This is for your Interest.


[b]This is to inform the general public that on Tuesday 13/11/2007, the InterSwitch Network Server hosting First Bank Nig plc, UBA plc, Intercontinental Bank plc, GTB plc, EcoBank plc and all other Nigerian banks on the InterSwitch network was infected with an Mpack Multi-Pertite Malware (a computer virus used by cyber criminals to access and steal information from a database).

Approximately 1,500,000 (One million, Five hundred thousand) ATM Card numbers; PIN numbers and other ATM Card data have been confirmed stolen.

Though it is still unclear how many ATM machines have been infected with the virus, computer security experts say 80% of ATM machines on the InterSwitch network would have been infected. As at 6pm local time, we had received 517 complaints of unauthorized cash withdrawals from ATM machines mostly in Lagos and Port Harcourt.

Currently, we have computer security experts and law enforcement agents working to resolve the situation.
However, to prevent unauthorized money withdrawals from accounts, all InterSwitch ATM Card holders are STRONGLY advised to visit the InterSwitch website IMMEDIATELY to change their ATM PIN numbers Via the internet as these fraudsters can withdraw money from any of the affected accounts even without physical access to the ATM Card since they have the ATM Card details and current PIN numbers. YOU ARE HOWEVER ADVISED TO CAHNGE YOUR PIN NUMBER IMMEDIATELY.

Forwarding this alert to friends and family members would also help inform them and combat this fraud.

Signed:
MANAGEMENT[/b]

Hi All,

I felt compelled to write this to warn you all to disregard the alert.

I was sent this same information as an email from a friend, On searching the internet for the name of the so called virus, I found this out that the alert is on Nairaland too.

This email/contribution on nairaland is a fraud/false alert with a dubious intent to get you to act-I mean hand over your personal information to whoever is behind this plot with the intent to defraud you of your money.

I was woken up this morning ( with annoyance) by an unsolicited sms from Zenithbank( you know that type ), warning customers of this email asking for customers to change their PIN on the internet.

No company of repute gives you a link via an email, asking you to click it to access a website for you to change your pin.

If you received the email, place your cursor over the highlighted (red by me) excerpts from the email without clicking it (PLEASE dont click it, it may contain Trojan horse virus), and you will see that they are hyperlinks to another website, that had the purpose of harvesting any details you filed in there.

The link is connected to a fraud website.It is a plot to get access to your personal information.

FRAUD ALERT Card details and current PIN numbers. YOU ARE HOWEVER ADVISED TO CAHNGE YOUR PIN NUMBER IMMEDIATELY.


Besides, if anyone gains access to your account, using the Interswitch/Bank database, Interswitch/bank are liable, not you.

You are only liable if you carelessly gave out your PIN to someone else, like in this case.This means they will refund you back.

Why should a faceless email advise you to protect your ATM card by changing it online, without an official notification from your bank advising you otherwise.Banks/Interswitch care more for your money than you probably do.You saw what you went through to collect oneIf the threat was real, they would have contacted their customers individually, or offer an alert public announcement in the dailies and radios/TVs.

I just checked the name of that virus on wikipedia, it does not exist there.You can't even find it on the internet using Google, except on nairaland.It must be someone's figment of imagination.

I just checked Interswitch website too, there was no warning to that effect.

This is probably phishing. Wikipedia defines it and I quote

In computing, phishing is an attempt to criminally and fraudulently acquire sensitive information, such as usernames, passwords and credit card details, by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. eBay, PayPal and online banks are common targets. Phishing is typically carried out by email or instant messaging,[1] and often directs users to enter details at a website, although phone contact has also been used.[2] Phishing is an example of social engineering techniques used to fool users. [3] Attempts to deal with the growing number of reported phishing incidents include legislation, user training, public awareness, and technical measures.


You can read more up by going to (www)wikipedia(org) and type phishing

Same kind of email is currently circualting concerning e-Gold.

This below was what was sent to me purporting to be from e-Gold

Dear valued e-gold member:

Due to concerns, for the safety and integrity of the e-gold
account we have issued this warning message.

It has come to our attention that your e-gold account information needs to be
updated as part of our continuing commitment to protect your account and to
reduce the instance of fraud on our website. If you could please take 5-10 minutes
out of your online experience and update your personal records you will not run into
any future problems with the online service.

Once you have updated your account records your e-gold account
service will not be interrupted and will continue as normal.

To update your e-gold records click on the following link:
http://www.e-gold.com/signon?LOB=CONS&screenid=Update_Ac ct

Thank You.

On forwarding it to e-Gold, I got the following response below:

Hi , ,

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. As you know the email you
received was not sent by e-gold Ltd. It was a fraudulent attempt to
compromise e-gold accounts through a scam known as "Phishing". e-gold will
never send you an unsolicited email asking you to access your account from a
link in an email or click on a link in an email. Please review the security
alert on the e-gold site for more information. If you clicked on the link or
if you opened the attachment, there is a strong possibility you may have a
Trojan virus on your computer!

Regards,
e-gold Abuse~

Finally,please be aware, and don't fall into the hands of these scammers, who don't do anything but daily think of creative ways of defrauding people of their hard earned money.

Cheers,

EB

"Profit is an illusion, cashflow is fact."(Unknown)

Hello guys ,can someone change his atm pin on the atm machine?

Yes I have