Miss Scarborough conned by phish

Identity thieves have stolen £10,000 from the bank account of Miss Scarborough after she fell foul of an email phishing fraud.

Jade Saunders, a 20-year-old student who was crowned Miss Scarborough in April, clicked on a link purporting to be from her bank Halifax. The link took her to a genuine-looking website.

However, the website was a fake site set up to defraud surfers. Ms Saunders entered her account information following a request for her bank details to be updated.

This let the cybercriminals set up a standing order on her account for £10,000. Ms Saunders, who is a semi-finalist in Miss England 2008, was only made aware of the scam when she visited her branch and noticed that one of her accounts was £3,000 overdrawn.

Ms Saunders has gone public with the case as she wants to warn others about the dangers of giving out sensitive information.

She said: "I'm not naive and I wouldn't just reply to something because it looks authentic. If you get one of these emails just delete it straightaway."

"Although these phishing attacks are nothing new, sadly Miss Scarborough is unlikely to be alone in her misfortune," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for IT security firm Sophos.

Mr Cluley added that research from the Anti-Phishing Working Group reveals that phishers are able to convince up to five per cent of recipients to reply to the kind of email sent to Miss Scarborough.

He warned people not to follow any links and instead to visit their bank's website by typing its address into the browser.

A spokesman for Halifax said that: "No bank at all would email you and ask you to disclose confidential information. This is a common fraud and we operate an online fraud guarantee. In all instances when people receive this type of email they should delete it straightaway."

Sophos has additional tips on how to avoid falling victim to online banking fraud.

For further advice on internet security from phishing to pharming and spyware checking visit Web User's Essential Guide to online safety advice.

www.sophos.com
www.antiphishing.org