In one of the most legitimate looking phishing ploys
in recent times, phishers are out to steal account
information from unsuspecting customers of Chase Manhattan
Bank. More interestingly, this fraudulent scheme cons
you while giving a lesson or two in online account
security!
Security experts at MicroWorld
Technologies inform that this spoof mail starts
off with some good sermons on measures taken by Chase
Bank to safeguard customer's personal financial information.
It claims that anti-fraud units regularly scan user
accounts for suspicious activity. Then it drops the
bomb shell. The mail informs that multiple attempts
to break into user's account have been detected and
subsequently the account is suspended temporarily.
To re-validate the account, users are told to click
on a link.
On clicking the link, user is taken to a website
that's strikingly similar to that of Chase bank. It
tells the user to enter usernames, passwords and other
details into the online form and the information keyed
in goes straight to the hands of the phisher. Even
the spoof website address looks very similar to the
actual URL of Chase bank.
"This one is like a thief coming in the guise
a cop," says Govind Rammurthy, CEO, MicroWorld
Technologies. "I must say, they have done
a very convincing job in their bid to look authentic,
though psychologically the ploy is the same. It's
about hijacking your senses with some clever words
to get you fall in line. The thing about social engineering
is that your means could be anything, but what matters
is the end. And definitely at the end, the victim
is the loser!"
Many Phishing scams in the past have been exposed
by MicroWorld Technologies
in their continuous battle to secure the Internet.
Some methods used in phishing schemes are like luring
by money and other incentives, offers to take part
in contests and more recently shock and scare. Studies
by 'Anti-Phishing Working Group' reveal that phishing
attacks reached an all-time high in the month of March
with more than 18,000 new unique phishing attempts
along with an addition of 10,000 phishing websites.
New developments in phishing attempts suggest that
fraudsters are employing Keyloggers, IRC backdoors,
and 'URL Redirecting Trojans' for identity theft.
Phishing of all kinds can be prevented by increasing
the awareness levels and using an intelligent, Real
Time Security solution. The software eScan
and MailScan
from MicroWorld Technologies stops spam and phishing
mails, while consistently protecting users from other
malware that steals personal financial information.
MicroWorld
MicroWorld (www.mwti.net)
is the developer of the world's first Real-Time AntiVirus
and Content Security software eScan
for desktops and servers. Its communication security
software, MailScan
is the first comprehensive e-mail scanner for your
SMTP/POP3 Mail Server. MicroWorld
Winsock Layer (MWL) is the revolutionary technology
underlying these products, powering them to several
certifications and awards by some of the most prestigious
testing bodies, notable among them being Virus Bulletin,
Checkmark, TUCOWS, Red Hat Ready, and Novell Ready.
Combining their powerful scanner with MWL technology,
MicroWorld solutions provide a Real-Time Proactive
security for your systems. For network security
of enterprises, eConceal Firewall is the latest
powerful offering from MicroWorld.
To learn more, kindly visit http://www.mwti.net.
