I received this email too!  I do use Mycheckfree.  Has anyone on here received the email that DOES NOT use Mycheckfree?  If that is the case, I would assume scam, almost.  However, I have not called the number, I did go on the Mycheckfree website and there is not 1 comment or 1 way to contact them via website or phone. That has me pretty pissed off to be honest.

What are we to do?

My wife got this email & forwarded it to me.  Neitehr of us are familiar with CheckFree, but I know I was online at Dell.com late night 12/01 / early morning 12/02 buying stuff.  I also remember that during the order & after the order I had trouble accessing some parts of their site. . . like trying to view statements or past payment activities.  I didn't really pay attention to the URL, I thought it was all Dell's site.  But after getting this email & reading abit about it, I'm not so sure.  
My PC hasn't been acting weird or odd so I don't think I have any kind of virus that would crash it or slow it down.  I'm actuall more concerned that I may have gotten something that will sniff my user ids or pswds or financial info. .  :(
Next steps for me I guess are to contact Dell, CheckFree, my bank & change all my passwords. . .

Below is the email I received:

From:
 BillPay Customer Service <ebillinfo@customercenter.net>

Dated 12/10/2008
We take great care to keep your personal information secure. As part of these ongoing efforts, we are notifying you that the computer you use for online bill payment may have been exposed to software that puts the security of your computer's contents at risk. This letter will help you determine if your computer is actually infected and advise you how to fix the problem and protect yourself against future risk.

The malicious software affects some but not all customers who accessed online bill payment on Tuesday, December 2, 2008. For a limited period of time, some customers were redirected from the authentic bill payment service to another site that may have installed malicious software. Your computer may be infected if all of the following are true:

   * You attempted to access online bill payment between 12:30 a.m. and 10:10 a.m. Eastern time (GMT -5) on Tuesday, December 2, 2008, and
   * You were using a computer with the Windows operating system, and
   * You reached a blank screen rather than the usual bill payment screen when you attempted to navigate to online bill payment, and
   * After reaching the blank screen, your computer's virus protection program did not tell you via pop-up or other messaging that malicious software was detected and quarantined.

If all four of the conditions above are true, your computer may be infected. We have partnered with McAfee®, the world's largest dedicated security technology company, to provide you with a complimentary copy of its VirusScan® Plus software which, when installed, will detect, block and remove any malicious software from your computer hard drive. Please contact us at 877-800-4864 for further instructions or 800-564-9184 (Option 1) for further instructions. We will also offer you both advice and free services that can help you mitigate any risk you may face as a result of this incident or other everyday exposures you may encounter.

We will never ask for your password via email or via phone.  If you ever receive an email requesting your password, do not respond and delete the email immediately.

We value your business and your trust, and we apologize for any inconvenience this incident has caused.

Thank you,

BillPay Customer Service

I also got same e-mail.

I never used "BillPay Customer Service"

Looks like spam!

Ok I received the e-mail, blocked my number and called the toll free number. I did not give the person on the other end ANY information about me.Instead I asked them how they had my most current address in which no one Had! I do not even use this address for bill paying. I pretty much laughed him off. So i searched my thoughts on how they could have gotten a hold of my address...then it hit me, I did put my address on a website to order some products on line...then canceled the whole thing out. That had to be where they got my info from..so beware when ordering anything on line.

Yes it does...Thanks.

Go LINUX (UBUNTU)!!

I am told that if you pay your Dell computer account online, it is processed through MYcheckfree which is were this number originates from. Hope this helps.

I got the e-mail too. I'm running OS X and I'm not aware of any vulnerabilities at this time from malicious sites, but it was still alarming. What got me was the fact it they had my old address. I use mycheckfree for my Macy's account, but I haven't checked it in months. I'm gonna call my family members and friends and give them a heads up.

Sam's Club also uses CheckFree and their site was compromised. I logged on to my account & the email message is legitimate even though its delivery was suspicious. I also confirmed that since I was not on their site during the specified time period my system was not involved, nonetheless I am doing full virus & rootkit, etc. scans. The Washington Post article on this verifies the hacker attack on MyCheckFree.

I, too received an alert via my email. I went on my checkfree account and NO EMAIL there regarding any alert??? Well, the number is legit and after I had a tizzy fit about them NOT sending an alert to my checkfree email so that I would believe it is legit(like ebay does) , what happened? An email POPS up there on my checkfree account side????????????....all I can say is no more checkfree account. Who needs this kind of crap?

I received the email today and called them. This seems on the level.  Dell Financial Services uses their service to process payments and I verified this email through them.  You were only at risk if the payment was made during that specific time frame, got the blank screen AND your antivirus was not up to date or nonexistant.

I also received the same email today from checkfreebillpay@customercenter.net. Fry's Electronics is another company that uses checkfree. I called them to see if they knew anything about the situation. They confirmed the email being true and that they were aware.

...usage of your account information. After digging around I discovered that Dell Computer (which uses CheckFree for its finace payments) was the culprit in giving them my bank account, address, and other personal information so that they can take the hit on check processing.

It ticks me off a great deal, since I did not authorize any information to be on anything but Dell property... WHAT GIVES, DELL?

