Russian mafia 'in fake bank sites'
Source: Finance News AU, July 4, 2003
THE Russian mafia could be behind the latest phoney websites designed to steal money from customers of two main Australian banks.
ANZ Banking Group Ltd and Westpac Banking Corp Ltd today called in the Australian Federal Police to help shut down the imitation websites sourced to the United States
An ANZ spokesman said organised crime was suspected to be behind the websites while an industry source pointed the finger at the Russian mafia.
The source said setting up a fake website and spam e-mail was not something that could be done on the cheap.
"It requires a lot of resources and some previous fake websites had links back to Russian organised crime," he said.
The ANZ spokesman said the object of the scam was to capture customers' details and "use them for fraudulent purposes".
A spam e-mail was circulated inviting ANZ customers to click through to the imitation site.
ANZ said when the link in the e-mail was clicked on, the imitation site was apparent through its web address which was a series of numbers rather than www.anz.com.
ANZ customers were advised to ignore the e-mail and connect only to the bank's web site www.anz.com.
ANZ said it needed the AFP's help to communicate with authorities in the US to tell the relevant service provider to shut down the imitation site.
"Given that these imitation websites are popping up with disturbingly regularity, police are much better equipped to move quickly," the ANZ spokesman said.
"These websites are going up in jurisdictions outside Australia and it is a matter of continuing to raise consumer awareness of internet-related frauds which are being perpetrated, often by organised crime."
Westpac said today it was in the process of closing down an imitation website with the help of federal police.
Westpac was previously been hit by an imitation site on March 27, and said pranksters were at work.
It said at the time the false site had no functionality and its operators could not obtain data from the bank's online banking customers.
The ANZ said if customers received unsolicited e-mail from ANZ asking them to log on to sites, in 100 per cent of cases they were fraudulent.
"ANZ does not ask people over the telephone or e-mail to log on to its site to update details or to provide details," he said.
He said there had been no indications that customers were defrauded today but the last time such a scam was tried a number of ANZ customers did lose money.
He said those people now had new passwords and their accounts were being monitored to make sure there were no irregular withdrawals.
"Certainly, if there are fraudulent transactions we will stand by those customers and refund money that has been fraudulently obtained," he said.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia Ltd and AMP Banking also have been targeted this year by people using fake websites to mimic official sites.
A National Bank of Australia Ltd spokesman said it had not yet been targeted but it was keeping a close watch on the matter "given what is happening with the other majors".
Source: Finance News AU, July 4, 2003
THE Russian mafia could be behind the latest phoney websites designed to steal money from customers of two main Australian banks.
ANZ Banking Group Ltd and Westpac Banking Corp Ltd today called in the Australian Federal Police to help shut down the imitation websites sourced to the United States
An ANZ spokesman said organised crime was suspected to be behind the websites while an industry source pointed the finger at the Russian mafia.
The source said setting up a fake website and spam e-mail was not something that could be done on the cheap.
"It requires a lot of resources and some previous fake websites had links back to Russian organised crime," he said.
The ANZ spokesman said the object of the scam was to capture customers' details and "use them for fraudulent purposes".
A spam e-mail was circulated inviting ANZ customers to click through to the imitation site.
ANZ said when the link in the e-mail was clicked on, the imitation site was apparent through its web address which was a series of numbers rather than www.anz.com.
ANZ customers were advised to ignore the e-mail and connect only to the bank's web site www.anz.com.
ANZ said it needed the AFP's help to communicate with authorities in the US to tell the relevant service provider to shut down the imitation site.
"Given that these imitation websites are popping up with disturbingly regularity, police are much better equipped to move quickly," the ANZ spokesman said.
"These websites are going up in jurisdictions outside Australia and it is a matter of continuing to raise consumer awareness of internet-related frauds which are being perpetrated, often by organised crime."
Westpac said today it was in the process of closing down an imitation website with the help of federal police.
Westpac was previously been hit by an imitation site on March 27, and said pranksters were at work.
It said at the time the false site had no functionality and its operators could not obtain data from the bank's online banking customers.
The ANZ said if customers received unsolicited e-mail from ANZ asking them to log on to sites, in 100 per cent of cases they were fraudulent.
"ANZ does not ask people over the telephone or e-mail to log on to its site to update details or to provide details," he said.
He said there had been no indications that customers were defrauded today but the last time such a scam was tried a number of ANZ customers did lose money.
He said those people now had new passwords and their accounts were being monitored to make sure there were no irregular withdrawals.
"Certainly, if there are fraudulent transactions we will stand by those customers and refund money that has been fraudulently obtained," he said.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia Ltd and AMP Banking also have been targeted this year by people using fake websites to mimic official sites.
A National Bank of Australia Ltd spokesman said it had not yet been targeted but it was keeping a close watch on the matter "given what is happening with the other majors".
