More banks hit by email fraud

Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | More banks hit by email fraud: "More banks hit by email fraud

Rupert Jones
Tuesday October 28, 2003
The Guardian

Customers of Halifax and Nationwide are the latest to be targeted in a sophisticated email scam to trick users into disclosing their bank passwords, it
was revealed yesterday.

Halifax took the decision to close its online banking operation for almost 48 hours while it attempted to track down the culprits - thought to be Russian fraudsters - and alert its 1.5m online customers to the scam. The online facility and the bank's main website were both switched back on yesterday afternoon. There were signs yesterday that the fraudsters have increased their activity over the past few days, with previously targeted banks coming under fire.

Barclays yesterday revealed that eight or more customers had had money fraudulently taken from their accounts since the bank was first targeted, early last month. All have been refunded in full, said a spokeswoman for the bank, which has 3.9m online customers across Barclays and Woolwich.

NatWest, Lloyds TSB and Citibank have also been hit by the cyber fraud."