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Phishing suspects questioned

By Stuart Lowman, ITWeb junior journalist
Johannesburg, 08 Jun 2005

Standard Bank says the Scorpions investigation unit is questioning eight more people in connection with the recent "phishing" attacks.

The suspects, all of whom are South African, may be linked to the massive e-mail fraud scam that targeted local bank clients, towards the end of last month. Standard Bank, through its anti-fraud partners in the US, managed to shut down a Russian phishing Web site last month. A local man was also questioned last month.

The investigation into the phishing attack showed that the fraud syndicate recruited "runners" in SA to launder money through their bank accounts, says Standard Bank technology and engineering director Herman Singh.

"These runners were often not aware that what they were doing was illegal," he adds.

He explained earlier that the runners were often unemployed people who applied for advertised positions as "financial managers'" They were told that their bank account would be used to deposit money from various "clients". This money is then transferred to the overseas-based syndicate and the runner is paid up to 15% of the proceeds for simply using their bank accounts."

Standard Bank has introduced further security measures to monitor and track such cyber activity, and has appealed to people who may have been duped into inadvertently using their bank accounts for illegal means to contact their bank as soon as possible.

"There have been no further 'phishing' attacks, but we are monitoring the situation very closely to ensure that our customers are not placed at risk," says Singh.

The investigation continues.

Related stories:
Alleged phishing runner detained

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