CBA customers the latest targets in spate of hack attacks

Commonwealth Bank of Australia has warned of a new scam targeting its customers through hoax text messages.

The bank has messaged people who use its internet banking service to let them know that hoaxers or hackers are sending text messaged purpording to be from CBA and asking them to enter their passwords and other details via a link to unlock it.

CBA said it would never send customers an SMS that contained a link that asked for details such as client numbers passwords, NetCodes or credit care details. 

“If you receive this SMS, please delete it,” the bank said.

Its one of a number of scams targeting customers of big Australian businesses recently. This week Origin Energy customers were targeted with emails that told customers they needed to pay an electricity bill.

The fake bill was designed to trick addressees into allowing the hackers to load their PC with files that would record keystrokes, such as banking passwords, so the passwords could be used later to siphon cash from their accounts. 

And another scam last month tried to lure email recipients into downloading what appeared to be an invoice from well-known Australian e-payment site Eway. Instead, this scam was also an attempt to infect the recipients’ PCs with keystroke-reading malware.

Meanwhile, cyber security company MailGuard said today that it had caught a bulk distribution of malicious emails on Thursday night that were an attempt by hackers to infect Australian businesses with WannaCry, the virus that’s shut down big companies and government agencies around the world over the past 24 hours.

The WannaCry infection is being called the biggest global ransomware attack every known, but there have been no reports yet of the virus successfully spreading to Australia.