28 October 2003 11:28
Internet scam targets Nationwide and Halifax
NATIONWIDE and Halifax have become the latest targets of an Internet scam thought to originate in Russia, it emerged
yesterday.
Customers received e-mails over the weekend purporting to be from the two mortgage lenders asking them to confirm
their security details.
But the messages came from conmen trying to access customers' accounts.
NatWest was targeted by the same scam on Friday and Barclays and Lloyds suffered similar problems last month.
Halifax took down its website over the weekend as soon as it became aware customers were being targeted. The bank has
also e-mailed 1.8million online customers warning them not to respond to the bogus messages.
"We have not heard of any customers falling for the scam so far, " said Halifax spokesman Jason Clark.
"But anyone who lost money would be covered by Halifax's online fraud guarantee."
Nationwide also said it had not yet heard of any customers responding to the e-mails, which have been traced to
eastern Europe.
But NatWest admitted a few of its customers had contacted the bank saying they had entered their details, although
none have lost financially as a result. All the affected banks are working w ith the police to crack down on those
behind the scam.
Clark said: "These people are targeting the customer because they know they are very unlikely to be able to hack
into the bank's own site. This may well happen again."
Those behind the e-mail scam, known as "phishing", do not even need to know who potential victims bank
with. E-mail technology enables them to send out millions of messages in the knowledge some will go to customers of the
target bank. Only a few people need to input their details to make the operation worthwhile.
Enrique Salem, chief executive of Internet security company Brightmail, said: "One spammer can send about
200million messages in a day. E-mail fraud is a growing trend."
[UKIR [UK & Ireland Intelligence Wire]] |
RUSSIA IN FACTS
