Outline:
Email purporting to be from UK bank NatWest claims that your credit card minimum payment is due. It includes a link that supposedly allows you to login to NatWest’s online card services and pay your credit card bill.
Brief Analysis:
The email is not from NatWest. It is a phishing scam designed to steal your NatWest login credentials, your credit card details, and other personal information.
From: Natwest Credit Card
Subject: Natwest – Minimum Payment due
Your credit card Minimum payment is due on the 29/09/2016
Log in to Online Card Service [Link Removed]
Only individuals who have a credit card account are authorised access to Online Banking For the security of customers, any unauthorised attempt to access customer bank information will be monitored and may be subject to legal action
Detailed Analysis:
According to this email, which claims to be from UK bank NatWest, your credit card minimum payment is now due. The email urges you to click a link to login to “Online Card Services” and pay your credit card bill.
However, the email is not from NatWest. It is a typical bank phishing scam designed to steal your NatWest login details and other personal and financial information.
If you click the link, you will be taken to a fraudulent webpage that has been built to closely emulate the real NatWest website.
Once on the fake site, you will be asked to login to “credit card services”. Next, you will be asked to submit your credit card numbers, name, and other information, ostensibly so that you can proceed to pay your bill. At the end of the process, you may be automatically redirected to the genuine NatWest website.
But, now, the online criminals responsible for this phishing attack can hijack your NatWest bank account, commit fraudulent transactions, and, possibly, steal your identity.
Bank phishing scams like this one continue to defraud people all around the world every day. It is always safest to login to your online accounts by entering the address into your browser’s address bar or via an official app.
The NatWest website explains how to report such phishing scams.
Last updated: September 25, 2016
First published: September 25, 2016
By Brett M. Christensen
About Hoax-Slayer
References
NatWest ‘Important Review Notification’ Phishing Scam Email
NatWest ‘Account Has Been Blocked’ Phishing Scam
Report a Fraud – NatWest
Importance Notice
After considerable thought and with an ache in my heart, I have decided that the time has come to close down the Hoax-Slayer website.These days, the site does not generate enough revenue to cover expenses, and I do not have the financial resources to sustain it going forward.
Moreover, I now work long hours in a full-time and physically taxing job, so maintaining and managing the website and publishing new material has become difficult for me.
And finally, after 18 years of writing about scams and hoaxes, I feel that it is time for me to take my fingers off the keyboard and focus on other projects and pastimes.
When I first started Hoax-Slayer, I never dreamed that I would still be working on the project all these years later or that it would become such an important part of my life. It's been a fantastic and engaging experience and one that I will always treasure.
I hope that my work over the years has helped to make the Internet a little safer and thwarted the activities of at least a few scammers and malicious pranksters.
A Big Thank You
I would also like to thank all of those wonderful people who have supported the project by sharing information from the site, contributing examples of scams and hoaxes, offering suggestions, donating funds, or helping behind the scenes.I would especially like to thank David White for his tireless contribution to the Hoax-Slayer Facebook Page over many years. David's support has been invaluable, and I can not thank him enough.
Closing Date
Hoax-Slayer will still be around for a few weeks while I wind things down. The site will go offline on May 31, 2021. While I will not be publishing any new posts, you can still access existing material on the site until the date of closure.Thank you, one and all!
Brett Christensen,
Hoax-Slayer
