NatWest Customer Falls Prey to Phishing Attacks

According to the news published by icNewcastle on February 17, 2008, a NatWest bank customer was robbed of £900 by phishers.

Samantha Michelle, the customer of NatWest Bank of Forest Hall, North Tyneside, said that she lost the money from her account as soon as she filled a questionnaire online. The questionnaire claimed to have been sent by the bank. Now NatWest is investigating the complaint, as reported by icNewcastle on February 17, 2008.

The fake e-mail is one of those that claim to come from NatWest. It asks the receivers to click on the given link to update their account details. On clicking, the receivers are led to a malicious Website where their personal information is robbed.

Samantha said that she received an e-mail asking her to fill in details. The e-mail sent to her contained all her online details and she just had to click on the secure hyperlink. But later, on checking her account, she discovered that amount was stolen from her account.

Samantha further said that she expect that being a victim of bank fraud, she will be compensated but she was not. She added that she was informed by the bank that it will not refund her money as she verified her bank account details. However, Samantha explained that the fraud e-mail already contained her PIN number, account password and her customer Id number and she didn't provide any additional information.

On the other hand, NatWest confirmed that it does not send e-mails to its customers. A NatWest spokeswoman stated that for past few years, the bank has been giving advice to its customers about these kinds of fake e-mails. She said that bank never ask its customers to send their personal information in this manner.

Spokeswoman also said that though majority of bank customers keep this in mind and never respond to these type of e-mails but those customers who fall prey to phishing attack are actually violating the terms and conditions of online banking.

In the last week of January 2008, a security firm, ClearMyMail, published a list of top ten financial organizations that are most likely to fall prey to phishing attack. NatWest bank topped that list with 41% e-mails targeted to its customers.

Related article: NatWest Bank, the Most Targeted Brand for Phishers

» SPAMfighter News - 2/26/2008