Phishers Defrauded Four ICICI Internet Banking Customers

The Cyber Crime Police of Bangaluru (Karnataka, India), registered a total of four instances of 'phishing' over a five-day period during the 2nd week of September 2009. These cases involve four persons who were robbed off their money through e-banking when cyber criminals hacked into the individuals' savings accounts at ICICI Bank.

Particulars obtained about the phishing scam indicate that advocate 'C G Kulkarni' who resides in Malleswaram (Bangaluru) had Rs.19,000 stolen out of his account. One more sufferer who is an IBM senior executive named 'Narayana Kannan' had Rs.100,000 stolen in two installments of Rs.50,000 each out of his account at ICICI.

Likewise, Sudhish, an employee of a private company, was the third sufferer who had Rs.33,000 stolen while the fourth individual 'Ravichandran' was robbed of Rs.50,000 out of his account at ICICI.

The mode of operation employed by the hackers was the same for each of the instances. They dispatched phishing e-mails to the four victims soliciting their e-banking information consisting of usernames and passwords. This information gave access of their accounts to hackers who caused damages to the victims.

Meanwhile, the victimized individuals unknowingly provided the necessary information after which the balances were transferred from their accounts, Police stated, as reported by Expressbuzz on September 12, 2009.

However, ICICI, while distancing itself from the phishing campaign, provided certain tips for its customers on its official online site with which phishing e-mails could be distinguished from the bank's genuine e-mails.

The first suggestion was that the bank wouldn't ever dispatch e-mails, which would request for secret details. Therefore, if any online customer got a message asking for his Internet banking particulars, he shouldn't reply.

Moreover, ICICI recommended its online banking clients that they should never view doubtful e-mails rather delete them. However, if they did view them, it was advisable that they avoided clicking on any given attachment or link that claimed as sent from the bank.

Finally, customers have been suggested to access the Internet banking site of ICICI by typing its URL address inside their web browser's address bar so that chances of getting defrauded like in the case of the four Bangaluru clients could be minimized.

Related article: Phishers Expand Their Sphere of Attacks

» SPAMfighter News - 10/2/2009