Bank verification scams

Just like many other scams out there, the “Bank verification scammers” send out thousands of emails knowing that most people wont respond and hoping that a few will, and they do.

I have recently been receiving quite a bit of emails from scammers who claims to be Standard Bank and cleverly uses the Standard Bank logo hotlinked directly from the Standard bank website so it almost appears as if it is coming from Standard Bank. Below is one of the messages:

Standard Bank Online Banking Verification

Standard Bank Online Banking Division is constantly working to improve the online banking experience of our clients.
To this end, and in a bid to increase your protection against phishing attempts by fraudsters,
We have decided to review your account details, so as to help us provide you with substantially more secure service.

You have to log-in within 24 hours after receiving this notice to re-register your Internet banking account,
Your access to sensitive account features will be limited.
Your access to your account would be restored shortly thereafter, our apologies for the inconvenience.

Kindly re-register your Internet banking information by clicking on the link below:
Click here to update your account

Security Department
Standard Bank Internet Banking 2010

Once you click the link and enter your details it stores it into the scammer’s database for them to use later on. All banks in South Africa have confirmed that they do NOT request clients to verify passwords via email. So please be careful and do NOT click on any links in emails claiming to be from a bank.