Bank of Hawaii Clientele Butted by Phishing E-mail

Bank of Hawaii released a warning on 24 last month about an online survey scam asking its customers to ignore an e-mail which seemingly appears to be from the bank.

Somebody using the bank's name is sending out e-mails asking the clientele to fill in an online survey for a reward of $100. The bogus e-mails are the handiwork of crooks to fool people into sparing their account numbers, Social Security numbers, passwords, etc.

'Phishing' is a kind of Internet fraud, where cyber conmen intrude into databases of banks and forward mails to their customers, asking to disseminate personal information and might also ask them to draw money from their accounts. These mails look authentic as they include look-alikes of actual logos stolen from official Websites.

Solemn-sounding 'phishing' mails, often using the name of big-shot financial institutions, demand customers to divulge their personal information, account numbers as well as passwords, leading to identity theft. Victims are conned into believing that they are interacting with the Website of their real bank.

This year, till now, Bank of America's name was exploited in 38 online scams, Washington Mutual Bank was targeted 22 times; Citibank was used 15 times and Sun National Bank twice, as per MillerSmiles.co.uk, a Website dedicated to hunting bogus e-mails. The Website calls upon the public to forward copies of skeptical e-mails for display, so that readers are being cautioned towards their persuasive tone.

And after attacking so many banks, the phishing ghost is victimizing Bank of Hawaii clientele now - this time goading people to log-on to their online accounts stating that facilities for online transactions have expired. The new e-mail reads that the bank is sorry to inform that the client's online transfer and payment services have expired and need to be renewed instantly if they intend to continue using the services and also to prevent similar situations in future.

Bank of Hawaii has contacted web experts and law enforcement agencies to shut down the websites sending out fraudulent e-mails. The recipients of such phishing e-mails have been requested to forward those to emailfraud@boh.com.

Related article: Bank Issues Spam Alerts

» SPAMfighter News - 11/13/2007