For more info on CitiGroup’s performance in 2008 and prospects for the future click HERE.
For the latest Wordout on Citibank Risks, including the November bailout, click HERE.
Citibank May Be Lost In Your Spam Folder
Here’s a great example of a huge corporation either being stupid, or else inadvertently setting their customers up for some easy harvesting. Citibank, arguably one of the largest financial institutions on the planet, has sent out emails to its customers with details on how to make sure they don’t miss any Citibank emails due to “false-positives” in their anti-spam filters. Here’s the main gist of that email, from the post over at the RISKS-LIST:
“Dear Rich B. Astaird,
As a current Citi Cardmember, you know your security is our top
priority. But we also want to make sure you receive emails containing
important information from us.Don’t let Citi messages be filtered out by your e-mail provider – add
our “from addresses” to your address book.Follow these 3 simple steps:
1. Open your e-mail address book
2. Add a contact or “add new contact”
3. Enter citicards@info.citibank.com and click Save”
They’re Certainly Lost In Customer Service
“Rich” then does some quick (for him) analysis, revealing the email’s originating IP address has a reputation for spam-like behavior, and is blacklisted on at least 2 spam monitoring services. At the “risk” of aggravating the great Rich B Astaird, I will quote him further for the readers here at Wordout, because he says it so well:
“Let’s see, if I were Citibank, and wanted to stop my mail from getting flagged as spam, would I (a) stop outsourcing my email to a company with a reputation for spamming, or (b) send vaguely-worded email to my customers in the hope that it will convince them to whitelist my return address?
The worst-case RISK is that people who use a provider where such instructions actually work will follow them, and then every phishing email trying to steal their Citibank credentials will sail right through.
Way to go, Citibank!”
Or Maybe They’re Taking The Scenic Route?
I’m thinking, that just maybe they’re thinking… well, I don’t know. After all, it must be getting hard on them, with all those looming foreclosures they helped to create over the past 5 years. It reminds me of the recent merger FNB Southeast went through here in North Carolina. Immediately after the merger, literally everyone I know who used that bank lost money from their accounts. Some of us were lucky enough to have our cash returned to us in a few days or weeks. Some of us still can’t get our money back (“I’m sorry, sir, that account doesn’t exist. How else may we help you?“). Even if all the cash was returned, Newbridge Bank would have made a mint from “technical” problems relating to the new “computer programs”. Each day their customers’ cash was “lost”, that cash did, in fact, exist, and was working somewhere else in the bank’s name, at the least, earning millions in interest.
My great-grandfather, A.G. Roberts said it best: “Banks are there to take your money. And when they have your money, they act like they own your soul. Don’t put your money in a bank. Better to put it in the dirt.”
I am Jon, and I’m thinking about putting it in the dirt.
.
.Many thanks to the author at the RISKS-LIST, whose name almost certainly isn’t Rich.
For info about the mortgage meltdown, the credit crisis, the financial fiasco, CLICK HERE.
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