I usually get lots of messages from odd numbers informing me of things i need to attend due to my physical condition from a workplace injury, generally its appointments im already aware of so i just ignore them and clear them out every month or so.
This time when i was sifting through these messages i found one that was rather out of the ordinary, from 'my bank' telling me i had to take action on my account with them or my account would be locked.
"Oh no", I thought to myself, "Please dont lock me out of my account with a bank im not with...", lol. Yeah thats right i dont even do my banking with commonwealth bank, however, it is one the the 'big banks' so many people do have accounts there.... Here phishy, phishy , phishy , phishy...
Phishing
is the fraudulent attempt to obtain sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by disguising as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.
This is just another scam or hoax trying to get some information to your accounts and data. fortunately for me im super cautious with pretty much everything (not that i haven't been fooled one or twice in my life :P), and i would not have fallen for this anyway, but it is still happening so be warned.
I moseyed on over to the commonwealth bank website for a bit of a look on what they had to say about the matter and copy pasted what i found.
Hoax alert
From time to time, we send emails and text messages (SMS) to our customers to update them with important information. Sometimes, fraudsters may send you “hoax” messages that appear to come from us, in order to trick you into revealing sensitive information. That’s why it’s important to remember that we will never send you a message asking you to confirm, update or disclose your personal or banking information.
Further, i looked into the phone number which the text came from +61449152790 and it seems that this number is registered in the 'Cocos (Keeling) Islands' which is an Australian external territory.
The island is well known for its abundance of coconuts and it does indeed have a commonwealth bank on the islands, however i most certainly doubt that the Australian banking giant would run its operations from a remote island far off of the coast of Australia.... wouldn't that be a nice job though ? lol.
In closing it pays to be safe when it comes to our private information, be it banking details, email address, home addresses, phone numbers, passwords/codes, etc. Scammers utilize whatever information they can get to try and pry your money away form you, even the smallest amounts of data can be used to social engineer their way into your finances.
Always be cautious and skeptical of any interactions which you have not initiated that require your personal data, and if in doubt call the official place themselves and ask them what its all about. If its legitimate you can sort it out with them and if not you can notify them of the scam/ hoax taking place trying to effect their customers and business.