Major banks warn against new scam
Major banks in Australia are warning of a new text message phishing scam. The scam is designed to trick people into clicking a link and providing their personal banking details.
Australians will receive a text message claiming their bank account has been “placed under review”, accompanied by a random weblink prompting them to update their details.
Major banks such Commbank, NAB and ANZ have all reported their customers being targeted in the new scam.
Nick Higginbottom from ANZ said the bank was “aware of the issue” and that it was “working behind the scenes to resolve it and to spread awareness to customers”.
What to do if you’ve been targeted?
CommBank issued a statement on its website advising customers not to click on any unverified links and to contact the bank if they had already done so.
ANZ issued similar advice on their website, stating: “ANZ will never email or message you asking for personal information like password, PINs or account details”.
It urged customers not to respond to the text message and to contact the bank if they received an alert about any account activity but were not currently using their online banking services. For NAB customers the advice is the same.
Customers from Bendigo Bank have also reported receiving the scam messages which state their ‘e-banking account has been suspended’.
The ACCC also has a list of guidelines to help people protect themselves from phishing scams. It recommends the following:
- Do not click on any links or open attachments from emails claiming to be from your bank or another trusted organisation and asking you to update or verify your details – just press delete.
- Do an internet search for any references to a similar scam.
- Look for the secure symbol on the website to know if it’s secure.
- Never provide your personal, credit card or online account details if you receive a call claiming to be from your bank or any other organisation. Instead, call your bank to check.
- If you think you have provided your account details to a scammer, contact your bank or financial institution immediately.
- Report scams to the ACCC via the report a scam page to help spread the word.
How it works?
Complex investigations lead at ANZ, Marc Broome, said the “hackers were highly skilled” and were trying to make the links look as legitimate as possible to entice people to click them and enter their bank account details.
“We see phishing activity targeting mass numbers by sending out these text messages to try and catch consumers off guard,” Mr Broome said.
“One of the tricks they will use is ‘phone spoofing’ where on smartphones they will duplicate a message to make it look as real as possible and will even send it in the same message thread, so it looks like it’s from their bank.”
Mr Broome said that the technology being used by these criminals has been used for some time in a number of different schemes, and is not specific to ANZ and their customers.
He warned that once a person clicks on the link they will be taken to a fake banking platform site to enter their details, all the while the hackers in real time will be accessing the information.
Customers are warned to be cautious and avoid clicking any links not issued directly from their bank.