Capital One customers who have received email or SMS text messages like the one below are asked to delete them. This is because the fake emails, which claims Capital One is carrying out maintenance work and they need to verify the recipients' accounts to prevent them from being deactivated or suspended, are phishing scams. And, are being sent by cybercriminals to frighten and trick potential victims into clicking on the links in them, which go to phishing websites that steal Capital One online account credentials.
The "Capital One Account General Maintenance" Phishing Scam
From: One <infos@NS2.BLUEHOST.COM>
Date: November 12, 2017 at 10:08:04 PM EST
Subject: [Notification]
verification...
Dear Customer,
We are letting you know that due to an ongoing General system maintenance in our Online Banking Database its mandatory for you to Verify Your Capitale One Account information in order to enjoy our online banking service. We request that you complete this quick Verification process. If this is not done as urgent as possible your account might be deactivated at once.
Online Verification
Note: Failing to update your Capital One® Account® will result to permanent suspension of your account to avoid any fraudulent charges to your account. Please do not reply to this message
Capital One customers who have received messages claiming that they need to do some activity on their accounts, such always go directly to https://www.capitalone.com/ and sign into their accounts. Once they have signed in, they will be notified of security updates, notifications and other important notifications. So, there is no need to click on a link in an email message, which may go to phishing or malicious website.
Also, Capital One customers who have already been tricked by the phishing messages, are asked to change their passwords and contact Capital One immediately, before their accounts are hijacked and used fraudulently by cybercriminals.