HSBC Bank Warns Customers about Phishing Scam

The Bank of Bermuda HSBC has issued a warning to its customers against a phishing scam currently circulating online.

According to the detailed reports obtained regarding the phishing fraud, hackers are e-mailing the Bank's clients. This particular e-mail message tells the recipient (Bank customer) that his online banking access has been temporarily suspended. The reason for suspension is that the bank noticed a number of failed logon attempts by another party to access the recipient's account. The message then asks the user for verification as well as restoration of his Internet banking profile without any delay.

A Bank of Bermuda Spokeswoman said that they usually got to know about such phishing assaults when they took place, as reported by Royalgazette during the 1st week of January 2010.

In support of what the Spokeswoman stated, the Bank separately said that in the current case, the Bank took immediate action and was taking help of security professionals to bring down the phishing website, as reported by Bermudasun during the end week of January 2010.

The Bank further said that customers who got any e-mail request regarding personal information validation should decline to reply. HSBC Bermuda wouldn't ever dispatch e-mails asking clients for their updated account numbers, credit/debit card numbers, or personal log-in details.

However, if any customer has already provided his login details to the senders of the fake e-mail via reply message, then he should instantly get in touch with HSBC Bermuda's call center, the Bank stated in addition.

In the meantime, security researchers studying these kinds of phishing attacks commented that fraudsters were becoming more-and-more sophisticated.

Alan Phillips, Chief Executive of '7Safe' (an information security and forensics consulting company), consumers can take certain preventive steps that could help them from becoming a phishing scam victim, as reported by Moneynews during the end week of January 2010.

Phillips warned that with scams getting increasingly sophisticated, it had now become more difficult to determine if an e-mail or website was legitimate. Hence, people should avoid clicking on unfamiliar web-links unless they were completely sure about their authenticity.

Related article: HSBC Alerts Customers of Hoax E-Mail

» SPAMfighter News - 2/6/2010