Bank Leumi (TASE: LUMI) has announced on its Facebook page that its information security department discovered phishing attempts among bank customers. The bank calls on its customers to be alert and not to click on suspicious sites that resemble the bank's website.
Bank Leumi said that, on Thursday, its information security department discovered a site that was trying to impersonate the bank's website. The bank said that it blocked access to the accounts of a few customers who had attempted to access their accounts via the fake website.
"During the afternoon, Bank Leumi's security staff found a website that was impersonating Leumi's site. The identification was made as soon as it went online, and from that moment, the impersonating website was monitored, and the few customers who unknowingly entered the site and fed their user name and password, had their access immediately blocked. The impersonating website was taken off the web shortly afterwards, and the incident was over," said Bank Leumi.
On Friday, Bank Leumi reiterated the warning, and said that there were also attempts to defraud customers at other Israeli and foreign banks. Bank Leumi said that its information security department was monitoring these attempts, and that it was blocking the accounts of customers who had fallen victim to the phishing. The bank said that it does not normally notify its customers by e-mail.
"In the past few days, we have been seeing repeated phishing attempts on customers of Bank Leumi and other Israeli and foreign companies. Bank Leumi's information security staff are monitoring and following all these attempts, and are blocking in real time the accounts of customers who unwittingly entered the impersonating websites and provided their details," said the bank on its Facebook page.
Phishing is a well-known method hackers use to obtain details about Internet users (such as bank account numbers, credit card numbers, and ID numbers). The victim usually receives an e-mail which looks identical to the design of the real company, and which requests identifying information. Since the design of the malicious e-mail resembles, or is even identical, to the design of the bank, many people are not suspicious and provide the details requested.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on February 10, 2013
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