Trusteer announced yesterday that a new online scam called “Shylock” is being carried out on those with commercial or business banking accounts. Here’s what happens:
You log into your regular business or commercial bank account and it seems to take a long time. It notifies you that a security session is underway.
You will see a message that looks like this:
The system couldn’t identify your PC
You will be contacted by a representative of bank to confirm your personality.
Please pass the process of additional verification otherwise your account will be locked.
Sorry for any inconvenience, we are carrying about security of our clients.
Then, a live chat window then opens. A person posing as a bank representative will ask you to verify your username and password, and possibly other information, such as verifying a transaction.
While the chat session is open, the crook is transferring your money into his account. He will tell you to log out and log back in in a few minutes; when you do, all of your money is gone.
This scam works because your computer has previously been infected with a code that waits for you to sign onto your bank, and then masquerades as your bank. If you are getting strange pop ups or if your home page on your browser has changed you may be infected with this or some other malware.
If in doubt about a strange banking session, or if you experience strange pop-up messages, or if your home page has changed and you did not change it, then you may have a problem. immediately close your browser window and call us right away. We can help determine what is going on, and clean up any malware on your computer.
By the way, this malware is called Shylock because the hacker who wrote the code embedded lines from Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice. We don’t usually see such bad behavior from English majors!