What is “ACH-ELECTRONIC FUNDS TRANSFER” e-mail spam
ACH-Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) email spam is a type of scam that targets the Automated Clearing House (ACH) network, which is responsible for processing electronic fund transfers in the United States. These scams typically involve phishing emails that appear to be from a legitimate source, such as a bank or financial institution, and contain malicious links or attachments. When a victim clicks on the link or opens the attachment, their computer may become infected with malware, which can lead to unauthorized access to their bank account and the theft of funds.
Spam campaigns can infect computers through various methods, including deceptive emails, rogue online pop-up ads, search engine poisoning techniques, and misspelled domains. In many cases, the emails contain malicious attachments or links that, when opened or clicked, install malware on the victim’s computer. This malware can then be used to steal sensitive information, such as login credentials for online banking or email accounts, and facilitate further attacks, such as identity theft or financial fraud.
Risks of interacting with “ACH-ELECTRONIC FUNDS TRANSFER” e-mail spam
Interacting with an ACH-Electronic Funds Transfer email scam can lead to several risks, including:
Loss of sensitive private information: Scammers can use the malware to steal personal and financial information, such as bank account numbers, passwords, and Social Security numbers.
Monetary loss: Victims may lose money directly from their bank accounts or through unauthorized transactions made using their stolen information.
Identity theft: Scammers can use the stolen information to commit identity theft, opening new accounts or taking out loans in the victim’s name.
Damage to the computer: Malware infections can cause significant damage to the victim’s computer, potentially leading to data loss or system crashes.
- Download Anti-Spam and Anti-Malware Tools
- Mark unwanted e-mail messages as Spam
- Delete Spam letters
- Unsubscribe from e-mail campaigns
- Change your e-mail address and forward it
- Final tips
1. Download Anti-Spam Tool
There are special programs designed to protect yourself against various threats arriving at e-mail. Third-party software providing advanced anti-spam algorithms and filtering tools will be good and more reliable protection in addition to the standard capabilities of many e-mail services. One of the world leaders in anti-spam protection is MailWasher Pro. It works with various desktop applications and provides a very high level of anti-spam protection and can stop “ACH-ELECTRONIC FUNDS TRANSFER” e-mail scam.
2. Download Anti-Malware Tool
To make sure there are no malware already installed on your PC you should check it with advanced antimalware. Even if you have standard anti-virus protection, scan with quality anti-malware can be helpful as it has different database and algorithms designed to find and remove viruses and bloatware wide-spread among regular users. We recommend Malwarebytes Anti-Malware:
1. Mark e-mail as Spam
If an e-mail message has not been put to the “spam” or “junk” folder itself, then users can do it themselves in just a couple of steps. Marking e-mail as spam will let your e-mail service know how to treat the unwanted sender next time. All further messages received from the spam-marked address will be located in the appropriate folder already without your help. Here is how:
Gmail:
- Open your Gmail and find a message you want to classify as “spam”.
- Select this message by clicking on the square box next to it.
- Then, click on the stop sign icon (the one with an exclamation mark) on top.
Yahoo! Mail:
- Open your Yahoo! Mail and find a message you want to classify as “spam”.
- Select this message by clicking on the square box next to it.
- Then, click on the Spam icon on top.
Microsoft Outlook:
- Open your Microsoft Outlook and find a message you want to classify as “spam”.
- Select this message by clicking on the square box next to it.
- Then, click on Junk and Block afterward.
Apple Mail:
- Open your Apple Mail and find a message you want to classify as “spam”.
- Click on it and choose the Junk Mail (trash can with “X”) icon.
2. Delete Spam letters
You can also clear your “spam” or “junk” folder from all the collected such letters. It is always good to maintain your e-mail clean and without trash that clutters even your spam folders. This is how you can wipe it:
Gmail:
- Open your Gmail and go to Spam on sidebar.
- If you want to wipe all the spam letters at once, click Delete All Spam Messages Now.
- If you want to do it selectively, click on the message you need and choose Delete forever.
Yahoo! Mail:
- Open your Yahoo! Mail and navigate to Spam on the sidebar.
- Choose e-mails you want to remove and click Delete on top.
Microsoft Outlook:
- Open your Microsoft Outlook and navigate to Junk Email on the sidebar.
- Then, click on Empty folder to clear all spam messages.
Apple Mail:
- Open your Apple Mail and navigate to Spam on the sidebar.
- Choose e-mails you want to remove and click the Trash can icon on top.
3. Unsubscribe from e-mail campaigns
Many websites offer users to enter their e-mail address in exchange for exclusive content notifications, and tons of other marketing stuff. Over some time, regular users can subscribe to multiple resources that bombard your inbox and spam folder with continuous messages. This can be stopped by unsubscribing to them. Many messages, if opened, have a small gray hyperlink or button “Unsubscribe”. Clicking on it should unsubscribe you from letters you have been receiving for some time. Note that some intentionally malicious letters may use fake “Unsubscribe” buttons to deceive users into downloading malware or visiting suspicious pages. Therefore, remember to always stay on alert!
You can also do the following to unsubscribe to multiple newsletters in Gmail at once:
- Open your Gmail and type Unsubscribe into the search box on top.
- Then, click on the Show search options icon on the right end of the search box.
- Click on Create filter and select checkboxes next to Delete it and Apply filter to matching conversations.
- After selecting, finish by clicking on Create filter.
This will lead to all previously subscribed messages evaporating from your flood list in seconds. No more letters of such will appear in your Inbox or other folders again.
4. Change your e-mail address and forward it
It is sometimes hard to get rid of all spam in case of an e-mail breach. Receiving unreasonably high numbers of spam could mean your e-mail was leaked to large masses of spamming campaigns grateful to use it. Victims of this can quite easily avoid it by creating a new e-mail address and forwarding incoming e-mails from their old address. Don’t worry, this will not redirect abnormal streams of spam to this new address, but only normal messages you received on your behalf. It is also worth notifying people you had close contact with that you changed your e-mail address, so they do not get scared after receiving a message from an unknown address.
- First, you should begin with creating a new account for the e-mail service you use (Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, or Apple Mail).
- Then, log back into your old account, go to Settings and Add a forwarding address. In Gmail, these settings can be found in the Forwarding POP/IMAP tab. Something similar should be in other services as well.
- Enter the newly created e-mail address and click Next > Proceed > OK.
- You will then receive a verification message in that newly created address. Make sure you click on it.
If you also want to forward a copy of already existing e-mails, do the following:
- Go back to the settings page for the Gmail account you want to forward messages from, and refresh your browser.
- Navigate to Forwarding and POP/IMAP and select Forward a copy of incoming mail to.
- Choose what you want to happen with the Gmail copy of your emails. It is recommended to choose Keep Gmail’s copy in the Inbox. Click Save changes at the end.
All done and dusted! Now, all new messages tied to the previous e-mail will be sent to your new address.
Final tips
There is always a good practice to have personal and business e-mail accounts separately. If you are active on forums, Q&A sites, participate in link building you will probably need another account for that. Major e-mail services and applications like Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, Apple Mail and Outlook already have strong built-in anti-spam technologies, however, we recommend special software like MailWasher Pro to fight spam campaigns like “ACH-ELECTRONIC FUNDS TRANSFER”.