Phishing scam targets Batelco Internet customers

Security professionals say that phishing campaigns all over the globe are rising. To cite an instance, a new phishing e-mail has been reported that is targeting Bahrain's major telecom services vendor, Bahrain Telecommunication Company (Batelco).

Said a Spokesman of the company the scam e-mail directs recipients to provide their usernames and passwords. Tradearabia.com published this on July 9, 2009.

Understandably, the recent phishing message using a caption, "Inet mail security alert" informs customers of Batelco that their Web mail accounts are nearing expiry; therefore they must update personal information regarding those accounts so that account suspension may be averted.

Describing the act as 'phishing,' the Spokesman said it is an effort of online miscreants to deceptively obtain sensitive details like user ids and passwords posing as an entity of repute and trust in a communication conducted electronically.

Furthermore, he said that the e-mail's sender was an outside party that gathered marketing data for unethical purposes.

Meanwhile, Batelco has alerted its subscribers to watch out for the phishing e-mail abusing the company's name and harming its customers. The company added that no authentic telecom company or Internet Service Provider would ever ask for personal information over phone or e-mail; therefore consumers must never hand over their private details such as bank account information, usernames and passwords or any other personal information as a way of reply to such solicitations.

Additionally, customers have been advised that if anyone doubts anything regarding the genuineness of the said kind of information-seeking e-mails, then they must contact the original source directly. Accordingly, in the current instance, they must contact Batelco if they want to clarify anything about the phishing fraud to avoid possible identity theft.

Batelco said its subscribers could contact the ISP by dialing its Inet Helpdesk number 1788-1188 instantly lest they get the phishing e-mail.

In the meantime, phishing scams targeting Batelco and its consumers is nothing new. During May 2008, Internet subscribers of Batelco got phishing e-mails that stated that the '@batelco.com.bh' addresses of the consumers would be withdrawn if they failed to provide their financial and other personal information related to the telecom company.

Related article: Phishing With A Redirector Code

» SPAMfighter News - 7/27/2009