If You Are Looking for an ING Post/Thread: An Important Decision re: ING Discussions

BethR · Apr 11, 2005

When asking about an putting "ING Member" into our signatures it prompted a discussion by our Tech People about the safety of referral links.
Here is a quote by WebmasterCricket:

WebmasterCricket said:
Public widely used sites (like ING) are prime targets for things like this from offshore scumbags to attack. What they can do is duplicate parts of the ING site like the sign up pages and account information screens under a very similar domain name. Then they start to prey on unsuspecting people like our budget board crowd looking to get into something they believe to be innocent. A new user could be asking what they believe to be another new user for a referral and it can look nearly identical to a real referral email but it's entirely fake. Once you have given the fake ING your bank info, the next ACH transaction day BAM, no money. It's a federal crime, but in most cases, it's too late and the funds are harder to recover than they are worth.

It's a fairly rare case that this happens, but IT DOES HAPPEN

Ebay account scams are the more popular ones right now because they don't involve a bank, but the scumbags are getting smarter and better at doing it so watch out.

NEVER USE LINKS IN EMAILS WHEN MONEY IS INVOLVED. NEVER EVER EVER PERIOD! Always go to the relavant site and navigate through your account to get where you need to go.

So because of the possibility of criminals to get and use personal information, the decision has been made to shut down ALL discussion about ING's referral program.

I know that this is very upsetting.

But everyone's on-line safety is what we are trying to protect.

We will be deleting the thread at the top of the page and will also be deleting any ING threads.

I am very sorry.