5 June, 2010
Continuing on from last week’s article about Internet banking fraud where we discussed tracking software, the other type of threat is a phishing attack. This is aptly named after a favourite pastime of many – fishing. In the case of banking fraud it involves someone creating a clever email or web advertisement that is delivered to you on the pretence that it has come from your financial institution. The originators of these scams can be very creative and normally steal logos and pictures from the main banks to convince the victim that it is a legitimate notice or request. The most popular is an email sent as though it is from you bank with all of the right logos and formatting to suggest that they are doing a security upgrade and need you to log in to confirm that you still have access. They can even provide a web link in the email that without looking closely would appear that it is taking you to your normal Internet banking site. When you click on this link it can take you to the creator’s website and trick you into entering your username and password – bam, they now have your details and can simply respond with a message saying that the banking site is still undergoing an upgrade “can you try logging on again in another 24 hours”. So the victim is convinced that nothing is wrong as yet while the creators of the scam are now logging into your real Internet banking site and helping themselves to your hard earned cash! These types of phishing attacks have many other variances and can even include someone calling you on the phone pretending to be from a legitimate source and even quoting back to you heaps of details about yourself – because they just gleaned most of the information that they need off Facebook or one of the other social networking sites. They caller may have already have a surprising amount of your personal details and just need you to fill in one or two blanks about your credit card for instance. Phishing attacks are not always after your money either – some are simply constructed to get you to download software “to speed up your PC, or your internet connection” or even remove a virus that you don’t have – an upon acting on this advice you then are given a virus or malware which compromises your PC’s health or security. Keep a few things in mind – if it sounds too good to be true then it usually isn’t & no financial institution will ever ask you for logon details or suggest that you need to login to help them complete an upgrade. Happing fishing! Kerr Solutions is at 128 Musgrave Street & is contactable on 49 222 400.
