Another one succumbs to Internet SCAM

Wassup! It's a FLYYYYYDDDAAAAYYYY... almost feels celebratory - the weekend is finally here, I can finally sleep all the way past 4am... (I can hardly sleep past that on workdays).

I just thought I'd write a little community service blog. Was reading my e-mail when I found out someone just got scammed close to 5,000 ringgit. That's FREAKING 5,000 BUCKS! I can buy a handphone, a brand new netbook, a computer, tonnes of gadgets... but of course... HOW DID THE UNFORTUNATE DUDE GET CONNED?

Simple... he saw an e-mail... said something about "maintenance by Maybank" and asking him to follow a link...

You guessed it... he followed!

That's just it! NEVER EVER EVER follow links asking you to update / check or do whatever with your banking account. Here's how you can spot a scam site... in case you ever get led to a 'banking' looking site - forget about the nitty gritty details like how genuine the logo looks or how professional it looks - just look at the "arrow - above".

Yes, for the uninitiated - that's the URL bar, address bar or you can just call it the 'blank' space. That's where you key in your website's address. If the address looks strange - in this case, the address is hardly anything related to Maybank, I suggest you to thread with caution. In doubt, just close the window and go to your banking account the regular way.

How does banking scam get executed?
After looking at a few of the screen shots, here's how the scam's executed.

Step 1
Send you an e-mail telling you something's wrong with your account - asking you to click a link to update your account

Step 2
You get to this page which 'looks' genuine - you key in your regular username and password and click "submit"

Step 3
Surprise surprise - it says you're logged in! It says hold on, a tac will be sent and asks that you wait for 5 minutes

Step 4
Scammer gets your username and password, logs on into your REAL bank account and asks that money gets transferred into his / her account - but but he needs a tac - he / she requests for the tac

Step 5
Scammer clicks the "request tac" button, you get the TAC message and you key it into the scammer's page after recieving it

Step 6
Scammer gets your tac and keys it into your REAL bank account page and money is TRANSFERRED

Step 7
You get scammed

Now that you know the workings behind online scamming activities... PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE practice caution when accessing your bank account online. Surf safe & have a BRILLIANT WEEKEND!