ING Clients Become Subjects of Phishing Scam

A fresh malicious e-mail campaign is doing the rounds as its phishing e-mail poses as communication from ING Bank while possibly having a Dutch message translated from English, thus published Security.nl in news on March 16, 2011.

Issuing a notice to the recipient, the fake e-mail apparently tells that there are two fresh Online Banking Alerts in the user's ING Bank Secure Message Center. Moreover, for accessing his ING Bank along with personalized Secure Message Center the user must follow a given web-link named "Read to login page." Security.nl reported this.

But, on clicking the web-link, the user is taken onto a phishing site, which directs him to input his username, password, birth date, SMS mobile number, telephone and mobile numbers, Personal Identification Number and e-mail id.

However, the ING Bank declared that it was not the sender of the phishing e-mail rather the message was from online scammers, who were attempting at stealing the bank customers' credentials for committing fraud. Meanwhile, if anybody has divulged his information, he's urged to inform the case to the bank. ING also suggests customers that they shouldn't ever share their Transaction Authentication Number with any intermediate participant, but keep it safe like they would do with their PIN. Nu.nl published this during the 2nd-week of March 2011.

Furthermore, for remaining careful about phishing campaigns of the above kind, users must concentrate on the typos and language of the e-mail. Normally, it's recommended that users peruse the URL-address as also verify it prior to clicking on it. The most appropriate action though is for first visiting the site's authorized web-address via entering the URL manually inside the browser as well as further checking whether the details given are accurate. Lastly, it's vital for understanding whether the e-mail addresses the recipient directly.

Eventually, according to security researchers, it's because of the above kinds of phishing e-mails that Internet banking frauds have disastrously increased worldwide over the recent years. This observation gains further credibility whilst statistics from Security.nl are referred to according to which, damages from Internet banking fraud increased from Euros 1.9m to 9.8m between 2009 and 2010.

Related article: Image Spam Set to Hit Worldwide PCs Back

» SPAMfighter News - 3/24/2011