Nat West /Royal Bank of Scotland Group Email scam

by **Paul** » September 1, 2006, 5:59 pm

Just thought I would tell others to be aware of an email scam claiming to be from the Bank of Scotland Group. (Which includes Nat West Bank)

It claims there is a security update from the 'Technical Department' and provides a link where your security details will be 'updated'.

I have received 3 of these emails recently (very official looking) however these have been forwarded to the fraud centre of Nat West Bank as they are fraught with errors - making them highly suspicious.
Not least was a number of spelling errors.

I have learned that when on the internet - it pays NOT to be curious.

Just telling people (well Brits mainly) to be on their guard.

by **beer monkey** » September 1, 2006, 6:23 pm

Mmmm i wonder if the countries Nigeria and Uganda crop up in the equation somewhere.

Thanks for the warning.

by **beer monkey** » September 1, 2006, 6:31 pm

found this, a bit out of date but seems its happened before.

Tuesday, 9 December, 2003, 17:16 GMT

NatWest targeted by e-mail scam

Most High Street banks have been targeted
NatWest Bank has restored its internet banking facility after temporarily suspending it because of an attempted e-mail scam.
The bank closed down its site on Monday morning after some of its customers were sent fraudulent e-mails asking them to divulge their account details.

A spokesman for NatWest said none of its account holders lost any money, and the site was shut just as a precaution.

NatWest was hit by a similar e-mail scam back in October.

Vigilance

None of our customers have lost any money, but as before we ask them to remain vigilant and notices have been put up on the website

NatWest spokeswoman
Most of the high street banks have now been affected by the scam, known as 'phishing.'

A spokeswoman for NatWest said: "The site was closed from 03.00 to 12.00 on Monday, just as a precaution.

"The (bogus) emails are sent out purely at random, and most certainly do not come from us."

She added: "This is a problem that has affected all the banks, and we continue to work closely with the National Crime Squad and the police.

"None of our customers have lost any money, but as before we ask them to remain vigilant and notices have been put up on the website."

by **Alagrl** » September 1, 2006, 8:08 pm

Also, for anyone who has used PayPal -- be careful, as there is a scam saying that the credit card info on file for PayPal could not be processed, and asks you to open an attachment to confirm info. I'm sure the attachment would be dangerous -- these companies would never ask for credit card info, etc. in an email or attachment.

by **BangkokButcher** » September 1, 2006, 8:31 pm

Unfortunately, Phishing, being the term that has been associated with these scammers that create a website virtually identicle to the 'real thing', has been around for a while now, it seemed to start with Paypal, like Sharna mentioned, but now there seems to be very few untouched financial institutions left that have not been affected in one way or another by them.

Here's a quote from the wiki on them:

In computing, phishing is a form of criminal activity using social engineering techniques. Phishers attempt to fraudulently acquire sensitive information, such as passwords and credit card details, by masquerading as a trustworthy person or business in an electronic communication. Phishing is typically carried out using email or an instant message, although phone contact has been used as well[1]). Attempts to deal with the growing number of reported phishing incidents include legislation, user training, and technical measures.

The first recorded mention of phishing is on the alt.online-service.america-online Usenet newsgroup on January 2, 1996,[2] although the term may have appeared even earlier in the print edition of the hacker magazine 2600.[3] The term phishing is a variant of fishing[4], probably influenced by phreaking,[5][6] and alludes to the use of increasingly sophisticated lures to "fish" for users' financial information and passwords. The word may also be linked to leetspeak, in which ph is a common substitution for f.[7] The popular theory that it is a portmanteau of password harvesting[8] is an example of folk etymology.

Thanks for the heads up though Paul.

by **BKKSTAN** » September 1, 2006, 9:34 pm

I have received several emails that were this type scam!I put the name in Google search and bingo,everytime,Scam!!

Nat West /Royal Bank of Scotland Group Email scam

Nat West /Royal Bank of Scotland Group Email scam

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