Bank Phishing Scams Continue Worldwide

During 2009, the world witnessed an increase in the number of phishing scams targeting institutions like banks. It appears that this trend will continue in 2010. The prediction gets stronger when an analysis of two phishing scams that occurred recently is done.

According to the first, accountholders of a Hudson City Savings Bank in Paramus (New Jersey, USA) were attacked by an e-mail scam during the end-week of December 2009.

The phishers posing as the bank's representative dispatched bulk e-mails soliciting account information, said Michael Lee, Senior Vice-President of Hudson City, as reported by Nj during the end-week of December 2009. According to Lee, the fraudsters sent phishing e-mails randomly to people irrespective of whether they were customers of Hudson City or not.

Lee continued that apart from this case, Hudson City customers had been hit by several other phishing scams. Offering some advice, Lee says that if anyone thinks he has been victimized, he should inform his bank immediately.

As per the second scam, phishers reportedly sent bulk e-mails to the 'The Bank of Bermuda HSBC' (Bermuda, UK) customers. In that, the phishing e-mail told the recipient (bank's customer) that he wouldn't be able to access his Internet banking facilities for sometime. The reason cited -some third person had attempted multiple times to log on the account although remained unsuccessful. In such a circumstance, the e-mail stated that the recipient must confirm and restore his Internet banking profile instantly.

A Bank of Bermuda spokeswoman said that the bank knew about such phishing campaigns whenever they emerged. It was receiving customers' unhesitant complaints of the e-mails that reached them. Consequently, the bank was doing everything necessary to deal with the problem, the spokeswoman added, as reported by Royalgazette on January 7, 2010.

Banks are suggesting that customers should not set a single password for multiple systems. Passwords work as entries to various Internet accounts and if anyone unearths that single password, he could steal its owner's money by accessing his financial account. Thus, users should generally have different passwords for different systems, including the critical online-banking system.

Related article: Bank Issues Spam Alerts

» SPAMfighter News - 1/18/2010