New Kind Of Phishing

jamhulk

Hi Guys,

I would like to know the REASONS / CAUSES why I am being redirected to another website when I log on to an ONLINE BANKING website. The following are the details/observations from my experience:

1. I knew that it is a phishing/not authentic website because it asks me for ADDITIONAL log-in details like my ATM CARD NO. and PIN NO. My online banking site only asks for USERNAME and PASSWORD.

2. Both the phishing site and the original site uses the same URL.

3. When I use a different Internet Service Provider, I am not being redirected to the phishing site.

I would really appreciate your help. Thank you!

Captain Obvious

Hi Guys,

I would like to know the REASONS / CAUSES why I am being redirected to another website when I log on to an ONLINE BANKING website. The following are the details/observations from my experience:

1. I knew that it is a phishing/not authentic website because it asks me for ADDITIONAL log-in details like my ATM CARD NO. and PIN NO. My online banking site only asks for USERNAME and PASSWORD.

2. Both the phishing site and the original site uses the same URL.

3. When I use a different Internet Service Provider, I am not being redirected to the phishing site.

I would really appreciate your help. Thank you!

Well, it seems like this is an ISP issue, not a Bitdefender issue. Would I would do is contact this ISP of whoever is phishing and report your problem.

NOTE: The phishing website and the legitimate bank website CANNOT (I repeat) CANNOT have the same URL. It may be a similar URL, but it is physically impossible for two websites to have the same URL. The reason this is impossible is because website domains are registered unique by being fully qualified domain names ( or FQDN). This means that only one person can ever own one website at a time that can be connected to the World Wide Web. For example, there is only ONE www.bitdefender.com. There is only ONE www.microsoft.com. No matter how much a scammer wants to, he can NEVER actually use www.microsoft.com to run a scam website because Microsoft Corporation already owns www.microsoft.com.

So to answer your question, there are actually a couple of possibilities that could cause the redirection:

1. You have a virus/malware on your computer.

It is well known that the easiest way to redirect a webpage that is displayed locally on a computer is to plant a piece of malware on the computer that is programmed to redirect a webpage. For example, this malware could be coded to scan your web browser's Address Bar. Whenever you enter microsoft.com into your Address Bar, the malware detects that you have done that, and redirects your to a phishing website (for example purposes, say macrosoft.com) that looks like a Microsoft website (but is actually a scam website). To combat this, simply do a full System Scan, and delete the malware.

2. Unscrupulous ISP

Some ISPs (Internet Service Providers) may have low prices, but are very insidious. These types of ISPs are commonly found throughout Asia and Europe. They may manually redirect a URL themselves in order to cash in on an unsuspecting customer. Best thing to do is unsubscribe from their services, and report them to your local authority branch that handles these types of situations.

3. Malicious ****** embedded in a webpage/ad banner

It's also possible for a virus or malicious ****** to be embedded in an actual webpage or ad banner. When you visit the webpage, the ****** redirects your browser to a phishing website. To handle this situation, contact the website's administrator and report that there is possible malware on their servers.

All in all, I think you probably have a piece of malware on your computer. I'd do a thorough scan first (just make sure you turn off any exceptions before you scan). But it could very well be a bad ISP as well. What ISP do you use anyways? You should Yahoo search them and see if there are any reports about them on the internet.