How to spot scams like "Bank Of America - Payment Processed Successfully"

What kind of scam is "Bank Of America - Payment Processed Successfully"?

Our analysis of the email has shown that it is a fake notification from a bank regarding a processed payment. It is used to extract personal information from recipients. Such emails are classified as phishing emails. Recipients should ignore emails of this type to avoid potential risks.

More about the "Bank Of America - Payment Processed Successfully" scam email

The phishing email impersonates Bank of America and falsely claims that a payment has been processed successfully from the recipient's ADV PLUS BANKING account. It provides fake transaction details, including an amount of $169.00 and a note that no fee was charged.

The email states that the transaction will appear in the account by the next business day and urges the recipient to click on a secured link ("Review account" button) if they did not authorize the payment. The email aims to deceive recipients into opening a fake website and disclosing login credentials.

During our inspection, the website provided in this email was down. However, it was likely supposed to be a fake Bank of America login site. Such websites are usually used to extract information, allowing scammers to access banking accounts. With this access, fraudsters can make fraudulent transactions, steal money, or engage in other malicious activities.

Moreover, scammers often try to gain access to other accounts (e.g., social media, gaming, or email accounts) with stolen credentials as well. If they succeed, they can do more harm (e.g., steal identities, send fraudulent messages, or send malware to others). Either way, it is important to ignore such emails.

Threat Summary:

Name	Bank Of America - Payment Processed Successfully Email Scam
Threat Type	Phishing, Scam, Social Engineering, Fraud
Fake Claim	A payment has been processed from the recipient's account
Disguise	Message from Bank of America
Symptoms	Unauthorized online purchases, changed online account passwords, identity theft, illegal access of the computer.
Distribution methods	Deceptive emails, rogue online pop-up ads, search engine poisoning techniques, misspelled domains.
Damage	Loss of sensitive private information, monetary loss, identity theft.
Malware Removal (Windows)	To eliminate possible malware infections, scan your computer with legitimate antivirus software. Our security researchers recommend using Combo Cleaner. ▼ Download Combo Cleaner To use full-featured product, you have to purchase a license for Combo Cleaner. 7 days free trial available. Combo Cleaner is owned and operated by Rcs Lt, the parent company of PCRisk.com read more.

Similar scam emails in general

Typically, phishing emails are designed to trick recipients into revealing sensitive information by impersonating legitimate organizations, companies, or other entities. They often appear important and urgent, encouraging recipients to click provided links or open attached files. These emails can lead to credential theft, financial fraud, or even computer infections.

Some examples of phishing emails are "Mailbox Problem Identified", "Update Your Domain Name System Security (DNSS)", and "Hosting Space Limit Notification".

How do spam campaigns infect computers?

When cybercriminals attempt to trick users into infecting computers via email, they include malicious attachments or deceptive links in their messages. Some files can cause infections immediately upon opening, while others require additional actions, such as enabling macros in compromised documents.

Commonly used file types include PDFs, Microsoft Office documents, script files, archives, ISO images, and executables. Malicious links in emails can trigger automatic downloads or direct users to fraudulent websites designed to manipulate them into installing malware manually.

How to avoid installation of malware?

Exercise caution with unexpected or irrelevant emails from unknown senders, particularly those containing links or attachments. Refrain from interacting with ads, pop-ups, buttons, or links on untrustworthy websites, and download software only from official sources or reputable app stores.

To enhance security, deny notification requests from suspicious sites, keep your operating system and applications up to date, and conduct regular scans using a trusted security tool. If you have already opened malicious attachments, we recommend running a scan with Combo Cleaner Antivirus for Windows to automatically eliminate infiltrated malware.

Appearance of "Bank Of America - Payment Processed Successfully" scam email (GIF):

Text presented in the "Bank Of America - Payment Processed Successfully" email letter:

Subject: You have a message

Bank of America.

Your payment has been processed successfully

On ********, you made a payment from your ADV PLUS BANKING account.
 
Transaction type     ELECTRONIC PAYMENT
Amount     $169.00
Transaction paid?     YES
Fee     $0.00
 
This transaction will appear on your account in the next business day. If this transaction wasn't made by you, kindly tap on the secured link below to secure and automatically file a dispute.
Review account
How to avoid transactions being returned:

Check your accounts daily in the mobile app or Online Banking. Get the app now

Set up automatic daily balance and transaction alerts delivered to your phone or email. Set alerts

Learn about overdraft services or view your Deposit Agreement

Get notified if your account balance is trending toward $0. Turn on Balance Watch in the mobile app (not available for Small Business accounts).

We'll never share your information with any third party organization, any data shared with us is confidential and well protected.
Please don't reply to this automatically generated service email.
Privacy Notice     Equal Housing Lender
Bank of America, N.A. Member FDIC
© 2025 Bank of America Corporation

Instant automatic malware removal: Manual threat removal might be a lengthy and complicated process that requires advanced IT skills. Combo Cleaner is a professional automatic malware removal tool that is recommended to get rid of malware. Download it by clicking the button below:
▼ DOWNLOAD Combo Cleaner By downloading any software listed on this website you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. To use full-featured product, you have to purchase a license for Combo Cleaner. 7 days free trial available. Combo Cleaner is owned and operated by Rcs Lt, the parent company of PCRisk.com read more.

