Phishing E-mail Attacked Romanian Bank Customers

The Romania-based Raiffeisen Bank was targeted by a phishing scam on March 5, 2009 in which customers got an e-mail that claimed to be from the bank, asking the user for his private details.

The text of the e-mail said that for the recipients' own protection as well as to protect their data from leakage, the unlocking of their Raiffeisen Internet banking account could be done using a given attachment. In the end, the message offered thanks to the recipients for their cooperation.

However, the included attachment took the user to a web page that resembled but was not the actual Raiffeisen's official website. The fake site was designed to grab customers' private particulars, the security specialists disclosed. Thus, after landing on the fraudulent page, the users were directed to furnish information like their user code, password, client code, and their card number held with Raiffeisen Bank.

Security specialists state that Romanians are extremely vulnerable to these kinds of scams, as most of the Romanian financial institutions including the Raiffeisen Bank do not possess adequate knowledge of IT security especially with respect to Internet banking services. The institutions do not furnish any relevant information or the right suggestions pertaining to phishing attacks.

Another reason for the Romanians' vulnerability relates to the fast growth of Romania's e-commerce following the upward trend in the world e-commerce. Accordingly, many Romanians prefer paying their tax or bank rates and bills via online banking. However, most of them are not aware of various advantages and disadvantages of the services.

Furthermore, many people who shop online with their credit cards are unaware of the different frauds on the Internet, and they invariably fall prey to phishing attacks.

Meanwhile, scammers' target on the Raiffeisen Bank is not new, as security firm BitDefender's statistics for 2008 shows that from the most frequently attacked Romanian banks in phishing assaults, Raiffeisen Bank faced 60%.

Reportedly, the huge spam attack identified on the Romanian Internet on February 5, 2009, by using a heading that when translated read "SSL-Secure, The Internet banking user's security."

Related article: Phishing With A Redirector Code

» SPAMfighter News - 3/13/2009