Dear Natwest bank, phishing spam is killing your brand.
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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comments
- Ha! While I'm sure that was
10 min ago - I'm so shallow on this but
1 hour 3 min ago - Coke is a great example of
3 hours 16 min ago - imagine if the guy was a girl
3 hours 55 min ago - Impressive. Did your mom
1 day 2 hours ago - Nobody on this website would
1 day 3 hours ago - Spam link removed because you
1 day 4 hours ago - Massive aneurysm in all
1 day 5 hours ago - Thanks I needed this. I
1 day 5 hours ago - BMW have come up with some
1 day 5 hours ago
oh fer cryin' out loud! I had just posted that when I received this in my inbox:
Dear customer of NatWest bank,
We are running a scheduled maintenance on our servers. We want to make sure your money and your personal details are safe and secure.
Due to new security policies all NatWest bank customers must complete the Natwest Customer Form.
To complete the form, please use the link below:
Natwest Customer Form
This should take you directly to the Natwest Customer Form.
Sincerely,
Natwest Customer Service
*************************************************************************************************************
0x6, 0x8, 0x2, 0x5, 0x94212999, 0x08, 0x66, 0x99226766, 0x471, 0x4039, 0x00854498, 0x24501587, 0x851, 0x3 hex, hex, R581, 33E, AEI, WAW, 7HE, api, serv 0x1,
0x485, 0x470, 0x6965, 0x4927, 0x301, 0x69, 0x58, 0x4791, 0x368, 0x346 6618008134109222962196567423772769 0x03, 0x3220, 0x0, 0x77, 0x21961869, 0x21871475, 0x0,
0x1, 0x93089631, 0x87470155, 0x66 U2K: 0x3660, 0x86872410, 0x8, 0x3, 0x71757152, 0x72, 0x096, 0x42, 0x9777, 0x799, 0x7, 0x515 0x9, 0x806, 0x96914978, 0x81,
0x1541, 0x603, 0x545, 0x13, 0x3, 0x6272, 0x2727, 0x381, 0x18899993, 0x6, 0x077 0XB5: 0x0621, 0x97929935, 0x14256014, 0x3793, 0x05, 0x84560737, 0x938, 0x523,
0x7, 0x8769, 0x9, 0x90, 0x49 function: 0x2610, 0x1884, 0x266, 0x15, 0x5139, 0x8, 0x9, 0x441, 0x671, 0x7, 0x9 OFQY: 0x9, 0x1, 0x3, 0x9, 0x51, 0x27
0x555, 0x1, 0x73, 0x4, 0x629, 0x44, 0x6412, 0x07, 0x20505457 0x824, 0x8285 0x4493, 0x50875872, 0x2, 0x487, 0x910, 0x0014, 0x45, 0x6, 0x3331, 0x152, 0x43,
0x79222139, 0x4 rcs, KJZE, function, TQI1, include, SDY, end 0x9809, 0x85189796, 0x64197174, 0x3795 90554498361 0x103, 0x5, 0x0, 0x7, 0x1, 0x806, 0x102,
0x95380417, 0x517, 0x8, 0x9769 include interface file BPDF LKF type 0x9616, 0x97453123, 0x1, 0x78, 0x1675, 0x49, 0x00, 0x3935, 0x68816022, 0x66, 0x3, 0x3467
0x3, 0x200, 0x0185, 0x3, 0x42, 0x51211120, 0x46 0x4, 0x8, 0x579, 0x2, 0x12, 0x4291, 0x68, 0x42447602, 0x91253248, 0x1776, 0x23, 0x31, 0x23
close: 0x32236823, 0x8, 0x74, 0x85, 0x4062 RBR1: 0x9, 0x251, 0x2550, 0x69527489, 0x13, 0x8, 0x1598, 0x67862064, 0x7, 0x9 0x7, 0x46, 0x265, 0x3, 0x8 SYL: 0x15,
0x85, 0x239, 0x15289721, 0x8, 0x330, 0x59, 0x70122769, 0x673, 0x64 TS2O, update, 24CU, tmp, SZ6, cvs, rev, 6OS rcs: 0x74498225, 0x34, 0x38, 0x146, 0x3, 0x37,
0x134, 0x77326118, 0x231, 0x54509399, 0x0, 0x894, 0x15 0x307, 0x0, 0x5548, 0x8981, 0x5363, 0x11, 0x84 0x9840, 0x8, 0x42207270, 0x46, 0x10523406, 0x26629129,
0x6 S5XE revision QCUC. 0x19, 0x5, 0x917, 0x8, 0x439, 0x2, 0x53674586, 0x2, 0x99009187, 0x69, 0x3012 4675825985905798201017654109923269
10218957TXF: 0x85, 0x8, 0x723, 0x1 0x5308, 0x7, 0x4905, 0x7, 0x09842071, 0x76, 0x01189689, 0x67 0x7373, 0x61850092, 0x7, 0x969, 0x53316244, 0x00, 0x904, 0x24,
0x503, 0x0
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.
I 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.
Well someone is doing the phishing so THEY see it. :)
Since posting this I got ten more. Incredibly annoying.
If you answer it, they know it's going to a live address and you'll only get more.
Hadn't thought of that. Crap.
Oh 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.
Forward 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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