NEW NET SCAM COST CLIENT R24 500

Good morning bloggers, I have been out of town for a few days, hence no blogs, so it's catch up time again.

Here's one for the scammers again! I am somewhat concerned however, when a bank employee says that 'fraud in the bank is normal'. Surely there is something wrong with that picture. What are the banks doing, to control this 'normal' occurance?

New Net scam costs client R24 500
March 28 2007 at 12:16PM
By Leila Samodien

Amid reports of phishing attacks on bank accounts, a Cape Town man says he had to threaten bank staff with a criminal charge to recover R24 500 he lost to a different kind of Internet scam.

Durbanville resident Keith Brook said on Tuesday that although he had not used his First National Bank Internet account for weeks, he received a bank SMS two weeks ago saying the money had been transferred from his account. "I only got the money back 13 days later, after I threatened to take some of the employees to the police."

'They haven't quite worked out what happened yet'

"If they can break into clients' bank accounts, what will happen when they discover new ways to steal money through banking?" he asked. He said he had received an SMS on March 13 saying he had accessed his Internet banking account - despite the fact that his computer had been disconnected for months. Minutes later, he received another SMS saying the money had been transferred to another account. A third message confirmed it.

The Cape Argus spoke to a FNB official, who said Internet fraud was a "normal occurrence" at banks. A recent statement by FNB said that Internet fraud had increased worldwide over the past 12 months.

FNB spokesperson Bonny Feldman said: "It doesn't look like an incident of phishing, but an investigation is still under way and they haven't quite worked out what happened yet. "The scam came after reports of a national phishing scam which gave fraudsters access to the bank accounts of online clients of leading banks Absa, FNB and Standard Bank, among others. In one case, R200 000 went missing from a client's account. Phishing is a scam in which fraudsters use emails purportedly from banks to con clients into sending them personal details that allow the scammers account access. FNB warned clients against responding to emails which:

Ask you to furnish personal details in an email or submit them some other way.

Threaten to close or suspend your account if you do not provide personal information.

Solicit participation in a survey in which you are asked to enter personal information.

State that your account has been compromised or that there has been third-party activity on your account, and requests your account information.

Ask you to enter your user ID, password or account numbers into an email or non-secure web page or to confirm, verify, or refresh your account, credit card or address.

This article was originally published on page 9 of Cape Argus on March 28, 2007