The bank of fakes

A recent Kaspersky Consumer Security Risks survey has revealed that about 30% of users have received bogus e-mails claiming to come from banks.

The fraudsters often use fake notifications from banks in order to trick users into handing over account credentials and giving away access to their money.

Various services for online transactions (e-banking, e-payment systems and online stores) are now an intrinsic part of modern life for many users. The B2B International survey shows that 95% of respondents have been online shopping, 91% have used the services of online banking and 74% have used e-payment systems. This trend would never escape the fraudsters’ attention.

According to the survey, 30% of users have received emails allegedly coming from a bank which turned out to be bogus forgeries. 22% of respondents reported suspicious messages supposedly sent on behalf of an online store. Every tenth user (10% of those surveyed) had been automatically redirected at least once to a suspicious site asking them to enter their credit card credentials. Nearly 6% of respondents stated that they have entered financial information on dubious sites. These are all examples of the activity of cybercriminals engaged in phishing, one of many types of malicious attacks targeting important confidential financial data: credit card numbers, logins and passwords to online banking accounts, etc.

Although many experienced and cautious users probably recognise most phishing attempts, these attacks often end in success: about 4% of respondents reported that they had lost money to cybercriminals. Statistically, 4% is a relatively small figure, however when so many users are attacked each year, even a small success rate translates into big money. According to The Evolution of Phishing Attacks 2011-2013 survey conducted by Kaspersky Lab in 2013, among the users of the cloud service Kaspersky Security Network, 21% of phishing attacks performed between April and May 2012-2013, involved fake pages of banks and other financial organisations. In absolute figures it means that within just one year 7.5 million users worldwide faced financial phishing.

In other words, as in the real world, virtual fraud poses serious dangers which can be only combated with the help of special protection.

How to keep your money away from cybercriminals:

Kaspersky Lab’s Safe Money advanced protection technology will help you to keep your cash away from cybercriminals. Safe Money is a set of special protection mechanisms activated automatically every time the user is banking or shopping online. The technology reliably protects the user’s money against almost any types of attack in the financial fraudsters’ arsenal.

In particular, our advanced anti-phishing technology detects and blocks fake websites which seek to trick users into giving away financial information. Safe Money verifies the security certificates of banking or e-pay sites to add more protection for financial transactions. The special safe browser mode safeguards the user’s online activities against malicious attacks. Secure Keyboard and Virtual Keyboard technologies ensure passwords and credit card details cannot be intercepted when being entered, protecting sensitive data from keyloggers. In addition, Safe Money incorporates a system which checks the applications installed on the PC, warning of any software vulnerabilities which might allow infection onto the computer.

These combined technologies provide comprehensive protection against financial threats and ensure maximum protection for online banking and payment transactions.

Safe Money is available as part ofKaspersky Internet Security, the advanced protection solution for home users, and as part of Kaspersky Internet Security multi-device, security solution across all your devices.

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