Be Careful of 419 Scams On Bid Or Buy - Play The Auction Game Safely
Okay, so we have all heard of the 419 scam; now various alternatives to this scam have developed. Although I can't be 100% sure of what the cons do with our details; the fact is, if they have the winning bid, they get your details; if someone is silly enough to respondto the "I will pay you X amount...
Blah Blah" they have your details dummy! Nothing is protecting us from a new form of con developing on BoB, but we need to come up with a plan soon before our sellers start losing money.
Think of this; someone gets hold of our bank deatils through a winning id on the site; they forward you an e-mail to confirm that they will pay (or whatever other excuse they can think of) and in this mail is encrypted undetectable spyware... All they have to do is sit back and wait for you to use your internet banks, and they will then have your password etc.
Sure banks have upped thier security levels; but is it ever enough? ABSA: Hundreds of thousands of rands stolen via Internet from Absa clients. By Edwin Lombard HACKER is targeting clients of South Africa's largest bank and has managed to steal hundreds of thousands of rands by breaching their accounts over the Internet.
The Police Commercial Crimes Unit confirmed this week it was investigating nine cases involving thefts from Absa accounts. Absa is the leading South African Internet banker with about 35% of the market and about 300 000 online clients. Police and bank officials say it appears the perpetrator used "spyware" to gain access to the personal computers of the victims, and, having found out their Internet banking information, had transferred money out of their accounts. Total losses of R230 000 have been reported to police - but one victim said late on Friday that he had discovered another R300 000 missing from his account.
Another victim, Helene van Tonder, a bookkeeper from Bellville, said her whole R15 000 salary had disappeared from her bank account the day after she was paid. "When I went to the ATM on June 27, all my money was gone. When I contacted the bank, they said I must go and lay a charge at the police." Van Tonder said the bank reimbursed her money and told her that somebody had gained access to her account via the Internet. She had, however, cancelled her Internet account with the bank. Police spokesman Riaan Pool said police did not yet have all the details of how the hacker had worked but they knew that there was only one perpetrator. "It is a hacker.
The police are following up extremely good clues," he said. Absa refused to refer to the culprit as a "hacker" and would only refer to the crime as "identity fraud" committed by a person who had gained access to clients' accounts through their own personal computers using the Internet. Absa's group information security officer, Richard Peasy, said the bank's "security systems and processes had alerted the bank to suspicious activity before these clients knew about it. "The transactions were frozen and the process for dealing with potentially fraudulent transactions was instituted," he said.
However, attorney Harry de Villiers said R300 000 had gone missing from one of his trust accounts when he went to check his statements on Friday. Fortunately, his trust accounts were insured. He said the bank had only alerted him to R10 000 that was mysteriously transferred into one of his accounts earlier in the week. De Villiers made a report to the police late on Friday. His complaint is in addition to the nine already being investigated by the police. He said when he checked his accounts more closely later, he discovered that the hacker had transferred amounts of R227 000 and R93 000 to another account.
De Villiers said further inquiries revealed that the person had bought 15 laptop computers by transferring some of the money into the account of the computer company and the rest into an account at a different bank. Peasy said the crook had gained access to personal information of account holders through their own computers and said it had nothing to do with the bank. He said the bank had already identified suspects and Absa's forensic team was working with the police. "As with other banking channels, no fraud can take place on Internet banking accounts without the fraudster obtaining the client's Internet banking access account number and PIN number," he said. Peasy said it appeared the fraudster had sent unsuspecting clients an e-mail, which, when it was opened, installed software that recorded information. "It is a new trend called spyware.
This has got nothing to do with the bank. It records keystrokes, like your account and PIN number, and then it e-mails the information to a Hotmail mailbox," he said. Peasy refused to say how many Absa clients had been defrauded or how much money was involved, saying it was "a forensic issue". Here is a write-up from FNB... Protect your bank account from the latest scam, says FNB. First National Bank (FNB) is warning its customers to safeguard their bank account details.
If anyone approaches you for your bank details, treat this with extreme caution, fraudsters could be trying to access your bank account. The scam involves fraudsters luring unsuspecting customers with promises of winning the lottery or even requesting donations. FNB strongly advises customers to ignore any of the following requests listed below which may come through in these emails: An e-mail to customers requesting their bank account details The e-mail states that you have won a prize. They then request you to send money in order to be entered into the final draw
You have won the lottery, you are then requested to send your bank account details. The sender needs help moving money out of the country or they need assistance with claiming prize money before it becomes property of the state. You are then asked to provide your bank account details. This illegal activity is known as a '419' scam. As criminals develop new ways to con consumers into revealing passwords, bank account numbers and other sensitive information, scams such as these are becoming more difficult to detect, says Roland le Sueur, FNB Head of Client Devices.
"The purpose of these e-mails is to extract your personal information. This information can then be used by the fraudster to commit fraud in your name." le Sueur suggests the following tips to protect your bank details: _If you are not sure about the origin of an e-mail received, rather call the FNB Internet Banking contact centre on 0860 11 22 44 to confirm the e-mail's origin. -Never reply to an email requesting private/secret information such as your username and/or password. -Instead of following the link from a suspicious e-mail, rather type in the URL in your browser's address bar to go directly to the website. -When you use a website, click on the VeriSign logo and read the security message. - Check the e-mail for grammatically correct language. -
The e-mail will not ask/prompt you to go to suspicious website addresses to access the information - everything should be visible in plain text. Standard Bank... A media release from Standard Bank on Thursday warns customers not to share their personal credentials with anybody, wittingly or unwittingly. The bank's message was in response to recent reports about an alleged new type of internet banking fraud. The bank's investigations had found no evidence of internet syndicates or hackers. Evidently, a client's personal credentials had been compromised by somebody the client might know, said the bank. Standard Bank confirmed that several clients had reported suspicious prepaid transfers on their accounts and that funds were transferred to a prepaid cellphone account.
"A Standard Bank internet security team physically examined several customers' computers and found no malicious software. Investigations are ongoing," the bank said. So come on folks, lets kick this the head before it up and bites us and we are left wondering why we didn't see it coming.