Halifax Bank Bewares Customers of Phishing E-mail

Halifax Bank has issued a warning to its customers about a phishing e-mail scam that is hitting computers everywhere. Reports are coming in from residents of Huddersfield that they are receiving one or more e-mails each day purportedly from the esteemed bank.

The e-mail message says that since the bank is processing to update its records therefore, the recipient is required to confirm his personal information and security details. Some of the e-mails also contain a link directing customers to a site appearing to look official site where recipients are asked to enter their particulars.

But, these e-mails are actually come from fraudsters whose objective is to use the information provided to commit identity theft or other crimes. One of the bank's customers, Mr. Coxell, who got e-mail apparently from Halifax, is perplexed regarding how the scammers managed to get his e-mail address. Coxell reported about the e-mail to a Halifax branch where the staff told him to ignore the e-mail but he is concerned that others might be duped in the same way.

According to officials at Halifax Bank, the problem called 'phishing' had been constantly occurring and the bank was among many banking institutions and companies whose customer identities were being misappropriated in such kinds of scams.

A Halifax spokesperson said that any company or bank in the present time that deals online is susceptible to becoming a target. The problem is an ongoing affair, so it is best to ignore such e-mails. The spokesperson also said that albeit the bank sometimes communicates by using e-mail but it would never request customers to give their details via this medium, as reported by Examiner on March 27, 2008.

According to the spokesman, Halifax was able to get many such phishing sites closed down. The bank also regularly posts about various scams on its Website to inform and alert its clients.

Halifax is advising customers not to open the fraudulent e-mails. Also, they should never disclose their financial or personal details to anybody over e-mail. Any customer, who suspects an e-mail to be scam, should immediately report it, the bank suggests.

Related article: Halifax Bank Alerts Customers of Phishing E-mail

» SPAMfighter News - 4/1/2008