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Johannesburg - Fraudsters have launched a new sophisticated phishing attack on internet banking customers, Standard Bank warned on Monday.
Phishing attacks occur when fraudsters, pretending to be from financial institutions, send an email to internet banking customers to trick them into revealing personal banking information.
The recipient is usually told to visit a website where they are asked to enter information such as Personal Identification Numbers (PINs), bank card details or bank account numbers.
The fraudulent website is generally identical to the financial institutions and customers would find it difficult to distinguish them.
Peter Schlebusch, deputy chief executive, personal and business banking at Standard Bank South Africa said: "This latest attack is very high tech.
"The fraudsters ask customers to divulge very specific information like card and PIN numbers as well as e-mail addresses.
"The fraudsters have generated a carbon copy of Standard Bank's website to fool customers into believing they are on the Standard Bank website.
"Customers are lured to this site via an email. Standard Bank will under no circumstances ever ask its customers for this type of information. PINs are secret and only customers should know their own number."
Several customers have, unfortunately, divulged their information and have had their accounts compromised. However no customers have suffered any losses.
Standard Bank advises customers not to divulge personal information like card numbers and PINs to third parties.
Schlebusch said: "Customers should view e-mails from strange sources with the same amount of suspicion as they would the person behind them in an ATM queue.
"Your personal details are just as vulnerable in cyber space as they are in the real world if the correct precautions are not taken.
"Customers acting responsibly by keeping their personal details confidential are our first line of defence against online fraudsters.
"Knowing and understanding the security environment is important so as to not fall victim to these syndicates."