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Telstra Consumers Become Phishers’ Attack Points

According to Sophos the security company, fresh bulk phishing e-mails are doing the rounds while attacking customers of Telstra the Australian communications giant along with BigPond the online subsidiary of the former. Incidentally, BigPond is a widely-known ISP too in Australia.

Displaying logos of BigPond or Telstra, one sample e-mail says that when Telstra was conducting its routine verification procedure and account maintenance, it found that the e-mail recipient's billing information had an error. Therefore the user requires confirming his details via following a given web-link.

The e-mail also tries to sound urgent, so the fraudsters assert that incase the recipient doesn't update his details within 48 hours, his account will be suspended.

Meanwhile, one more sample e-mail rather threateningly tells the recipient that Telstra could not fulfill the processing of his latest payment, therefore he requires confirming that his billing details are correct so he may get uninterrupted service from BigPond.

Incidentally, both the above e-mails contain web-links diverting end-users onto Telstra phishing sites that ask the users for entering their account, financial details and other personal information.

Remarking about the above phishing e-mail campaign, SophosLabs stated that similar to the majority of phishing websites, the current one appeared extremely convincing to the ordinary end-user. Nakedsecurity.sophos.com reported this on February 25, 2011.

Moreover, according to the SophosLabs' researchers, with organizations making available as many of their services as possible over the Net, phishers, in the above incident could potentially steal large amounts of financial and other personal information from their victims.

So to remain safe from such phishing frauds, specialists suggest users that they shouldn't reply to e-mails that ask for their private details. Also, any user who doesn't buy the services of the website, which opens from an embedded link, must eliminate the e-mail instantly. And finally users must deploy security programs that are of high quality.

Ultimately, it's clear from the new attack that the targets of phishing along with its scenario have expanded considerably over the recent years involving more auction websites, payment sites, social networks, governments and ISPs in addition to financial organizations as the points of attack.

Related article: Twilight Movie Online Scam Spreads Malware

» SPAMfighter News - 3/8/2011

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