[LINK] NAB Bank Scam Shut Down fast

[Adam Todd]

Overall good news.  But a sad statement on our society.

Decades ago "gossip" would have put an end to this, or made it bounce out 
of control.  Remember John Laws and the St George Is Bankrupt saga of the 
1980's when customers rushed to withdraw their money, almost sending the 
now Bank into liquidation?

Well, it's the same today.  We focus on dobbing in Parents because of 
scrapped knees or because they do things differently resulting in children 
being taken from innocent parents.  Or we'll take the word of a Father who 
hasn't lived with his the Son for more than 15 years that the son doesn't 
sleep and abuses his wife and has threatened to kill everyone so puts him 
in a mental hospital.

And so on ...

But we'll happily go off to a web site and click a link and enter our most 
critical access details because an e-mail says to do it.

The email says "All bank customers" but did anyone, ok only two in this 
instance, but did they call a friend who is always with the bank and say 
"Hey did you get this?"

No.

Why?

I'm an NAB customer and I didn't get such an e-mail!  But no one asked 
me.  Yet many would be happy to dob me in for having a green pool during 
winter, or flying an aboriginal flag on my home, or putting a legal 
shipping container on my property and so on.

Ahhh well, I guess I have to look on the bright side, if everyone who does 
the wrong thing, does do the wrong thing, then it's their bank account and 
not mine being cleaned out :)



http://www.smh.com.au/news/Technology/Internet-bank-scam-uncovered/2005/02/08/1107625202518.html

Internet bank scam uncovered
February 9, 2005

A US-based internet banking scam targeting National Australia Bank 
customers in Australia has been uncovered, a bank spokeswoman said.

A scattergun approach was employed by the cyber thieves as emails were sent 
to NAB and non-NAB customers alike.

Under a NAB letterhead, customers were asked to click on a site address and 
enter their account details due to a software upgrade.

"This instruction has been sent to all bank customers and is obligatory to 
follow," the message said.

Of the bank's thousands of customers, only two followed the instructions 
before the site was shut down, NAB spokeswoman Mikala Sabin said on Tuesday.

She said the bank would never send an email asking for such details, and 
people banking on the internet had to be wary.

"We only had a couple of customers who actually replied but we've blocked 
their accounts and they haven't experienced any fraud," Ms Sabin said.

"If they [cyber thieves] get the password and other things they can access 
other people's accounts.

"In this instance we closed it all down very quickly and no one was affected.

"But we have to be very quick to it because once someone has your details 
its very hard to determine in an online environment whether it's the real 
person or not."

It is the second time the scam has been tried on NAB customers in six months.

Westpac customers were targeted on January 25.

A Westpac spokeswoman was unable to say on Tuesday whether any Westpac 
customers had entered their details or had money stolen.