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Citibank India wants credit card, bank account numbers to stop marketing emails

online.citibank.co.in

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Re: Citibank India wants credit card, bank account numbers to stop marketing emails

#11

Post by jessaustin »

dec0dedab0de wrote: post #7

I don't understand the issue, from the banks perspective those are basically your username. It's not like they need to trick you into giving them a number they issued you. EDIT: The only problem I can think of is that it may encourage users to be loose with their info, and therefore be more susceptible to phishing attacks.

The typical customer got to the linked page by clicking a link in an email. After all, the use case is the customer not wanting the damned marketing spam. A financial institution should not be training its customers to enter account details into pages they got emailed to them.

I'm sure some customers would consider themselves sophisticated enough to "know" this is a "real" Citi page, but if they were actually sophisticated they wouldn't touch this with a ten-foot pole.

Re: Citibank India wants credit card, bank account numbers to stop marketing emails

#12

Post by manas2004 »

nathancahill wrote: post #4
[deleted] wrote: post #2

[deleted]

I don't think that it's something you know, (the last 4 of your credit card or social security are used for that). My guess is that they have different email campaigns tied to your bank account, credit card or investment account, etc. This is probably the only way to make sure you don't get any emails from that account.

But they want my Credit Card + Bank Account No + Cellphone no. This is a link that was in the email. My first instinct was that this was a phishing email. Then when the link appeared genuine, I guessed its their way to discourage me from unsubscribing.

Re: Citibank India wants credit card, bank account numbers to stop marketing emails

#13

Post by dec0dedab0de »

jessaustin wrote: post #11
dec0dedab0de wrote: post #7

I don't understand the issue, from the banks perspective those are basically your username. It's not like they need to trick you into giving them a number they issued you. EDIT: The only problem I can think of is that it may encourage users to be loose with their info, and therefore be more susceptible to phishing attacks.

The typical customer got to the linked page by clicking a link in an email. After all, the use case is the customer not wanting the damned marketing spam. A financial institution should not be training its customers to enter account details into pages they got emailed to them. I'm sure some customers would consider themselves sophisticated enough to "know" this is a "real" Citi page, but if they were actually sophist…

Sorry, my edit must have came in while you were typing this.

Re: Citibank India wants credit card, bank account numbers to stop marketing emails

#14

Post by jessaustin »

dec0dedab0de wrote: post #13
jessaustin wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The typical customer got to the linked page by clicking a link in an email. After all, the use case is the customer not wanting the damned marketing spam. A financial institution should not be training its customers to enter account details into pages they got emailed to them. I'm sure some customers would consider themselves sophisticated enough to "know" this is a "real" Citi page, but if they were actually sophist…

Sorry, my edit must have came in while you were typing this.

No worries! My typing speed varies. I'd suggest an additional edit, however. "The only problem" is a big enough problem to vitiate any benefit Citi were attempting to provide here. I suspect this page will disappear as soon as the home office sees it.

Re: Citibank India wants credit card, bank account numbers to stop marketing emails

#16

Post by raverbashing »

jessaustin wrote: post #8
[deleted] wrote: post #2

[deleted]

You "fail to see the problem" with a financial institution encouraging insecure handling of CC and acct details? I hope that you don't work for a bank, but somehow I suspect you do. EDIT: I'll take your deletion as confirmation that you do work for a bank.

Yes, banks and "security procedures" are about the bare minimum security and CYA

And by "bare minimum security" usually means ensuring there's a padlock on a 3 foot tall gate

Re: Citibank India wants credit card, bank account numbers to stop marketing emails

#17

Post by sp332 »

dec0dedab0de wrote: post #7

I don't understand the issue, from the banks perspective those are basically your username. It's not like they need to trick you into giving them a number they issued you. EDIT: The only problem I can think of is that it may encourage users to be loose with their info, and therefore be more susceptible to phishing attacks.

What if a customer put in the wrong email address, and the person getting the marketing emails doesn't have any account number with the bank?

Re: Citibank India wants credit card, bank account numbers to stop marketing emails

#18

Post by mtkd »

Getting increasingly harder to unsubscribe.

- Some big vendors (Dell, HP?) don't seem to use unified opt-out lists or they use agencies that don't share unsubscribes

- Unsub pages with complicated unsub process (double-negative questions, button size tricks e.g. 'submit' is small and 'continue' is large)

- Unsub pages requiring input of your email address on a form without the email address pre-populated (so you have to go back and lookup which address received the email)

- 2 stage unsub process, so you think you've submitted but it's really a page saying 'are you sure?' in small text with small submit

A single-click / no interaction unsubscribe is the exception now.

Re: Citibank India wants credit card, bank account numbers to stop marketing emails

#19

Post by davideous »

This is illegal in the United States under the CAN-SPAM law

From: http://www.business.ftc.gov/documents/bus61-can-spam-act-com...

"You can’t charge a fee, require the recipient to give you any personally identifying information beyond an email address, or make the recipient take any step other than sending a reply email or visiting a single page on an Internet website as a condition for honoring an opt-out request"

(My company provides email delivery software and consulting.)

[edit for typo]

Re: Citibank India wants credit card, bank account numbers to stop marketing emails

#20

Post by VLM »

manas2004 wrote: post #12
nathancahill wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think that it's something you know, (the last 4 of your credit card or social security are used for that). My guess is that they have different email campaigns tied to your bank account, credit card or investment account, etc. This is probably the only way to make sure you don't get any emails from that account.

But they want my Credit Card + Bank Account No + Cellphone no. This is a link that was in the email. My first instinct was that this was a phishing email. Then when the link appeared genuine, I guessed its their way to discourage me from unsubscribing.

"I guessed its their way to discourage me from unsubscribing."

This is likely to be a new internet monetization scheme... Go ahead, mark this as spam, you'll never get another water utility bill again. To save money on your water bill, we send you these marketing messages every day.

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