Bank of America gets punked online

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Bank of America gets punked online- MSN Money

A phony Google+ site that appeared to belong to the bank has been taken down, creating embarrassment for the bank and Google.


Pranksters created a fake website for the bank on the Google+ social network this month, posting unflattering pictures of executives and snarky status updates.

The site appeared to be legitimate, with the bank's logo and contact information. But a description that read "We took your bailout money and your mortgage rates are going up" and updates such as "Big company party in foreclosed house #2340087 tonight!" were dead giveaways that the bank had been punked.

The site is down now, but you can see an archived image here.

The pranksters introduced the bank by writing: "We are committed to making as much money as possible from usury, coercion, bribery, insider trading, extortion and debit card fees as possible." That last part referred to the $5 monthly debit-card fee that Bank of America was considering, but then canceled amid a public uproar.

The page was created earlier this month, as soon as Google (GOOG +0.58%) opened up the business pages on its Google+ network. Several companies have created wonderful pages on the site, including Toyota (TM -0.58%) and Macy's (M +1.28%). You can see Pepsi's (PEP +2.71%) Google+ page here.

The fake Bank of America page is an embarrassment for the bank and for Google, which doesn't appear to verify these pages as the real thing. The attackers seem to have tricked Google into giving them a business page under the bank's name, notes the Naked Security blog.

Some marketing professionals are saying that the bank has been "brandjacked" -- an attack that is getting easier with all the ways companies can connect with customers online.

"It was exactly this kind of parody that Google+ was hoping to avoid by only allowing real names to be used when it launched, and the high-profile nature of this example suggests a return to forced authenticity," writes Time magazine's Graeme McMillan. "Way to ruin it for everyone again, Bank of America."
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