Yesterday I received this e-mail from HSBC.

“Dear Customer,

At HSBC, it has been our constant effort to provide Internet Banking users such as yourself with superior service, supported by the latest standards of online security. As a part of this endeavour, we constantly harness advances in technology to raise online banking security to higher levels.

We are happy to introduce one of the latest technological innovations in this area – the Security Device.

The Security Device is a simple-to-use and easy-to-carry device making online security at online@hsbc, our Internet Banking service, even more powerful. You will receive your personal Security Device within the next few weeks along with a comprehensive user guide at your address we have on our records…”

The From field in the e-mail header looks genuine. But genuinity is a hard thing to find on the Internet. I guess I need to:

1. Wait for the Security Device to be delivered
2. Wait till my next visit to Bangalore

till I can verify this for myself. If you happen to be one of the recipients of the Security Device, I would be happy to hear from you. What’s more, I would be happier if you could send across a write-up on the Security Device.

Note:

Did you know that “Genuinity” is a proper word in the English language. Your spell-checker could cough vehemently on this word, but take a look at this article – Is Genuinity really a word?

“Genuinity” simply means “Genuineness.”