The more at ease you are on the Internet, the easier it is to let your guard down, as I discovered the other day. I received an e-mail with the subject marked “Billing Notice.” Without thinking, I opened it immediately. The e-mail from AOL and said that they were experiencing a problem with charging the monthly fee and suspected my card was about to expire. In fact, the card does expire this month.
They asked me to click on a link update my information. I was about to do that when my daughter noted that AOL notices usually look different. AOL Customer Service confirmed this was a scam. The scammers only use an e-mail address for about 10 minutes to collect card numbers quickly before shutting it down and starting over again. A few get prosecuted, but mostly you have to be vigilante. You can help by reporting suspicious AOL billing e-mails to tosreports@aol.com.