pointed this out, she assured me that this
was where I would be able to be a good citizen and register the email, false My Bell page, etc.
I dutifully went the page only to discover that it contained a
long explanation by Bell on what phishing is and how to avoid internet scams. There
was NO place to forward suspicious emails or websites. I sat stunned, staring at this useless screen
questioning whether any of the ‘agents’ I had talked with were legit and
contemplating what I will do when I receive next month’s email telling me that
Bell has been unable to process my latest payment.
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