THERE'S SOMETHING WRONG WITH YOUR BANK ACCOUNT
An oldie but goodie. Bank fraud is still one of the most prolific kinds of attacks, targeting everything from major financial institutions like Bank of America and Wells Fargo, to local credit unions. "It hasn't slowed down at all," said Ivan Macalintal, research program manager at Trend Micro.
Phishers will send unsuspecting victims official looking e-mails that seem to come from their financial institutions, requesting the user to verify bank account or password information. Other times the message will request that a user access a call center in what is known as a vishing attack. Once the victim dials, they will be prompted to enter bank account numbers in order to "confirm" customer information.
Of course, that's ridiculous, experts say. Your bank knows this information already. And they don't need to call you to get it.
Yet despite this logic, the scam seems to work. And it's not just the big banks that are targeted -- a recent RSA report showed that criminals are increasingly executing attacks against small or local financial institutions with carefully crafted, socially engineered messages. And chances are the attack will also incorporate some personally identifying information -- just to give it that special touch of authenticity.
