Last week, MailGuard detected multiple variations of a phishing email scam spoofing National Australia Bank (NAB).
This scam was part of a series of banking & finance related scams MailGuard has intercepted recently. Other well-established banks, such as Westpac, BankWest and ANZ are among those that have been embroiled in similar email scams over the past month.
Imitating leading financial institutions such as banks is actually a common trick adopted by cybercriminals to again access to users’ confidential data.
This email scam mimics NAB by incorporating the logo, branding and name of the bank using high-quality graphical elements. However, this scam is particularly noteworthy in its usage of a unique (and ironic) technique to trick recipients into revealing their confidential data - a safety verification form.
Watch the full scam below:
NAB offers a secure online and telephone banking service – if you are concerned about the legitimacy of any online communication you receive, please call them to confirm.
MailGuard urges all cyber users to be vigilant when accessing their emails and look out for tell-tale signs of malicious emails:
Tell-tale signs of email scams
- Do not address recipients directly (e.g. “Dear customer”)
- Bad grammar or misuse of punctuation and poor-quality or distorted graphics
- An instruction to click a link to perform an action (hover over them to see where you’re really being directed)
- Obscure sending addresses (for example, Hotmail, gmail, Yahoo addresses should set alarms bells ringing)
Take Action to Defend Your Business
Email attacks can be enormously costly and destructive, and new scams are appearing every week. Don’t wait until it happens to your business; take action to protect your business and your staff from financial and reputational damage, now.
For a few dollars per staff member per month, add MailGuard's cloud-based email and web filtering solution to your business security. You’ll significantly reduce the risk of new variants of malicious email from entering your network. Talk to an expert at MailGuard today about your company's cybersecurity needs: expert@mailguard.com.au
Keep up to date on the latest email scams by subscribing to MailGuard’s weekly update, or follow us on Twitter @MailGuard.
