Phishing scams which target customers of banks have been around a number of years now and there seems to have been another increase in this type of phishing activity over the last few weeks.

According to a spokesperson from Permanent TSB there has been a rise in Phishing emails in Ireland in recent weeks and branding from various financial institutions is being used to try and con customers into handing over account details. The Permanent TSB bank seems to be the most popular bank to use by the cyber criminals. The fake email tells recipients that their bank account has been locked for security reasons and gives them instructions to download a form which will reset the account. The form asks the recipient to fill in information such as their online account number, name, internet password, personal access number and their mobile phone number.

The spokesperson from the bank said that they will never send customers unsolicited emails asking you to click on links. They also went on to say they would never ask for information such as passwords or account numbers through email. The bank has a message warning customers to be aware of such Phishing scams on the webpage where customers login into their accounts. The bank also encourages people who receive such Phishing emails to get in touch with the bank with the details.

Cyber criminals are also targeting employees in businesses with phishing emails hoping to con employees into clicking on malicious links or passing over login details for systems which the cyber criminals can the use to gain access to corporate networks. The financial sector was the most targeted sector in 2012 with over one third of Phishing emails targeting that sector (apwg, 2013).

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Sources: The Journal.ie, apwg