Quick Acting ISP Averts Phishing Scam

Quick Acting ISP Averts Phishing Scam Targeted at National Bank

The quick actions of staff at Web Drive, an Auckland-based web hosting company, has averted a potential phishing scam targeted at National Bank customers.

"We were watching Sunday morning as an overseas individual registered about 25 variations of the National Bank's website address," says Managing Director Daniel Williams. "They used different credit card numbers to register the Domains through our automated registration system, so our suspicions were quickly raised.

"We immediately cancelled the Domains and then re-registered them in our own name to prevent them from registering the names elsewhere."

Phishing scams typically use blanket emailing and genuine looking content to trick customers into submitting their private banking details to a website that looks authentic, but is fraudulent. The details are then used to transfer funds to a third-party bank account without the user's knowledge. Until the next time they login and find their funds are all gone.

"We suspect the Domains' intended use was most likely to capture National Bank customers who mis-typed the bank's website address in their browsers," says Williams. "Fortunately we've prevented them from using the names, and it's now up to the National Bank to do what they want with them as we'll hold them for five days."

As for the scammers, they've already been in contact with Web Drive to ask why they can no longer access the Domains. "We're not providing further service to them at this time." says Williams.

Internet users who use online banking are reminded to always type their bank's address into their browser, and ensure the URL is correctly spelled before logging in. Users should also never follow links from emails requesting they update all their personal details.

ENDS

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