E-mails from your bank – “Phishing”

The Reeve’s Tale recently received an e-mail supposedly from HSBC bank asking if we had changed the address and please to click on a link and contact them. 

The link given was very similar to the bank’s proper address but led to an unfamiliar gobbledygook address that looked exactly like the bank’s home page but was not prefixed “ https”  to indicate it was a secure site.

It was clearly a crooked attempt to discover log-on details so that money could be stolen from the account.

Banks are aware of these scams  and they never send e-mails to customers asking for information of any sort.

The incident was reported to HSBC and here is their reply:

We are aware that customers and non-customers are now receiving "scam" e-mails from individuals alleging to be from or related to HSBC.

Customers and non-customers are advised that HSBC would never send e-mails asking for confidential information to be recorded online or give instructions such as those described.

Any such messages should be deleted.  Our IT security team will already be aware of this message and will be acting immediately to protect our mutual interests.

You may wish to review our current security guidance on matters such as online fraud and "phishing", by clicking on the link "Find out what we do to keep you secure online", which is available at www.hsbc.co.uk/securitymatters.

Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention.

Shirley Wong
Customer Service Representative
HSBC Internet Banking Customer Support

The editor has seen similar attempts purporting to be from Barclays Bank and  PayPal.

Do beware of  these hoaxes.   They are extremely dangerous. 

The above HSBC Security Matters link led me, amongst other suggestions, to www.microsoft.com/security  where I found a very useful free virus scan for Windows XP users and a free anti-spyware program called Defender.  No need to pay for this sort of protection. You can get it free from Microsoft and others. Ed.