Bank Issues Spam Alerts

Bank of New Zealand customers have been receiving hoax e-mails in recent weeks. These hoax e-mails claim to be a warning from the bank's security department and the bank has urged its customers not to respond to such e-mails. Bank of New Zealand, National Bank and Kiwibank have all reported phishing scam attacks this month.

Shona Bishop, General Manager (Marketing) Bank of New Zealand, indicated that fake e-mails and other spam messages were now becoming more common in New Zealand. She has urged the bank's customers not to overlook the bank's frequent requests for protecting their account and password details.

These phishing scams look for innocent customers and direct them to fake websites that encourage them to provide their bank account login and password information. The fraudsters use this information to access the customer's account.

Ms Bishop said that few of the bank's customers have informed the bank that they have responded to such e-mails directing them to fraudulent websites, which they thought was an authentic Bank of New Zealand website.

Shona Bishop has pointed out that customers wanting additional Internet banking security should register for NetGuard, which is an additional level of security provided free of charge by the bank to its customers. The authentication service, NetGuard provides further levels of security by prompting the customer every time the user accesses Internet banking to enter a one-off security code at the time of logging into their Internet banking session. Thus, personal information and fund details are protected from the beginning of the session itself.

"We are working with the authorities and Internet service providers to get the fake site shut down. Bank of New Zealand would never ask customers to click on a link and type in their log-in details: Customers should not respond to such requests," said Ms Bishop.

The bank has asked its customers to be cautious and take precautionary measures. Customers have been advised to delete suspicious e-mail without opening it and not to follow the links to the website. The bank has also urged customers not to part with confidential information like access codes or PIN numbers. Customers have been advised to keep their anti-virus, anti-spam and firewall software up to date, to protect themselves from phishing fraudsters.

Related article: Bank Customers Phished

» SPAMfighter News - 6/20/2006