Accounts Warning
Newcastle Herald
Saturday May 6, 2006
THE Newcastle Permanent Building Society has become one of Australia's first non-national financial institutions to fall prey to internet frauds.
Thousands of bogus emails have been circulating this week, purporting to be from Newcastle Permanent's security team and asking members to log in to their online accounts by using the internet link provided.SurfControl, a company that monitors online scams and develops software to combat it, detected the ruse on Thursday.Spokeswoman Ursula Radford said members who opened the email, used the link and entered their log in details risked opening their accounts to whoever started the scam.Ms Radford said frauds commonly targeted the Commonwealth Bank and National Australia Bank.There was one other known instance in Australia, at Bendigo Bank, in which a regional institution, like Newcastle Permanent, had been used.Newcastle Permanent chief executive Fraser Read-Smith said police were told and a warning notice posted on the building society's website as soon as the problem emerged."It is a question of educating people to be cautious," he said. "We have a policy where we don't solicit information via email or ask members to follow internet links."We just have to keep up the campaign and do as much as we can to get the word out to users that they need to be sceptical of anything they receive that looks like something from Newcastle Permanent or some other financial services provider."As of yesterday afternoon there were no reports of members' accounts being accessed without permission.NSW Police fraud squad commander Colin Dyson said such scams often originated overseas, making it complicated to pursue offenders."This sort of thing is becoming more and more prevalent all the time with the improvements in technology that are available to criminals," he said.Those who were caught faced up to 10 years in jail.
© 2006 Newcastle Herald