A new bank phishing scam has emerged, with Bank of Queensland (BOQ) customers warned to remain vigilant for emails spoofing the bank. The scam informs customers that their ‘new statement and Document are ready online, login to your account and check your secure message center, for new pending transactions.’
The subject line, inclusive of grammatical errors, reads “Your BOQ New Statment & Document is Ready Online”. And the sender name and email address have been registered to spoof the bank and dupe customers, displaying ‘BOQ Internet Banking’ with the sender email address as ‘boqalertservice(at)boq(dot)com(dot)au.
Here’s what the email looks like:
After the customer clicks the blue ‘View Your Account New Statement’ button, they’re taken to a convincing phishing page which is a replica of the login page currently used by Bank of Queensland. A giveaway of the page’s inauthenticity is the page URL, which is in fact not on the BOQ website.
The page asks for the ‘Customer Access Number’, ‘User ID’ and ‘Password’. When these details are entered and the ‘Log On’ button is pressed, the user is redirected to the legitimate BOQ website.
While the login page and elements of the email are relatively convincing, always be on the lookout for poor grammar, as seen in the subject line and email copy, and make sure to check link’s before clicking on them. You can do this by hovering over the linked text or buttons until a popup with the destination URL appears.
BOQ advises customers:
"If you have received a phishing text message, email or phone call and provided personal information or bank details, call us immediately on 1300 55 72 72, visit www.boq.com.au/contact-us for our operating hours.
If you received a BOQ branded phishing text message, email or phone call, but did not provide personal information or bank details, please let us know via email at financialcrimes@boq.com.au.”
MailGuard advises all recipients of this email to delete it immediately without clicking on any links. Providing your personal details can result in your sensitive information being used for criminal activity and may have a severe negative impact on your business and its financial well-being.
MailGuard urges users not to click links or open attachments within emails that:
- Are not addressed to you by name.
- Appear to be from a legitimate company but use poor English or omits personal details that a legitimate sender would include.
- Are from businesses that you were not expecting to hear from, and/or
- Take you to a landing page or website that is not the legitimate URL of the company the email is purporting to be sent from.
Many businesses turn to MailGuard after an incident or a near miss, often as a result of an email similar to the one shown above. If unwanted emails are a problem for your business, don’t wait until it’s too late.
Reach out to our team for a confidential discussion by emailing expert@mailguard.com.au or calling 1300 30 44 30.
One email is all that it takes
All that it takes to devastate your business is a cleverly worded email message that can steal sensitive user credentials or disrupt your business operations. If scammers can trick one person in your company into clicking on a malicious link or attachment, they can gain access to your data or inflict damage on your business.
For a few dollars per staff member per month, you can protect your business with MailGuard's predictive and advanced email security. Talk to a solution consultant at MailGuard today about securing your company's inboxes.
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