By 3 News online staff
The banking industry has warned against opening an email doing the rounds asking internet users to hand over their bank account details.
The email contains a subject line: “We are necessitating a verification process on all account(s).” It directs the user to a website which then asks for their account numbers and passwords.
New Zealand Bankers’ Association (NZBA) chief executive Kirk Hope says the scam is easy to spot, “because the Bankers’ Association is not a bank, and would never ask people about their bank accounts”.
“People are reminded to safeguard information relating to their bank accounts, and never to disclose their PIN numbers or account passwords to anyone,” he says.
“I would like to emphasise that the New Zealand Bankers’ Association, and its member banks, will never ask a customer to disclose their PIN number or account password.”
This technique is called “phishing”. It works because the scammers target hundreds of thousands of email addresses, in the hope one or two fall for it.
The New Zealand Bankers’ Association, represents 13 New Zealand banks including Kiwibank, ANZ, ASB and BNZ.
3 News