Outline
Email purporting to be from the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) claims that the bank has noticed irregular activity on the recipient’s debit card. The recipient is instructed to click a link to answer verification questions.
Brief Analysis
The email is not from RBS. It is a phishing scam designed to trick customers into giving their bank login details and financial information to criminals.
Example
Subject: RBS – 1 New ALERT Message
Dear Valued Customer,
We noticed irregular activity on your RBS Debit
Card.
For your protection, You are required to pass the
verification questions correctly as the primary owner
before we can re-open your debit card for use.
We will review the activity on your account and remove
any restrictions placed on your account.
Click Here To Proceed To Your Account
Helpful Banking.
Our Regards
Security Legal Info© 2005-2013 The Royal Bank of Scotland plc
Detailed Analysis
This email, which claims to be an alert message from the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), warns that the bank has noticed irregular activity on the recipient’s RBS debit card.
The recipient is told that he or she must click a link to “pass the
verification questions correctly” so that the debit account can be reopened.
However, the email is not from RBS. It is a typical phishing scam designed to trick RBS customers into sending their personal and financial information to online criminals.
Those who fall for the ruse and comply with the instructions will be taken to a fake website designed to look like the genuine RBS login page.
After entering their login credentials on the fake page, they may be taken to a second form that asks for card details and other financial information. All of the information submitted can be collected by the scammers and used to hijack the victim’s RBS account and commit credit card fraud.
Phishing is a very common scam that targets customers of financial institutions all around the world. Be wary of any message that claims that you must click a link or open an attached file to rectify an account issue or verify your identity. This is a very common phishing ploy.
It is always safest to login to all of your online accounts by entering the address into your browser’s address bar rather than by clicking a link in an unsolicited email.
You can report suspicious emails claiming to be from RBS via the reporting details listed on the bank’s website.
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
