Bank closure phishing scams
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Fraudsters and cybercriminals often leverage public events to make a profit, steal personal information and/or insert malware on victims’ devices. Be wary of incoming emails/texts/phone calls related to recent bank closures as they could be phishing attempts or scams. Attacks may present as offers to: set up a new bank account, recover money, provide assistance, or take part in a lawsuit against the closed banks.
Be on the lookout for Business Email Compromise (BEC). These are emails that appear to be from a legitimate company or individual claiming that they were clients of the closed banks and that they need to update the bank account information that you have on file. They could be fraudsters trying to re-direct payments to accounts that they have opened.
Example 1 - Phishing:
A fraudster may send you an email that appears to come from a recently closed bank. The email indicates that your funds are safe and that they have been temporarily moved to a new account. The request asks that you click on the link and enter all your information into the site to access your new account and funds; the request is urgent. You enter your information on the new site; however, the next time you select the link in the email, the site cannot be accessed. You realize you have just given your personal information to a fraudster.
Example 2 - Business Email Compromise:
You work in Accounts Payable at a Small Organization and receive an email from the CEO of one of your suppliers. The email indicates they no longer have accounts with the closed bank. They are now banking with XYZ Bank and request that you send all payments to the new accounts, which are included in the email. Your policy is to confirm change requests of this nature by phone at a tenured number with a known person at the company. When you call the CEO on the phone number in your records, she confirms she never sent the email.
What to look out for:
Phishing:
- Requests for personal information
- Requests to complete web forms
- A sense of urgency or consequence if you don’t respond quickly
- Fake links, which can be identified by hovering over them
- Generic greetings instead of your name
- Emails, texts, or calls from unfamiliar or suspicious sources
- Email addresses that are inconsistent with the legitimate company’s email domain (e.g., john.smith@bmo.org when it should be john.smith@bmo.com) and email addresses with misspelled or added characters
Business Email Compromise:
- Requests that involve excessive urgency, persuasion, pressure, or manipulation
- Requests to change destination payment information, including account number, phone number, address, country
- Requests to send funds to a new/different account that does not match your existing records
Things you can do to protect yourself:
- Learn common social engineering ploys and methods of cyber and fraud attacks
- Slow down – don’t select links or respond to emails that appear suspicious or unusual
- Always verbally validate requests by calling a known contact on a tenured phone number on file; do not use the phone number provided in the email