ABSA phishing warning
The proliferation of phishing scams is increasing by leaps and bounds, as is the first-glance trust one may place in certain emails and websites that mimic services provided by real corporations. About two weeks ago, I received an email prompting me to enter my FNB account details. Today’s email from ABSA’s Online Account Directives is similar, but leads to a website that is an absolute dead ringer for the real thing.
Once again: the first thing to tip you off to the fact that this is a scam is the simple fact that no financial institution will ever request you to enter or update any information in this way. Still unsure? Pick up the telephone and call the call centre to find out whether or not a communication of this nature could be legitimate. In any case, I advise you not to react but simply to turf the email into your trash can and report it to the bank. In my case, GMail already completed the first step.
But since I enjoy sifting through my trash…I had a look at where the URL in the mail links. Even the mail is convincing, including a logo and various other details that make it look official. The URL in the mail does not, of course, link anywhere near the actual ABSA online banking website, a website you would generally not access directly but rather click on a link on the actual ABSA home page. The fraudster who has compiled this email has made use of the same trick the FNB email employed: spell out the URL to dupe the user into believing the actual text leads to the real website. Clicking on the URL leads to the following address: http://64.23.6.160/Renew/Main.html instead of the official https://ib.absa.co.za/ib/ib.jsp.
The fake website is absolutely indistinguishable from the real thing:
The only clue to indicate that the website is not the real ABSA online banking portal is the URL displayed in the address bar of the browser:
This is one scam that will catch many victims. As with the FNB scam, Firefox blocks access to the site whereas Internet Explorer does not.
Click with care and don’t divulge information anywhere without taking precautions.
