Yahoo Finance recently reported on a scam where Australian citizens were receiving texts from ‘CommBank’ warning about “abnormal activity”.
Now, it looks like scammers are sending emails from what looks to be from St. George Bank. In a post to the now-closed Facebook group Everything Sutherland Shire, a user alerted community members to emails received by her friend that appeared to be from a bank – that she isn’t a customer of.
The sender of the email says ‘St George Bank’ and the email subject line warns: ‘Your Account Access Has Been Disabled’ and there’s even an attachment to the email.
For all intents and purposes, it looks just like the real deal. In a statement to Yahoo Finance, a St. George Bank spokesperson said scammers use names and logos to pass off as legitimate businesses.
“Through this deception they trick people into giving out personal or banking details,” the spokesperson said. St. George would never ask you to update, verify or change any online banking details directly through an email reply, they added.
“Reporting scams is really important as it allows us to quickly investigate and potentially minimize the chance of others being affected.”
Phishing emails that appear to be from St. George should be forwarded to hoax@stgeorge.com.au, before deleting it from your inbox, your sent folder and your trash folder, the spokesperson said.
The St. George hoax inbox is monitored around the clock, and users will receive an auto-reply to confirm the email has been received.
Those who feel they may have had their security compromised, or notice a transaction that they did not make, should contact St. George immediately on 13 33 30, the spokesperson said.
The Take Away
Yes, Australia is far away – why should we care? It’s because smaller markets are testing grounds, the games before the playoffs as it were. Criminals are practicing and perfecting their game there BEFORE going after the big money – the US market. You can bet that we’re next. Stay vigilant and up to speed on your cyber training and you’ll be fine. Don’t have an ongoing cyber training program at your organization? Feel free to reach out – we can help.
Stay safe out there.
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