Phishing E-Mail Circulating in Dorset to Deceive Residents

According to the Trading Standards Service of Dorset County Council, residents at the Dorset county of South West England are asked to watch out for a new phishing scam attempting to capture users' private banking information.

The scam involves several fake e-mails purporting to be sent by a bank in Dorset bank. It tells recipients that some error has found in their online bank accounts; therefore, they need to provide their bank particulars for updating accounts.

The Trading Standards Service of Dorset County Council has confirmed this as a phishing scam. The authorities have asked people to refrain from replying to the fraudulent e-mails. Responding to the e-mails could be dangerous as people may divulge their personal details to hackers who could use them (details) to withdraw money from their accounts.

Also, according to the security specialists, most of these fake e-mails originate offshore and make law compliance by the Trading Standards Service and other compliance agencies nearly impossible.

Furthermore, the specialists stated that the chief priority of the officials now is to notify as many consumers as possible about the scam and stop them from replying to these messages.

According to Paul Carter, Divisional Trading Standards Manager of Dorset County Council, considering that the banking sector is currently facing many such problems, people could be tempted to reply to any of the scam e-mails thinking that it is real, but it is not. Carter cautioned that anyone receiving such e-mail must delete it, or if he/she has already replied, then he/she must contact his/her bank immediately, as reported by DorsetforYou on October 3, 2008.

Carter further stated that the Trading Standards Service is sharing information it has gathered with Bank Safe, the British banking initiative, the Office of Fair Trading as well as the Serious Organized Crime Agency in an anticipation that action would be taken to stamp out the problem from the country.

Moreover, the security specialists state that the online practice of phishing is rising. However, they also remind that no legitimate organization would ever request for the recipient's bank details or other confidential data over e-mail.

» SPAMfighter News - 13-10-2008

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