I use Verizon for phone and DSL and have for years. I have been very satisfied with them, but I recently got an email from them that bothers me.
Dear Verizon.com customer,
Thank you for taking the time to update security components of your verizon online account. Because security is a top priority at Verizon, we’ll need you to validate your email address at this time. To do this for your Online Account with User ID ######, you will need the following three digit code:###
Follow this link to input the above three digit code and your User ID and Password: Click Here (link removed)
I am almost certain that this email came from Verizon because I had logged into my account to pay my bill and they wanted to update my security information and then let me know that this email would be coming.
Even though I believe this email to be legitimate it bothers me for several reasons:
- Even though I am 99.9% certain that this email came from Verizon there is still that 0.1%. I couldn’t find anywhere on their site where I could go to this page from a link, before or after I logged in.
- They told me that this email would be coming, but it took several days to actually arrive.
- Most every company that I deal with on the web tells me to never click on a link in an email asking for my personal information.
- What happened to all of the previous communication from Verizon where they told me that they would NEVER ask for my password in an email? I guess they were just kidding.
It seems to me that even if this is a legitimate email, Verizon is making their security worse by actually inviting Phishing Scams from people copying this format.