Bank Acquisitions and Phishing Scams

October 6, 2008

There are public reports of phishing scams related to recent bank acquisitions. Due to an increase in this activity, we would like to remind users to remain cautious when receiving unsolicited email that could be a potential phishing scam.

Phishing scams may appear as requests for users to verify personal and bank account information, enroll in additional bank services, or activate new security features.

The email messages may contain a link that, when clicked, will take the user to a fraudulent web site that appears to be a legitimate bank web site.

The users may be asked to provide personal information or that can further expose them to future compromises.

Additionally, these fraudulent web sites may contain malicious code.

Users are encouraged to take the following measures to protect themselves from phishing scams:

– Do not follow unsolicited web links received in email messages.

– Install anti-virus software, and keep its virus signature files up-to-date.

– Avoid Social Engineering Techniques as described here