Came Town – In what seems to be the first phishing scam imitating a South African bank, a rapidly spreading e-mail is illicitly attempting to obtain the details of unsuspecting online bankers.

According to local antivirus company NOD32 South Africa, the e-mail seems to have been sent by First National Bank at first glance, and appears extremely authentic.

Closer examination, however, reveals that it is not a genuine FNB e-mail, but the latest in the recent spate of international “phishing” e-mail scams.

Up till now, however, phishing scams have traditionally only targeted users of major banks in the UK and USA.

“The e-mail appears to the end-user to be coming from a genuine FNB employee and co-erces the user into clicking a website link, which attempts to obtain their internet banking username and password.

“The website actually uses a part of FNB’s real website as well as a site redirection trick to appear extremely authentic,” says NOD32 CEO, Justin Stanford.

“At first glance even to users familiar with computers it is very convincing.” “This is among the first South African bank specific phishing e-mails seen in the country and because of its authentic appearance we expect many users may have already stepped into the trap.

“Users are advised to be extremely cautious when receiving such an e-mail and to ignore it completely.

“If unsure, contact your bank to double-check its authenticity.”

Although the e-mail in itself contains no danger, it is feared that scores of details will already have been captured by the scam perpetrators.

Edited by Elmarie Jack

Source: News24.Com
URL: http://www.news24.com/News24/Technology/News/…/p>