Phishing attacks that offer cash 

Recently customers of Citizens Bank have experienced a new type of phishing attack. The customers of Citizens Bank get a message from a spoof site of Citizens Bank asking the recipients to complete an online survey form. The bank will credit $5 to their accounts as reward. To receive $5 credit the customers must enter his credit card number and PIN.

The customers of bank receive the email message having title "Citizens Bank instant $5 reward survey," It has ditto logo as Citizens bank, the only difference is that it has grammatical errors in the message.

Generally legitimate banks would never ask customer to provide credit card number and PIN. Since this message comes from spoof or dummy site of Citizens Bank and customers fail to discriminate between legitimate and spoof site and they fall prey to such phishing attacks.

Advancements in phishing scams 

The huge success behind such phishing attacks is due to developments and advancements in phishing scams. The phishers have learned new coding tricks and sophisticated techniques to implant backdoor Trojans on victim's machines.

The experts have analyzed these messages and found that the scam is being hosted by ISPs in England and the Netherlands. These new kind of phishing attacks have surprised the experts and they told that this is the first time that phishers have offered cash to lure the recipients into responding to their surveys.

This attack is new type of phishing attack where the phishers have changed their traditional method of trying to trap recipients by their phishing attacks with messages saying that users' accounts have to be updated to avoid cancellation.

Offering a cash incentive for responding to online survey takes the phishing scams to an entirely new level, and experts are confident that such attacks will gain huge success.

Important tips to remember 

• Legitimate bank sites never ask you to provide credit card number and PIN.

• Never fill online survey forms, that ask you to furnish credit card number, PIN, and personal information etc.

•  If you have any doubt for the email from your bank, asking you for your personal and financial details do phone call to your bank to confirm it.

• Take the help of Anti Phishing Working Group (APWG). Always remember to report phishing to Anti Phishing Working Group.

•  If you receive emails that ask you to furnish credit card number, PIN, and personal information etc., you should report them to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

•  Lust for money is always bad. It is injurious to your financial health. You must always remember not to respond such type of emails, simply delete them.

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