New wave of bank phishing emails noted

A computer security firm has noted a “wave” of phishing attacks targeting mainly customers of some banks in the United States, United Kingdom,New Zealand and Australia.

Computer security firm Sophos said the emails in the latest wave all include a HTML document as an attachment with a form to fill out.

“Some purport to be a survey for you to fill out and be paid $35 for participating, while others say your account has been suspended until you verify your identity,” it said in a blog post.

It said that when the victim opens the attachment, it prompts them to answer some survey questions and provide some details including:

• Social Security Number
• Card number
• Card expiration
• CVV
• ATM PIN
• First, Middle and Last name
• Email
• Address
• Mother’s maiden name
• Place of birth
• Birthday

“Ironically they mailed you the form,” Sophos said of the request for email address.

Sophos also said the attackers appear to be posting the stolen information to compromised hosts in Iran (Tehran), USA (Yahoo!) and Japan. — TJD, GMA News