Standard Bank on Tuesday said it had successfully shut down fraudulent websites of an international syndicate trying to rob thousands of customers of their money.
”No Standard Bank customers lost any money in the latest attack,” said the bank’s information technology security director, Louis Lehmann.
”Standard Bank has successfully shut down the fraudulent websites, rendering the attack ineffective,” he said.
It appeared that the syndicate behind it operated out of Eastern Europe.
The attack on the bank was the second in five months, said Lehmann.
In the latest ”phishing” scam, thousands of customers were bombarded with e-mails, apparently from Standard Bank, asking them to confirm their personal details.
Lehmann said the bank was working with the Scorpions and the police.
Phishing is a form of online fraud in which criminals try to obtain confidential customer information.
It usually uses unsolicited e-mail requests to get customers to divulge their banking details on a ”spoofed” website.
”Customers should not respond, and should ignore and delete unsolicited mail,” said Lehmann.
”Standard Bank will not ask its customers for their personal banking credentials, such as PINs [personal identification numbers] and passwords,” he said. — Sapa