Password changes slam door on banking details scam

By RENEE KIRIONA

Westpac says more than 200 of its clients were stung in an an online banking scam which is now under control.

About 1200 clients had changed their passwords yesterday as a result of the scam, bank spokesman Paul Gregory said.

"Most of them were never fooled by the email but just wanted reassurance so changed their details.

"We are pretty confident now that it [the scam] is shut down but will continue to keep an eye on it."

The bank's investigation into whether there had been tampering with the accounts of the 200 clients who did pass on their details was continuing.

The scam started when email was sent over the weekend asking Westpac customers to confirm their email address by following a link to a fake website that resembled that of the bank.

Having followed the link, customers were then asked to reveal their login names and passwords - effectively giving the fraudsters access to the customers' online accounts.

Mr Gregory said clients should not lose confidence over online banking with Westpac because its website was not breached and was totally secure.

The police electronic crime laboratory has determined that the email was sent from the Netherlands, the link was traced to a website in Russia and the pop-up box (into which customers were asked to enter their details) came from a site in Britain.

A similar scam hit customers of the Commonwealth Bank, which owns Westpac NZ, and ASB Bank in Australia this year.

In the United States online scams, half of them auctions, cost Americans US$18 million ($29.6 million) last year. Other scams included non-delivery of promised merchandise, credit-card fraud and an infamous letter fraud originating from Nigeria.