I got this e-mail also and it seems to be on the level.  I called the number and told them I have Symantec Antivirus Enterprise and was not aware of any problems.

You might be signed up with MyCheckFree if you have a Dell Financial payment account.  They sign you up in the background... :(

I have a Check Free account.  When I logged into my account (from my bookmarks)I found a message stating that an email is going to be sent to my regular email address concerning possible activity on my account and to read it carefully and to call their customer service if any questions.  Their customer service number is the same as the email.  I think the email is legit and likely pertains to the recent security breach noted further up in the email trail.

I got this email today. Dell financial Services uses checkfree, I assume it's from them.

I got the same email.

I just called the number and a woman asked me my name, email addy and phone# - she said there was indeed a virus if you logged on between those hours.  She gave me a code for McAfee virus software, good for one year - so that I can clean up my computer.  My computer actually removed a virus yesterday when I added Windows Live CneCare.  My computer had been super slow and freezing up so I think it may be true.  I am going to check the code in a little while and will let ya'll know. TTY then.

One of the conditions that you got infected from the malicious software was that you had to have been using Windows, as follows

Your computer may be infected if all of the following are true:

   * You attempted to access online bill payment between 12:30 a.m. and 10:10 a.m. Eastern time (GMT -5) on Tuesday, December 2, 2008, and
   * You were using a computer with the Windows operating system, and
   * You reached a blank screen rather than the usual bill payment screen when you attempted to navigate to online bill payment, and
   * After reaching the blank screen, your computer's virus protection program did not tell you via pop-up or other messaging that malicious software was detected and quarantined.

Isn't it about time to switch? I've been using the FREE Ubuntu/Linux for a few years now

I just got off the phone with them. they said they were calling because someone hacked into checkfree. They asked me for my name and email address,said they are in Minnesota and it was a security breach. I called back and she said this was a legitiment call, they didn't ask for any personal information except my first and last name. I am going request a changee in my email address today. I didn't get a good feeling about it. If anybody pays a bill and it directs you to this site, I would not pay my bill online.

I also have had trouble with my computer since that fateful Tuesday - it will not boot up without trying numerous times and also keeps crashing.  I called the mycheckfree number 877-800-4864 and was given free access to McAfee AntiVirus Plus & AlertMe credit monitoring.

I received a letter from StellarOne with this same phone number in it??

What is going on?  

I know that StellarOne has has some Apache server issues the past 2-3 weeks

Herer are copies of the server error messages that were displayed.

HTTP Status 500 -

type Exception report

message

description The server encountered an internal error () that prevented it from fulfilling this request.

exception

java.lang.NullPointerException

Apache Tomcat/4.1.2


I have reported two errors ...

ERROR MESSAGE FOLLOWS ...


An error has occurred that prevents us from completing your request.

Your request cannot be processed at this time. Please try again later. We apologize for this inconvenience.

If this problem persists, please contact customer service
at phone number 888.785.5271

The following error number will help us to identify and correct the problem:
493F-3A57-45F4-EEBA-18C9-3F10

   * Error occurred at: 12/09/08 21:41:11
   * Remote Address: 69.244.238.186

They do not have 24/7 technical support since the merger ...

I have contacted the Virginia State Banking and Insurance Commission.

I sure hope they have their technical team monitoring all of this traffic..??!!

There is NO WAY that I am going to call some number out of the BLUE ...

They recommend in the letter --  McAfee and I have it FREE from Comcast ... SURE HOPE IT IS WORKING ...??!!!!!

Is this a McAfee phone number??!!!!

I got the same letter in the mail today. (two of them)  I have no idea what's going on.  I don't even use CheckFree or BillPay customer service.  This must be a scam.  Be careful...

I received the letter through the mail [USPS] with the exact same message as noted in the above message from "ehbrandis@aol.com - 11 Dec 2008:"  

The letter was in a plain white two windows envelope and dated 12/14/2008 from

BillPay Customer Service
P.O. Box 182096
Columbus, OH 46218-2096

The letter is on plain white paper, no letterhead, and never mentions what company they are associated with other than Billpay Customer Service.  I don't use CheckFree.  I never received any email, but I don't give out my personal email address out. I created a gmail account for all situations that may require an email account.

I have AVG free antivirus and my scans since Dec. 2 have not shown any virus or problems.

I got this email as well, funny thing is I am using a Mac computer not a pc and i have no Mcafee programs installed

I didn't even get the email.  This actually came as an actual letter in the mail.  How crazy is that!

I received a letter with the exact text mailed to my home.
The return address was:
Billpay Customer Service
P.O. Box 182096
Columbus, OH 43218-2096

Got the same letter by email, and a week(today) later by USPO mail. Looks like they have a database of online payment names and addresses.
The letter is the same, word for word as one you guys got, except this time they called themselves "BillPay Customer Service".
Folks, this whole thing is a scam. My only advice to you is, do not respond, and when you see a virus scan prompt message on your computer do not click Ok, or Cancel. Just close it from the X on the top right corner.

Happy Holidays!

It is NOT a scam! If you do further research you will realize.
1st the emails are from bill pay support for mycheckfree.
2nd you may not know you have an account but if you visit mycheckfree's website you can find a list of companies that use their service. And they may use it without your knowledge. Sucks, but true.