Thieves Try Phish Information from a Bank’s Customers

Old Point National Bank issued an alert on March 28, 2008 to tell its customers to look out for fraudulent e-mails that were circulating in the name of the bank.

Old Point National Bank is urging its customers to immediately delete those e-mails and not to contact anyone on the number given in the e-mail, as reported by dailypress on March 29, 2008,

As per disclosures by the bank, the e-mail's subject line read, "Official Notification". The false e-mail then asks the recipient to contact the bank at a given phone number because his/her account with the bank has been deactivated.

However, Old Point has clearly said that like all other banking institutions, it too never requests customers to provide their private information over e-mail.

Meanwhile, as a mean of precaution, the bank disconnected the special phone connection within half an hour after receiving reports about the e-mail. The instance was the second one in March 2008 in which a phishing campaign targeted the customers. The previous one also involved a notification message that attempted to trick customers to visit a site and submit information.

In similar news from Texas, a couple of e-mails have been circulating both seemingly from Franklin Bank. Investigations have revealed that the e-mails' subject lines showed phrases such as "Investigation ID," followed with lines in upper cases reading, "Urgent Notice", "Franklin Bank Notification", "Your account was temporary [sic] disabled", "Information regarding your account" and "Survey", as reported by JACKSONVILLE DAILY PROGRESS on March 27, 2008.

In the meantime, security experts said that the trick in both instances represented a phishing deception and criminals spam out bulk of e-mails made to look like they were from a trusted source. The messages often alert recipients about an issue that requires their participation in the form of resetting their username and password. They also include a link directed to a fraudulent Website where consumers are asked to enter their personal credentials.

Experts say that with the number of phishing scams are increasing, the security and efficacy of the online services of commerce and banking are being undermined.

» SPAMfighter News - 4/9/2008