British bank Natwest today warned customers of a new round of fraud e-mails that are trying to trick people into revealing passwords and security number.
A bank spokeswoman told ireland.comthis morning that the e-mails are examples of a common type of fraud known as "phishing".
"When customers log onto our online banking service they will only ever be asked for random digits or letters from their password and PIN. We would urge any customer receiving an e-mail requesting such information not to open or reply to the sender of the message but to attach it to a new e-mail and forward it us at phishing@natwest.comand delete the suspect e-mail immediately," the spokeswoman said.
"This type of fraud is totally random and is an industry wide issue which is perpetrated against many banks."
The e-mail appears as though it has been sent by Natwest bank and strongly advises the consumer to complete an online banking customer form by clicking on the fake link contained in the e-mail.
The fake is easily spotted in that it starts with "http://onlinesession-08020600" rather than the genuine Natwest internet site which starts with "http://www.natwest.com/"
Una Dillon, head of Card Services at the Irish Payment Services Organisation, said: "Consumers should never give out personal information via the Internet unless they are 100 per cent confident that they are visiting an authentic website.
"The best way to ensure this is to avoid following links in e-mails. Online banking users should always type the URL of the website they wish to visit into the navigation bar themselves."
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