Officials are warning Lee County residents of an e-mail scam designed to steal bank account information.
It does not matter who you are or what your email address is, you can receive an email that looks like this:

“Notification

“In order to protect your account from unauthorized access, we have set a limit of 3 unsuccessful attempts. Unfortunately, you have just reached that critical number of attempts, so your access to Online Banking has been locked for security purposes.

“Please download and complete restore form attached to this email and open it in a web browser. We appreciate your understanding as we work to ensure account safety.

“Attached to this email are instructions to click on a link which will allegedly restore your bank account. The problem is no bank or financial institution ever sent the email; it was sent by a scammer phishing for your personal information.”

Officials warn that recipients should not fill out the attached form, which asks for full name, credit/debit card number, expiration date, card verification number, and PIN number.

If you receive an email from anyone asking for any of your personal information stop and check it out before you click on anything, officials said. If it claims to be from a financial institution, look their number up in the phone book and call them to determine the authenticity of the email or request. This goes for any business or government entity, before responding to the email or clicking on any links call the business or government entity first. If you are not sure where to look or what to do call the Lee County Sheriff’s Office Fraud Line were investigators are ready to help, 239-477-1242

Source: CASE, Communities Against Senior Exploitation