The Beagle
Sep 20, 2018
Scams and Hacks:
They are getting smarter.Up to 1000 CommBank and ANZ customers have been caught up in a fake banking apps scandal
Fake apps for the Commonwealth Bank and ANZ are among several bogus Android apps that mimic the personal banking apps of six banks in Australia, New Zealand, Britain, Switzerland and Poland, as well as a Austrian cryptocurrency exchange, a European security company has revealed.
The Slovakian security firm ESET advised that the fake apps were uploaded to the Google Play store in June 2018. They had been installed more than 1000 times before Google was alerted by ESET and took them down.
The fake apps obtain sensitive information, such as logon credentials and credit card details, from unsuspecting users.“Some of the apps take advantage of the absence of an official mobile app for the targeted service [such as Bitpanda], while others attempt to fool users by impersonating existing official apps,” ESET wrote.
Locally the ongoing scam of a phonecall from someone representing Telstra saying your internet will be turned off but there is a fix if you allow them access to your computer persists. The scammers now ring using local phone numbers rather than have their calls as identified as Overseas
NSW Police Force advise that fake banking apps have caught out thousands of people, taking their financial information.
When downloading your bank’s app always check for the correct company name, reviews and how many times it has been downloaded.