Phishing Scam Targets First National Bank Clients

First National Bank in Chester County said on July 29, 2008 that it had been hit by a phishing attack. The bank reported that during July 28-29, 2008, both clients and non-clients received fraudulent e-mails sent by phishing criminals.

The e-mail message specified a reason why recipients needed to confirm or re-submit confidential or personal information via a link provided in the e-mail. The e-mail also contains the First National logo thereby pretending to have arrived from the bank.

Meanwhile, the fraudsters are believed to belong to an overseas country and the bank (First National Bank) is coordinating with the law enforcement officials to identify the people behind the scam. According to Sherry Ashman, Executive Vice President of the bank, the e-mail represents a typical phishing fraud attacking many financial organizations on a regular basis, as reported by Dailylocal on July 30, 2008.

Furthermore, according to the FBI, it is somewhat concerned with the phishing scam, as this is the second instance when bank clients are targeted in Pennsylvania.

The FBI is also coordinating with First National Bank to trace the spammers. According to the officials, the latest case resembles to a scam that targeted customers of Sun East Federal Credit Union in the second week of July 2008.

However, First National Bank started notifying its customers through an e-mail about the fraudulent scheme and tell them that they should not reply to the e-mails requesting for information. Ashman said that the scam e-mails were distinctly different from e-mails that the bank send as the latter never requests customers to provide their private information like a PIN number.

Furthermore, Ashman said that the bank immediately posted a notice about the scam on its Website along with informing the customers in the local branches individually. The bank is taking all types of precautions to safeguard its customers. For instance, the bank temporarily deactivated those accounts whose owners inadvertently revealed personal information in the scam and also tentatively withdrew the institution's Internet banking service.

Related article: Phishing With A Redirector Code

» SPAMfighter News - 8/12/2008