550 5.1.1 User unknown - phishing or just a typo?

Hey there!

So, I sent an email to a bank out of state because they needed me to answer some standard questions about a transaction hitting my account.

They got back to me with the questions—nothing weird, just stuff you could probably find on the company's public website anyway—but when I tried to send my replies three days later, Gmail bounced it right back at me with this:

Address not found
Your message could not be delivered to unknown address xxxxx because the address can't be found or doesn't accept email.

Here’s the breakdown:
Final-Recipient : unknown
unknown
unknown
Remote-MTA: dns; unknown(196.200.90.154, the server for the domain xxxxx)
Diagnostic-Code: smtp; 550 5.1.1 User unknown

I'm low-key panicking now because a friend told me this might be a phishing scam. But here's the thing: there are several different email addresses listed on their actual website, and I can't send anything to ANY of them. I keep getting this exact same error.

What's going on? Is their server just totally dead, or am I actually being targeted by a scam? 😲

🤷

Thanks!

Sarah King25 said:Hey there!

So, I sent an email to a bank out of state because I had to answer some standard questions regarding a transaction hitting my account.

They got back to me with the questions—nothing weird, stuff you could probably find on any small business website if you looked hard enough—and after three days, I went to send my replies. Instead, I just got this bounce-back message from Gmail:

Address not found
Your message was not delivered to the address unknown because the address cannot be found or cannot receive email.

Details:
Final-Recipient: unknown; unknown
Action: failed status
Status: 5.1.1
Remote-MTA: dns; unknown(196.200.90.154, the server for the domain xxxxx)
Diagnostic-Code: smtp; 550 5.1.1 User unknown

I'm low-key panicking now because a friend suggested this might be a phishing attempt. But then again, there are a few different email addresses listed on their official site, and I can't successfully send an email to any of them. I keep getting this exact same error.

What's actually happening here? Is it possible their server just crashed, or am I looking at a legit phishing scam? 😲

🤷

Thanks!

It could be anything. Nobody here can tell you exactly what happened because none of us have a crystal ball.

It's like calling a mechanic and saying, "Hey, my car is acting up, what's wrong with it?"
It could be a dozen different things, but without more info, we're just guessing.

Maybe try hitting up your bank from a different computer just to see if it's still acting wonky, but honestly, I read somewhere that banks will never actually email you stuff asking for info or trying to get you to activate anything through a link.

Since that bank is based out in Mali, I’m having some serious doubts about whether this whole thing is even legit.
Write down those things you swapped out with xxx, otherwise we can't really do much to help you.

Bryan Palmer9 said:Try using a different computer to contact the bank and see if it works. But honestly, I read somewhere that banks will never send you stuff via email asking you to fill out forms or activate anything.

Look, they weren't even asking me to fill out or activate anything. They just wanted me to summarize my payment info so they could wire the money to my account—info that’s already sitting right there publicly on my website.

ironcyclist58 said:Since this supposed bank is based in Mali, I'm definitely skeptical about whether this is actually legit.
List the things you replaced with xxx, otherwise we can't really help you much.

Here is the email address used for the initial contact:

Final-Recipient: rfc822; attijariwafa.bim.bank@instruction.com
Action: failed
Status: 5.0.0
Remote-MTA: dns; mx00.mail.com. (74.208.5.20, the server for the domain instruction.com.)
Diagnostic-Code: smtp; 550 Requested action not taken: mailbox unavailable

Btw, thanks everyone 🙏

In the meantime, I emailed the main bank in Morocco to see if they can figure out what's going on since this was just a branch, so now I'm just waiting. 🕺

ironcyclist58 said:Since we're talking about a bank supposedly based in Mali, I’m having some serious doubts about whether this is even legit.
Look, you need to actually write out the stuff you replaced with xxx, otherwise we can't really help you.

In the meantime, I stumbled upon THIS

I plugged in my email and got these results, but honestly? I have no clue what to make of them because I don't even know how to read this data. 😬

Sarah King25 said:Actually, they weren't even asking me to complete any tasks or activate anything; they just wanted me to summarize my payment details so they could wire the money over, even though all that information is already publicly available on my website.

It’s a total scam.

If you happen to work in translation or freelance interpreting, you really ought to take a look at this

http://www.translator-scammers.com/t...mers-notes.htm

http://www.translator-scammers.com/t...-info.htm#scam

http://www.translator-scammers.com/t...ry.htm#cv_list

The way these groups operate is that they grab a translator's CV, then they pose as someone looking for translation work, but they actually just tweak that CV to hunt for jobs themselves—jobs they either never actually create or they simply pass directly to the original translator without ever ensuring they get paid.

And if you see an email domain like instruction.com, it's basically just a free address that anyone can set up through https://www.mail.com/email/ so you should probably check out the list of domains under the profession section here

I suspect this same kind of scheme might be used for other types of jobs too—so if you've finished some work and are waiting on a paycheck, I guess you should just forget about it. I'd suggest not giving them any personal info or sending them anything at all.