Wachovia’s Name Used to Phish Online Users Information

The crisis looming large on Wachovia and the US banking industry has given rise to a fresh batch of e-mail frauds called "phishing". The latest phishing scam is circulating solely at the cost of a distressed bank.

Phishing is a method of stealing users' private data with the help of spam messages or link to an internet site.

A new phishing message that is actively mailed to users claim to come from "Wachovia Corporation Notice", and requests the recipients to give their personal data for a "Wachovia Security Plus Certificate".

But this appears to be a very substandard scam, as the cyber criminals have not tried to make it look like a genuine bank message. However, the e-mail contains the Gozi Trojan that is capable of corrupting the recipient's PC and jeopardizing private data. The e-mail could attack users' PC with the Gozi Trojan, Russian application for stealing data.

Moreover, the e-mail exploits genuine trademarks from the organization's Website to lend it authenticity. It threatens to shut down the users' account if he/she failed to provide the user ID, Social Security number, and other private data.

But computer analysts advise users to delete the spam e-mail. People are told repeatedly that banks do not request their clients to send personal data online. Besides, the bank recommends user's to never open anything - rather delete messages that are unsolicited or look dubious.

The phishing attacks are fast becoming a common phenomenon nowadays. Moreover, these phishing frauds usually follow the recent current events, so beware of strange e-mail with subject lines regarding investments and pension plans. Most of these phishing scams come from abroad where they're not easy to track and extremely difficult to prosecute.

Moreover, phishers send innumerable phishing e-mails asking for private data that seem to have come from authentic sites like banks and credit card firms. Correspondingly, in one other phishing attack, clients and non clients of Home City Federal Savings Bank have also of late got some false emails purporting to have originated from the bank and soliciting personal data of the clients.

» SPAMfighter News - 10/7/2008