Weekly summary 3/16-3/22

Last week saw a very active Smishing week with targeted attacks on Wells Fargo, Bank of America, BBVA and Discover Card. Most of the action however targeted specific Credit Unions with Philadelphia FCU and especially Alabama State Employee CU. 

In parallel a general Smishing campaign “Your Credit Union card has been temporarily locked!” triggered alerts from Centinel Bank (NM), Peoples Bank (NM), Spokane Federal Credit Union (WA), River Bank & Trust (AL) and APCO Employees CU (AL). 

Interestingly, most inbound IVR recordings referenced “National Credit Union Association” (recording here) which recently educated its’ Credit Union Members about email phishing. NCUA’s timing was right, but they forgot to mention that phishing frequently uses SMS to attack those chronically under-protected mobile users.

Across the pond, Natwest (UK) Smishing continued for a third week, while new campaigns were recorded for BMNA (UK), Westpac (Australia) and TD Bank (Canada). Smishing traffic related to TD Bank continued on that url also for the 3rd week before getting disconnected by Goo.gl.