New E-mail Scam Purporting to be From Users’ New Bank

According to OSCPA, (Oregon Society of Certified Public Accountants), while the recession has left a large number of people unemployed, online scammers have turned even busier as they exploit those who are struck with bad luck of losing their jobs.

Thus OSCPA advises people to protect themselves from falling prey to scam No. 2 that pretends to be end-users' new bank while scam No. 1 is related to credit for repair.

Since troubles have cropped up in the banking sector due to the current economic crisis, completely different organizations has taken over several financial institutions. People may discover that their bank with which they transacted for a long period suddenly acquired a fresh name. Unsurprisingly enough, scammers have discovered a method to turn this situation in their favor.

Thus, they dispatch e-mails to end-users posing as an organization which has recently bought the recipient's mortgage or bank. The e-mails ask the recipient to confirm his private financial information like credit card or account numbers, account password, Social Security number or other sensitive information that the scammers would subsequently use to steal identity or access accounts illegally.

Said security experts that end-users can understand how on the event of a merger of their bank into another, phishers can dispatch e-mails informing the users that due to the merger, they are required to reconfirm their details. Clearly, the situation lends the fraudsters a degree of trustworthiness around their scam.

But unfortunately, a lot of people continue to remain unaware of recognizing a phishing website and therefore, currently cyber-crooks are favorably placed in exploiting the uncertainty the banking dilemma has caused.

Security firms have warned that consumers must not reply to these fraudulent "phishing" e-mails. Also, they must not open attachments or click links in the e-mails. Rather, they should contact the financial institutions directly and check if those institutions indeed need the information.

Recently, former PostBank customers, after the bank integrated with ING Bank (Holland) in January 2009, reportedly received fake e-mails that encouraged them to access a phony website with their log-in details (username, password as well as bankcard number).

Related article: New Zealand Releases Code To Reduce Spam

» SPAMfighter News - 4/3/2009