BoA Merrill Lynch Clients Alerted to New Phishing Scam

Security experts caution that one fresh phishing e-mail campaign has been spotted targeting customers of New York City, US based Bank of America (BoA) Merrill Lynch, report tweaktown.com dated May 20, 2014.

It may be noted that Merrill Lynch is an arm of BoA serving as an investment banking and corporate entity.

Reportedly, the phishing scam dupes end-users into installing malware created for grabbing personal information. Originally, there is one Portable Document File (PDF) attached inside the fraudulent e-mail and it contains one malware link which pushes the download of one zipped file named 'SecureMessage.zip' that really includes the infamous Trojan named Spyware/Win32.Zbot.

And just like usual phishing assaults, there's a condensed archive inside the mentioned attachment, which if end-users view, they ultimately follow a web-link, which downloads a Dropbox containing the malware. This is yet one more important reminder for Internauts for remaining cautious while following web-links from unfamiliar sources.

Remarking about the status of phishing assaults, security researchers state that a third of these assaults target financial institutions, particularly banks. Also, because such assaults are huge in number, banks are forced towards adopting fresh guidelines for safeguarding themselves from DDoS (distributed denial-of-service) assaults in a better manner.

However, for remaining safe from cyber-criminals launching the above scam, certain security tips have been suggested to BoA Merrill Lynch clients. These are: not following the web-links within the scam electronic mail; restraining from providing any personal data in response to the e-mail; and never trying to establish a communication with the e-mail sender. Moreover, no attachment inside the e-mail should be opened.

In addition, if any customer of BoA suspects the authenticity of the e-mail, he must call BoA Merrill Lynch by dialing the number he is sure of and verify if the communication is real.

Finally, users must ensure that all their devices such as tablet, laptop, computer as well as smart-phone are deployed with anti-malware and anti-virus programs. Nevertheless, it must be kept in mind that these programs aren't always fully reliable as they may not be effective against the most recent malware or viruses, the researchers conclude.

» SPAMfighter News - 5/27/2014