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Phishers Prompt Emailers To Dial-A-Thief
SecurityProNews
Staff Writer
2009-06-01
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Likely, scores of spoof sites appearing to be official bank sites pepper the Internet at any given time, but less often do phishers direct targets to make a phone call.
 | | Phishers Prompt Emailers To Dial-A-Thief |  |
Most often, phishing email spam directs unsuspecting recipients to visit a website. The website and the email often look very official, with bank logo and similar domains. A good recent example is a Bank of America spoof prompting recipients to update their "digital certificate."
The website the email links to asks for user ID and password for online banking. The scammers were clever enough to even try to reassure victims should their security program interrupt them: "If you receive a ‘potential scripting violation' error message, please click ‘YES' to continue."
In Australia, though, phishers have become more audacious. The email appears to be from Commonwealth Bank of Australia, complete with logo. Recipients are told they have a cashback bonus to be redeemed by dialing the phone number provided. An automated system picks up, asking for the victim's credit card number, expiration date, and personal identification number (PIN).
That's pretty audacious considering many numbers can be traced, especially if law enforcement wants them traced. One supposes there are ways around tracing, though. As inspiration for this technique, the cybercrooks may have drawn on public campaigns explaining to bank customers that they'll never be asked for their personal information via email. Having an actual phone number just adds to the appearance of authenticity.
There may come a day, if crooks get good enough at spoofing banks, that people go back to doing their banking in person.
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SecurityProNews is a daily online and email publication focusing on internet security issues.
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