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International fraudsters are using "phishing" scam e-mails to try to con people into giving them their account details, the banks have said in a renewed warning.
Internet users are being urged to ignore e-mails from high street banks and building societies requesting account your personal details. "Phishing" is used by fraudsters and organised crime gangs to gain your bank details.
The Association for Payment Clearing Services (APACS) has said it was worried by a surge in phishing scam e-mails over the last few months.
Phishing "scamsters" pose as a bank or building society, to request personal details as part of a bogus.
If the customer falls for the e-mail scam and enters his or her details, the scamsters can empty that account or use it to launder money.
A spokeswoman for the National High-Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU) warned that the scam companies were using ever more ways to expand their illegal earnings.
The "phishing" gangs were now using "mules" recruited through online job websites to withdraw the cash from the duped customers' accounts before it is then wired to the criminals, she said.
"What we are seeing now is that instead of money going straight from the account into the criminal's account what they are doing is 'washing' it through these `mules'," she said.
In the past, customers of many of the UK's major High Street banks such as Natwest, Barclays, Lloyds TSB and the Halifax have been targeted.
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Banks and the NCTHU are working around the clock to close the phishing sites.
The spokeswoman for the NHTCU, which is investigating the fraud, said high street banks had been working closely together to combat the scam.
"They got together quite quickly at the beginning and I have seen the marketing material that they are sending out," she said.
"There is not a lot more they can do apart from warn customers of the danger.
"A lot of people are not falling for it but some people still are".
"The problem is that it is such an easy thing to do. You just send out loads of spam emails and hope that 1% of them will hit."
The main thing to remember is that banks and building societies do not e-mail their customers requesting any account information.
If you are in doubt, look up the telephone number of your local bank in the Yellow Pages and give them a call, you will usually find a call centre number on the back of your credit or debit card.
As part of good practice, never give out your personal details over the Internet unless you are sure that the site is a secured one. |
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