Financial institutions in Australia have been subject to various email scams that are designed to compromise the personal information of individuals in order to illegally obtain and transfer funds overseas. There are generally two types of emails aimed at obtaining your personal information:
1. Phishing
Financial institutions in Australia have been subject to various email scams that are designed to compromise the personal information of individuals in order to illegally obtain and transfer funds overseas. There are generally two types of emails aimed at obtaining your personal information:
1. Phishing (pronounced fishing) emails
2. Virus or trojan emails
These emails come from senders who are usually unknown to the receiver. They contain links or attachments that may download and install malicious software (malware) onto your computer. If you click on a link in these emails, or open an attachment, the malware will try to install itself automatically on your computer, though this could be blocked if you have the appropriate software security updates installed on your computer. Some of these viruses are even programmed to uninstall your anti-virus scanner prior to downloading these viruses. If you have already actioned an email by clicking on the link, or you notice that your computer has become slower and you have other icons on your computer that you don't remember downloading, these are signs that your computer has been infected by viruses. In this case, have your computer professionally cleaned by a computer technician to remove any viruses/spyware that may have been downloaded, and have them install the latest anti-virus and anti-spyware software.