THE number of phishing scams targeting commercial bank clients are on the increase in Namibia. Phishing, which is a type of financial fraud, is the process by which someone obtains your private information through devious means in order to fraudulently assume your identity and ultimately to gain control over your bank account.
Phishing is therefore a form of identity theft that depends entirely on the victim’s cooperation. This form of identity theft includes fraudulent email messages, SMS messages and bogus telephone calls that lure clients to provide their personal information.
Just last week Bank Windhoek discovered fraudulent emails threatening clients that their accounts will be suspended should they fail to upgrade and verify their account details. These emails come shortly after another fraudulent email was discovered during the same week, which requested clients to take part in an online survey. In this regard Bank Windhoek has appealed to its clients to ignore and delete all emails that have supposedly been sent by the bank. Bank Windhoek added that it does not and will never communicate with clients through emails, nor will clients be requested to follow links attached to emails.
Also, Standard Bank Namibia is advising its clients to always be on the lookout for sites or phishing emails that pretend to represent Standard Bank or any of the bank’s subsidiaries. “A phishing email is a form of internet fraud which occurs when an account holder responds to a fraudulent email, purportedly from the addressee’s bank requiring internet banking customers to click on a link to verify details for a reward or risk their accounts being deactivated,” explained Standard Bank Namibia’s Head of Marketing Thaddius Maswahu.
He added that the link directs the customer to a fake website where they will be asked to enter sensitive information such as passwords, credit card details or bank account numbers. “Once these details are given, they are emailed to the fraudsters, who may then use the details to defraud your account without your knowledge,” warned Maswahu.
Meanwhile, Nedbank Namibia says its has not recorded a single complaint or notification from a client that they have been a victim of a phishing scam in recent times and the bank has not noticed any upsurge in phishing instances of late. “We have great confidence in the integrity of our security measures as far as firewall protection is concerned. Our clients generally are quite vigilant in guarding against fraudulent activity and from time to time, they do forward attempts that have been made to dupe them into revealing personal banking details through fraudulent email scams to our forensic investigations team,” explained Nedbank’s Public Relations Manager, Gernot de Klerk. He further explained that once phishing attempts are identified they are then brought to the attention of the bank’s resident specialists to shut down bogus websites and the likes immediately.
Here are some tips provided by the banks for clients not to fall victim to phishing scams:
– Never reply to emails asking you to verify your banking details online. No bank will ask you to verify or complete your banking details online.
– Never provide your personal details such as your PIN or account details via email or on any links within these emails. Banks already have information like your ID number, mobile number and email address and will never ask for them via email.
– Never navigate to a bank’s website using a link from an email – always type out the bank’s website address. Always enter the website address in the address bar to connect to your internet banking site.
– Look out for incorrect spelling and poor grammar. Professional companies or organisations usually have copy editors that will not allow a mass email or SMS to be distributed to users containing mistakes.
– Beware of links in emails/SMS messages. If you see a link in an email or SMS, do not click on it, but delete the message without reacting.
– Beware of threats. Fraudsters rely on the anxiousness of recipients that an account might be closed if the actions required in the email are not followed.
– Watch out for embedded websites. Scam artists use graphics in emails that appear to be connected to legitimate websites, but actually take the user to a phony site. Although the website might look real, the hyperlink or embedded website attached is often a whole other address than the link that appears on the email.
– Be cautious of poor quality images. Whether it is a letterhead or another image that looks authentic, these images are usually of a poor quality, as the fraudsters draw the images off the company’s website. This causes the image to be of a low quality and to be pixilated.