Cyber criminals keep a eye on the latest news and do not miss a single chance to cash on any of them. In wake of Government of India Banning Bulk SMS for few days due to some unavoidable reasons, the cyber criminals are using it as latest ploy to dupe banking customers like you and me. This latest attempt I am talking about is for people in India.

I got a email from alleged “**** Bank”. Here I am reproducing it. I am just highlighting a portion of the relevant important points.

Dear Valued Customer ,

In view of the Govt. of India directive to mobile operators, all the corporate sms messaging services have been blocked for the next 72 hours. This period may increase. In view of this exigency, *****  Bank Net Secure Code and transaction alerts delivery has been effected. Therefore, till the Govt. of India permits restoration of the system.

*****  Bank customers may not be able to conduct Internet Banking transactions that use SMS for delivering the NetSecure code. This is a regulation by Govt. of India and beyond  ***** Bank’s control.

We have attached a form to this email. Please DOWNLOAD the form attached to this email so that you can fill and submit it Online to us , so that we can verify your account , After the Govt. of India permits restoration of the system.

NOTE: The form needs to be opened in a modern browser which has javascript enabled ( Internet Explorer 7, Firefox 3, Safari 3, Opera 9)

Here  we can see a different approach. Here’s how the approach is different :

  1. Instead of asking the user to go online, the Phishers want users to download form offline and fill the information on their system to submit it.
  2. Note the last line, which talks about a modern browser which has Javascript enabled. Just by reading this line, I knew some hidden script is inside the source code of the attachment which needs to be download and hence the information you submit will directly be submitted to phishers even you getting a hint of it.

By asking users to download a form online, they are trying to fool users that their info wont go to some fraud as they wont be checking up those security features inside the browser like https and other things.

Also, if you just click on submit form, you are taken to bank website making you feel your info went to bank website, but in reality if you checked the source code of that page, you will find a hidden php link inside which directs all your passwords, credit/debit card numbers, PINs etc to the phisher.

So everyone of you should be aware of these phishing fake emails and Never disclose your critical information like Credit card details, passwords, ATM pins etc to anyone including bank employees. Keep in mind, your bank will never ask for these details  in a email.  Hope this post helps people stay away from these fake emails.