Just so you all know, first off this is NOT an April Fool's joke.

Earlier today I received a fraudulent email purporting itself to be from my bank, telling me that my balance had gone below a certain amount. It had the usual scam artist BS in it such as a link in the email itself to "view account activity" and other such shit like that, but this one had a major difference that you all need to know about.

The greeting had my real first name in it.

In all my years dealing with scam emails like this I have never one time seen a scam email that addressed me by name. Thankfully they had listed the wrong last four account number digits so they obviously don't have that information, but that they know my real first name and have used it to lend an air of legitimacy to their otherwise obvious scam is scary as hell.

Another thing that bothers me here is that whomever did this knows that I get paid on or around the 3rd of each month, and that my account balance usually falls below $25.00 the same day because most of the money goes right to my rent. If it weren't for the fact that I had extra money saved up already due to a higher rent amount than my first check can even cover, it might have fooled me were it not for the direct link in the body of the email.

I don't know if this is connected or not, but I do know that someone in Brazil hacked into my old Yahoo email account a few weeks ago, and that a similar thing happened to my Skype account shortly thereafter, so it could be that this is all connected somehow. Beyond that, though, I don't know. Just remember that when someone is dedicated to stealing your money, and the only way they can do it is to get your personal information, they're going to do anything and everything they can to convince you that they're legit. And with as realistic an email as the one I got today landing in my inbox on April 1st, I can only imagine the havoc that such motherfuckers will be able to wreak.