Phishing Scam Email

Identify a phishing scam email which looks as though it has been sent by FNB, Standard Bank, Nedbank or Absa by following one golden rule: NEVER send personal information in an email or provide personal information after clicking on an email link. Types of Internet related scams such as these often rear their ugly heads in South Africa and the criminals behind them are getting sharper and making things look more legitimate. By refusing to submit personal information such as bank account details, PIN numbers and telephone numbers you can be certain you will avoid being caught.

Essentially these phishing scam criminals are sending emails to large numbers of people and a surprising amount of victims do actually fall for it and get tricked into submitting personal details. The reason being that some of the mails are very professionally created and look exactly like they have been sent by the major South African banks such as FNB, Nedbank, Absa and Standard Bank. What these criminals do with your personal details once they have them varies according to the types of crimes online they are involved with.

Some of them may phone you if you have provided them with your telephone number and may pretend to be a bank official trying to con you into supplying more of your personal details such as PIN numbers etc. If they get a hold of your bank account details they may contact you to pretend they have deposited a certain amount of money into your account by mistake. You are then requested to pay the money back to them only to find out later that the deposit they claimed to have made was in fact fraudulent even though it may have reflected on your account! These are just a few brief and common methods criminals use after sending out the latest phising scam, there are many others.