Co-op and Smile bank phishing attacks: protect yourself now!

Fri 23 Sep 2011, 18:02

Probably the simplest solution is never to click on any e-mail link that claims to be taking you to a site with which you have a monetary relationship.

If you get a message from the Co-op Bank saying "you need to access your account", open your browser and navigate to the Co-op Bank in the usual way (bookmark, or typing in the URL, or Googling). Unless you are good enough at working your e-mail program that you can manually inspect the source of each message, it's not worth taking the risk.

Fri 23 Sep 2011, 16:48

My understanding is - from various sources in the past - that if you download Rapport and then decide for whatever reason that you don't want it any more, it's no easy task to get rid of it. Yes, it's designed to provide an additional layer of protection against the phishers, which is indeed a good thing, but apparently it can also get in the way of genuine sites as well, which can be a niusance.

More to the point is to have your e-mail system set up so that you can only accept bank messages from addresses that you know to be genuine - your bank should tell you which these are (and not by e-mail either ....)

Fri 23 Sep 2011, 12:08

If you're a customer of the Co-operative or Smile banks, and even if you are not, then like me you'll probably be getting an email looking just like the ones you usually get, inviting you to log in and download your latest statement.

If you have so far ignored your bank's free offer of the Trusteer 'Rapport' software, IGNORE IT NO LONGER. Download it for free from the bank's website, and don't risk clicking the link in the email until you have it installed. 'Rapport' identifies fraudulent websites and warns you before you access them.

If you don't know about 'phishing', here's the explanation they give:

"Designed by criminals, phishing websites are fake websites that looks very similar to your bank's website. Criminals create them to lure you into visiting and submitting your online banking log-in information, such as usernames and passwords, to such sites. This data can later used by the criminals to access your online bank account and commit fraud, for example by transferring money out of your account.

This is where Rapport's new Fraud Prevention feature comes into play. Trusteer Rapport has comprehensive capabilities to accurately detect phishing websites very early in their life span. A warning about every suspicious website is provided to stop you from falling victim to phishing related fraud.

If you were trying to reach the webpage through a link, then the source of that link is most likely fraudulent, for example an email asking you to log into your account.
To reach the real web page to which you have intended to browse, please use your bookmarks or favorites, search for the web page in a search engine (e.g. Google) or type in the web address manually."

If you don't bank with Smile or the Co-op, check your bank's website: some other banks offer Rapport for free too.