Beware and protect yourself from phishing scams
Home page>News>Beware and protect yourself from phishing scams>
8/2/2021

Beware and protect yourself from phishing scams

Recently, the local media has warned a number of cases in which customers received text messages or emails impersonating local banks with content that requires login to an online bank account to receive rewards or even for better account security provided with a phishing link. The domain misleads customers as it’s similar with the authentic banking brand domains. Once there, you are asked to disclose confidential financial and personal identifiable information, like passwords, OTP, credit card numbers, CVV or National ID numbers.

To increase the trust among customers, fraudsters have invested in generating appealing content via text messages or emails. It can be a big winning announcement, or some serious consequences related to account security if you do not log in and take action immediately.

How to recognize phishing

Scammers often update their tactics, but there are some signs that will help customer recognize a phishing email or text message and protect themselves from becoming a victim of fraudsters.

- Phishing emails and text messages may look like they’re from a company you know or trust. They may look like they’re from a bank, a credit card company, a social networking site, an online payment website or app, or an online store. Even more tricky is the message provided with the trusted brand name displayed as the sender which is often called Brandname SMS.

- Phishing emails and text messages often tell a story of new news or awards to trick you into clicking on a link or opening an attachment. They may

  • Threatens to close or suspend customer’s account if they do not provide or verify personal information.
  • Claims that customer’s account has been compromised or that there has been fraudulent activity on their account and requests to enter, validate or verify their account information.
  • States that there are unauthorized charges on customer’s account and requests their account information to support any investigation.
  • Claims that the bank has lost important security information and needs customer to update their information online.
  • Asks customer to enter their card number, password, access code or account numbers into an email, pop-up window, form or non-secure webpage.
  • Asks customer to confirm, validate, verify, or refresh their account, credit card, or financial information.
  • Offer a coupon for free stuff.
  • Announce the customer as a winner of a real promotion run by the impersonated banks.

- Notice of times that customers may get fraudulent text messages, emails. Scammers often choose times when customers are most vulnerable to their guard, as well as times when banks or financial companies are inactive to limit or delay customers' access to support - such as at midnight, dawn, weekend, holidays etc....

Stay Alert - Preventative Measures

Always remember that bank and financial company will never send you unsolicited emails or text messages asking for confidential information, such as your password, PIN or OPT code, access code, credit card, loan accounts and account numbers. We will never ask you to validate or restore your account access through email or pop-up windows without a customer’s request.

Therefore, we would like to recommend the following practices for better early prevention:

  • Never click on a link in an email, text message or pop-up window to go to a site. Type, or cut and paste, the URL into a new web browser window.
  • Never call a number appearing on an email/ text message you suspect is fraudulent. When you call, a person or an automated response asks for your personal and/or account information.
  • If customer do have a relationship with the banks and company mentioned in the email/text message, be alert and cautious by calling the official hotline or reach out to its official customer service email, or official social media accounts (normally found with an authentic green check) ​​for the accurate information.
  • If you don’t have any financial relationship with those mentioned banking brands, the best action would be to delete that text message or email.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shinhan Finance is a consumer finance company and all products and loan application can be found at our website www.shinhanfinance.com.vn.

  • Contact us for help

If you ever have concerns as to the legitimacy of email, social account, a call, please contact us via one of the following channels:

Continue reading