Fraudulent scheme targeting Santander

A new significant wave of e-mail spam purporting to verify and reinforce the “account against ID Theft” leads the credulous or inadvertent users to a collection of Web pages meant to steal and empty their bank accounts.

The on-line forms that claim to pertain to the financial institution`s portal spoof several visual identification elements, such as the logo and general layout. Additionally, the pages are not registered onto a .co.uk domain (but .com) and are totally lacking any specific security elements, such as the locked padlock.

The phishers steal the sensitive data that the user is required to confirm via two PHP scripts: mainfile.dists.php ” used to pilfer the 8 digit customer ID, and formmailerv2.php ” which purloins the customer PIN, place of birth, mother’s maiden name, password and transfer password, telephone banking PIN, card number and CVC.

As always, be suspicious of e-mails alleging to be from your bank ” financial institutions never contact their customers via e-mail to verify sensitive information ” and double-check the security elements of the login page of your e-banking portal. Last but not least, keep your antiphishing on and up-to-date.

The information in this article is available courtesy of Daniel Dichiu, BitDefender Online Threats Researcher.