Australian banks warn of 'phishing' scam

Two large Australian banks were today warning customers about a new email scam that may be targeting their accounts.

The emails, which purport to be from either the National Australia Bank (NAB) or ANZ, direct customers to fake internet sites.

ANZ spokesman Paul Edwards said the bank had identified the "phishing" scam, which triggers the release of a trojan - a program that installs and runs on the victim's computer - after they click on the website link.

He said the bank had not yet determined what the trojan was designed to do, but said trojans generally collected customers' personal details including account passwords.

NAB spokeswoman Mikala Sabin said the website link from the fake emails did not appear to work.

"It's as though the host site has already been disabled or didn't work in the first place, which means details can't be captured," she said.

Both banks said they had alerted customers through their websites and were working with the Australian Federal Police to have the fake internet sites taken down.

Mr Edwards said the ANZ was still investigating the extent of the hoax while Ms Sabin said the NAB had already received 200 emails from customers alerting it to the scam.

"We've got a pretty high awareness among customers now," she said.

"The last time we had a hoax site, in February or March, two of our customers completed their details but we managed to close the site down.

"But we had hundreds of phone calls and emails alerting us to it."

Mr Edwards said the ANZ had "seen fraud levels as a result of phishing attacks plateau over the last 18 months as the community has come much more aware of these sort of emails".

"People should be wary of unsolicited email and certainly not click on links embedded in emails that have the ability to download trojans into people's computers," he said.

Meanwhile, the Commonwealth Bank said it had a similar phishing scam on Sunday night, but had closed the hoax site down by Monday.

- AAP