After receiving a spate of National Australia Bank phishing attempts, and then Westpac bank phishing attempts, over Christmas I couldn’t let this one pass without recording it for posterity.
“Verification Required
Attention Banking Customer,
Criminal and terrorist elements have recently increased efforts to launder
money through dormant debit-oriented accounts under the identities of deceased
citizens and residents. Dormant accounts with linked Debit Cards are
specifically targeted due to the increased ease of stealing the true identity
associated with the account. In accordance with new anti-terrorism legislation
aimed at preventing money laundering and financing of terrorist operations the
Reserve Bank of Australia is working on behalf of Australia’s financial
institutions to verify customer debit cards. This enables us to ensure the
activity and validity of your debit cards.
Note that no verification is necessary for credit-oriented cards as they are
based on a different system.
You may do so by clicking Here and verifying your information.
Failure to do so may result in a temporary cessation of your banking services
pending verification.
Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter and your co-operation in
helping the government maintain the integrity of the Australian financial system.
– Fraud Squad Commander Detective Superintendent Col Dyson
© Reserve Bank of Australia, 2001-2006. All rights reserved.”
No typos that I saw, and Col Dyson is a real person. And nobody’s tried the RBA before.Spam, Scam, Phishing Expedition, Confidence Trick, call it what you will, we would like to think that only those who are truly at risk in modern society would usually fall for this trick, but if I came into work one morning bleary-eyed and under pressure there’s probably a 1% chance I might fall for it too. And that’s all they need – if your spider-sense for evil-doing was off for just a minute or two, you’d be broke now.
Once more the internet proves that communication between peoples of all different creeds, backgrounds and moral standards quickly shows that you can’t like everyone.