Quick menu:

• What is Bank Of America - Payment Processed Successfully phishing email?
• Types of malicious emails.
• How to spot a malicious email?
• What to do if you fell for an email scam?

Types of malicious emails:

Phishing Emails

Most commonly, cybercriminals use deceptive emails to trick Internet users into giving away their sensitive private information, for example, login information for various online services, email accounts, or online banking information.

Such attacks are called phishing. In a phishing attack, cybercriminals usually send an email message with some popular service logo (for example, Microsoft, DHL, Amazon, Netflix), create urgency (wrong shipping address, expired password, etc.), and place a link which they hope their potential victims will click on.

After clicking the link presented in such email message, victims are redirected to a fake website that looks identical or extremely similar to the original one. Victims are then asked to enter their password, credit card details, or some other information that gets stolen by cybercriminals.

Emails with Malicious Attachments

Another popular attack vector is email spam with malicious attachments that infect users' computers with malware. Malicious attachments usually carry trojans that are capable of stealing passwords, banking information, and other sensitive information.

In such attacks, cybercriminals' main goal is to trick their potential victims into opening an infected email attachment. To achieve this goal, email messages usually talk about recently received invoices, faxes, or voice messages.

If a potential victim falls for the lure and opens the attachment, their computers get infected, and cybercriminals can collect a lot of sensitive information.

While it's a more complicated method to steal personal information (spam filters and antivirus programs usually detect such attempts), if successful, cybercriminals can get a much wider array of data and can collect information for a long period of time.

Sextortion Emails

This is a type of phishing. In this case, users receive an email claiming that a cybercriminal could access the webcam of the potential victim and has a video recording of one's masturbation.

To get rid of the video, victims are asked to pay a ransom (usually using Bitcoin or another cryptocurrency). Nevertheless, all of these claims are false - users who receive such emails should ignore and delete them.

How to spot a malicious email?

While cyber criminals try to make their lure emails look trustworthy, here are some things that you should look for when trying to spot a phishing email:

• Check the sender's ("from") email address: Hover your mouse over the "from" address and check if it's legitimate. For example, if you received an email from Microsoft, be sure to check if the email address is @microsoft.com and not something suspicious like @m1crosoft.com, @microsfot.com, @account-security-noreply.com, etc.
• Check for generic greetings: If the greeting in the email is "Dear user", "Dear @youremail.com", "Dear valued customer", this should raise suspiciousness. Most commonly, companies call you by your name. Lack of this information could signal a phishing attempt.
• Check the links in the email: Hover your mouse over the link presented in the email, if the link that appears seems suspicious, don't click it. For example, if you received an email from Microsoft and the link in the email shows that it will go to firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0... you shouldn't trust it. It's best not to click any links in the emails but to visit the company website that sent you the email in the first place.
• Don't blindly trust email attachments: Most commonly, legitimate companies will ask you to log in to their website and to view any documents there; if you received an email with an attachment, it's a good idea to scan it with an antivirus application. Infected email attachments are a common attack vector used by cybercriminals.

To minimise the risk of opening phishing and malicious emails we recommend using Combo Cleaner Antivirus for Windows. 

Example of a spam email:

What to do if you fell for an email scam?

• If you clicked on a link in a phishing email and entered your password - be sure to change your password as soon as possible. Usually, cybercriminals collect stolen credentials and then sell them to other groups that use them for malicious purposes. If you change your password in a timely manner, there's a chance that criminals won't have enough time to do any damage.
• If you entered your credit card information - contact your bank as soon as possible and explain the situation. There's a good chance that you will need to cancel your compromised credit card and get a new one.
• If you see any signs of identity theft - you should immediately contact the Federal Trade Commission. This institution will collect information about your situation and create a personal recovery plan.
• If you opened a malicious attachment - your computer is probably infected, you should scan it with a reputable antivirus application. For this purpose, we recommend using Combo Cleaner Antivirus for Windows.
• Help other Internet users - report phishing emails to Anti-Phishing Working Group, FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, National Fraud Information Center and U.S. Department of Justice.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Why did I receive this email?

Usually, scammers send identical emails to all recipients. These messages tend to be vague and impersonal, often missing details like names.

I have provided my personal information when tricked by this email, what should I do?

If scammers have extracted login credentials, promptly change compromised passwords. If you cannot access the account, contact their support team for assistance.

I have downloaded and opened a malicious file attached to an email, is my computer infected?

Executable files can infect a system immediately upon opening, while documents may require additional actions, like enabling macros, before the malware activates. Thus, whether your computer is infected depends on the file type you opened.

I have read the email but did not open the attachment, is my computer infected?

Opening an email is typically safe. Malware cannot be deployed without links or files being opened in deceptive emails.

Will Combo Cleaner remove malware infections that were present in email attachment?

Combo Cleaner effectively detects and removes most known malware, but more advanced threats can be deeply hidden within the system. A thorough system scan is required to detect and eliminate these hidden infections.

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