Dear NatWest bank, I was never your customer.
Spam pretending to be from Natwest bank, rambling on with mindnumbing phrases like: "security and confidentiality are at the heart of Natwest Bankline. Your data (and your money) is protected by a number of technologies, including Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption." then asking me to:"Please login to Natwest online banking using the link below and follow the instructions on the screen." ensures that I will never be your customer, even if I did move back to the UK.
These spams are really beginning to piss me off. Last week alone, I received exactly 467 of these stupid Natwest spams. And it hit me. Phishing spams kill brands. I could never trust a bank that allow their name to be abused in such a way.
So where is the IT-brand-brigade, whose job it is to ensure that the brand isn't sullied by internet bullies? To busy commenting on blogs and youtube I assume - I've seen so many "brand managing" tactics go that route. Stopping spam like these should be part of the online brand managing gig as well. Heck, get together with a bunch of other large banks, and form a taskforce that works on stopping all forms of phishing attempts and use that in your brand communication and I might even begin to trust banks again.
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oh fer cryin' out loud! I had just posted that when I received this in my inbox:
Of course, it's not FROM Natwest, but to a gullible person it really looks like it is. The expanded headers reveal that it's from .es: Received: from 85.136.141.214.dyn.user.ono.com (85.136.141.214.dyn.user.ono.com [85.136.141.214]) - abuse@auna.es just got a report on it.
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PermalinkI quite enjoy following their links, and logging in with an incredibly obscene and imaginative curse. I don't know if anyone ever sees them , but it gives me a bit of satisfaction.
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PermalinkWell someone is doing the phishing so THEY see it. :)
Since posting this I got ten more. Incredibly annoying.
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PermalinkIf you answer it, they know it's going to a live address and you'll only get more.
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PermalinkHadn't thought of that. Crap.
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PermalinkOh I never reply. I get them to dud addreeses such as "gapingvoid@[URL REDACTED]" which was a user-email/his mailinglist way back in 2002 or something.
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PermalinkForward them to the members of the board at NatWest or Royal Bank of Scotland (parent company) then you'll probably find they do something about it.
>> Off to find email address of CEO, see how he/she likes it.
Then again, just thinking - does the CEO of NatWest already receive phishing emails - and does he/she get them for other banks?
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