Swindlers never sleep

I just got an e-mail purporting to come from Citigroup -- it has a Citigroup address -- inviting me to ... well, take a look:

Dear Citibank Customer,

As you may already know, by voting down the proposed $700 billion financial bailout package - and causing a spectacular stock market rout - a majority of members in the House of Representatives made a clear statement that they didn't want to put taxpayers on the hook for the failures of financial institutions.

But there's a catch: taxpayers are already on the hook for the failures of financial institutions, and it's possible that the bill will actually be larger without bailout legislation than with it. That's because the regulators who mind the financial industry - the Federal Reserve, Treasury and FDIC - will keep doing what they've been doing: stepping in to prevent the chaotic failure of banks and other large financial institutions. This means continuing to put hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars at risk, but in a way that adheres to no clear plan of action and doesn't require members of Congress to explicitly approve their actions.

Because we value you as our customer and share your concerns about your financial assets, we now offer you the option to have your account moved on our servers abroad. This will prevent any financial loss from your account in case the U.S. financial system collapses. This option is free of charge and you will still have easy and secure access your money in the same way as before.

Please click here and follow the instructions to secure your financial assets by moving your account to our servers located abroad in countries that do not have any connections, strong or weak, to the American financial system.

Also, to better protect you against phishing attacks and prevent identity theft, we will manually verify the provided information. Before filling the form, please have ready a scanned copy of your ID or driving license and a copy of your Citi Card to prove that you are the true owner of the account.

After successfully completing the required steps, your account will be moved on our new servers located abroad. You won't feel any negative impact of account movement and you won't have any problems accessing your money from anywhere in the world.

Sincerely,

Citigroup Financial Security Specialists

Do you get this? Crooks pretending to be Citibank officials are taking advantage of people's fear that they'll lose their money, and trying to convince them to hand over account information. The most vulnerable, ignorant people -- the most frightened -- will be the ones who fall for this, and who will find themselves penniless no matter what happens in Washington or with the markets.