Magdeburg, Germany (dpa) - Internet users should not reveal sensitive data in telephone conversations initiated through suspicious e-mail messages. The request to call a number provided in an e-mail message is the latest variant of what has become known as phishing.
The telephone call is answered by a speech recognition computer, which in turn requests information such as your bank account number. The information is collected not by legitimate businesses, however, but rather by swindlers, explains Andreas Marx from the firm AV-Test in Magdeburg, Germany.
"Banks would never request that kind of thing by e-mail," the specialist in commercial computing warns.
"Phishing by telephone is only the newest variant of a familiar trick," explains Marx, who also tests virus protection software in collaboration with the University of Magdeburg. In general, internet users should never provide credit card numbers or passwords based on an e-mail message.
"If you have doubts, give your bank a call using the numbers provided in your statements and ask about it." Like banks, Ebay has announced publicly that it will never ask its members by e-mail for sensitive data.
Phishing involves the theft and abuse of sensitive data. Classical phishing uses e-mail messages with forged sender names seeking to entice readers to click on a hyperlink in the e-mail. That in turn leads to fraudulent websites that then requests data. E-mail claiming to originate from manufacturers of virus protection programmes should also raise red flags. In that case, the click could actually switch off the software's automatic update of virus definitions, Marx warns.
Phishing e-mail messages often include unrealistic promises or pressure to act quickly. "As soon as I receive an e-mail message that promises quick money or the loss of an account, I should be sceptical," Andreas Marx says. The phishers often make foolish mistakes of their own, though:
"A German bank doesn't write in English, and if they do, you can bet that it will not have spelling errors."
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