BOI Alerts Customers about Phishing E-mails Looking for PINs

Bank of Ireland (BOI) is warning its accountholders to be cautious of a new phishing scam launched by online fraudsters who are attempting to grab their PIN numbers.

The e-mail having the subject line "Confidential Message," says that a security violation has occurred involving payment cards; therefore, customers need to follow a link and set a new PIN number. But the spoofed link diverts users to a copycat site of Bank of Ireland. Moreover, the e-mail contains several grammatical errors and admonishes that if consumers fail to do as per the instructions, they would find their accounts suspended.

Security researchers state that the message was the most recent among a number of spam messages sent to banks. Additionally, BOI has suggested recipients to ignore the scammers' e-mail.

Meanwhile, as a measure of precaution, the fraudulent site was instantly deactivated to keep customers' money safe from being stolen, a spokeswoman representing BOI disclosed. The bank regarded the possibility of theft of identity gravely, she said. According to her, in the wake of new phishing attack, the bank proactively disabled all such websites that targeted its consumers and there were no reports of customer losses.

Security researchers state that since online banking facilities were introduced for the people of Ireland in 1977, there has been a massive increase in the number of Irish customers performing banking transactions online, especially during recent days. As a result, there is growing preference of scammers to target Irish banks, the researchers stated.

They also stated that while the real danger of loosing personal information on the Internet still prevails, banks regard security as their highest concern. Most problems emerge when people inadvertently divulge their access information in response to fraudulent e-mails in alleged phishing attacks, the researchers said.

In addition, security specialists also said that there was a rapid rise in phishing e-mails spoofing various banks in the recent period; for instance, the case of LCNB National Bank of Ohio, USA. Spoofed mails were sent to its customers to steal their account information.

Related article: BOA Concerned about Safety of Team Data

» SPAMfighter News - 3/23/2009