BML ‘phishing’ website targets mobile banking customers
01 Nov 2010, 2:59 PM
Ahmed Nazeer
The Bank of Maldives (BML) yesterday issued a statement warning that fraudsters had created a false BML website to deceive the company’s mobile banking service customers, obtaining their bank account number, credit card number and its security code through the fraudulent website.
The fraudsters were inviting BML customers to their fraudulent website under the bankofmaldives.net domain by sending text messages from 00455, claiming it was a registration website for the BML mobile banking service.
The fraud, known as ‘phishing’, is relatively common in the Western world and many banks instruct their customers to never access their website by clicking a link in an email. Technology analyst group Gartner estimate that 3.6 million adults fell victim to such scams in the 12 months ending August 2007, losing US$3.2 billion in the process.
Since then phishing attacks have become markedly more targeted and refined, with the emergence of ‘spear-phishing’, with individual and high-value targets such as corporate account executives being targeted.
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