Phishers Again Target Nigerian ATM Card Holders

According to the news published by THE PAYPERS on January 12, 2009, Interswitch, a Nigerian company that deals with electronic transaction and payment processing, has alerted regional ATM card owners about an e-mail scam redirecting cardholders to a fake Interswitch website to phish them off personal information.

The scam or phishing e-mail informs the card holder that for security reasons, he must furnish certain information to complete an alleged registration process over the Internet. The information to enter is the card number, date-of-expiry and PIN and the information is necessary to give to keep using the ATM card.

However, Interswitch confirmed that under no circumstances, it requests consumers to do cards' registration, or asks them to disclose their card number, its expiry date or PIN number over e-mail.

The company also informed its consumers that their PIN number is one of those confidential details that should be known to cardholder only. It further said that the recent fraud attempt had already been notified to appropriate authorities.

Moreover, Mitchel Elegbe, Managing Director of Interswitch, had cautioned Nigerians to safeguard their PINs by all means on several occasions, as reported by THIS DAY on January 12, 2009.

Nonetheless, Interswitch has got the spoofed website taken offline, assuring that it is taking action to block any future phishing attempts.

Security analysts also said that since the time the ATM machines have been introduced in Nigeria, online phishers are applying various methods to steal money from people. According to them, it is only because the phishers are cleverer and people are ignorant. As a result, fraudsters have been able to phish them off their hard-earned money.

Meanwhile, apart from warning its customers, Interswitch in cooperation with partnership banks launched a large-scale awareness campaign to educate cardholders about the company's operations and activities and the means to detect fraud. The awareness campaign also tells the ways by which cardholders could safeguard their card details from crooked people, which otherwise could lead to phishing assaults.

Related article: Phishers Expand Their Sphere of Attacks

» SPAMfighter News - 1/24/2009