Industry News Home More stories like this... RSS Feed

Bankers targeted by phishing scam

Customers using Cooper State Bank are being warned about a new text messaging scam aimed at phishing for their personal details.

According to Steve Wartenburg of the Columbus Dispatch, hundreds of text messages began arriving on phones, even of those who were not Cooper customers.

The text messages said: "Your COOPER STATE BANK acct was dezactivated (sic) for expire", accompanied with a phone number to call.

An automated voice then asked callers for personal information including credit card details to "reactivate" the account.

Cooper State spokesman Rick Flowers said: "We started getting calls about them right after noon, about 25 within an hour.

"We were worried at first there was an internal breach of our data, but there wasn't."

It was not known how many customers had been affected, Flowers added, but he said that the company would "probably bite a few bullets on this".

It is the second time in a month that a US bank has been the target of a scam to get customers details; 5,000 customers of US banking group Wells Fargo had their ID stolen by online criminals recently.

PC Tools software protects you and your family against identity theft. Visit www.pctools.com to upgrade your protection