Phishing email threatens Service Suspension
Another phishing email targeting National Australia Bank users hit the internet over the last few days. This one threatens the user with “online service suspension” if the user does not do what the email says, which is to click on a link that leads to a phishing site.
A sample of the email that was stopped by our email filters is reproduced in Figure A. The subject line of the email reads “Please Update Your Account Information”. The sender of the email is listed as NAB. There is one link present in the email. The email begins with “Dear Valued Customer”. There is no National Australia Bank logo in the email.
Ostensibly, the purpose of the email is to inform the recipient that their “Internet Banking Account details need to be updated”. The email goes on to explain that the National Australia Bank will verify the account details and “Remove any restrictions placed on your account”.
The email then provides a link that the user can click to proceed to verify their account. The email concludes by telling the customer that “Failure to update your information will lead to online service suspension.”
There are a couple of signs that this is a phishing email. Firstly, the National Australia Bank always personalise emails to their customers. More specifically, they will address an email to the account name that they have recorded for a customer.
A general lack of NAB logos could also be seen to disqualify this email as being genuine, but the biggest giveaway comes when checking where the link in the email leads back to. It does not lead back to a National Australia Bank site. Instead it leads to a phishing site.
This email is a simple enough phishing attempt. It is probably one of the more obvious spam emails we’ve looked at over the past few months. However these emails can still fool users. If you do receive this email, delete it.
Scott Reeves
MailShark
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