Home City Bank Becomes Victim of Phishing Fraud

Residents in the US are getting fake e-mails that pose to come from Home City Federal Savings Bank and direct recipients to provide their account information. The peculiar thing about the scam is that a large number of e-mail recipients do not have an account with the bank.

According to Patti Ark, Auditor and Compliance Officer of Home City, people are getting e-mails saying that the bank has frozen customer accounts and calls are required to rectify the problem. However, people, who responded, were directed to provide their credit card details, as reported by SpringfieldNewsSun on September 21, 2008.

Furthermore, talking about the crooks who are running the ventures, Ark said that they were aiming at accessing information fast and instant responses by creating fear or worry. Ark further said that the criminals need just a small opportunity to make new counterfeit payment cards with which they could carry out illegal transactions.

Besides, the e-mail messages were not sent by Home City, and since a number of mail recipients were not the bank's customers, its officials quickly determined that Home City had been victimized in a phishing fraud.

The officials also indicated that the attacks happened in a cycle, with e-mails as the starting point that moved onto text messages, to mobile phone calls followed by landline phone calls. When the first cycle completed the full circle, everything became quiet for some days only to start again.

Further, Ark said that as these kinds of e-mails attacks were launched from outside the targeted institution and difficult to stop, it became necessary for organizations to adopt the best practices to block dangers. And to aid mail recipients, Home City posted warning notices on its official site and distributed fliers along with providing related information to its customers at the bank's two locations.

Furthermore, Ark said that like all legitimate businesses, Home City do not contact with its customers online and never requests for any private information over e-mail.

Meanwhile, FTC suggests anyone receiving the phishing e-mail can report it at spam@uce.gov as well as to the organization spoofed in the fraudulent e-mail.

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» SPAMfighter News - 9/29/2008