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Reserve Bank of Australia "New Advises For Online Banking Security" Phishing Email

Cyber-criminals are sending out the fake Reserve Bank of Australia email message below to potential victims, which contains a link to a fake Reserve Bank of Australia website. Once on the fake website, visitors will be asked to download and open a malicious Microsoft Word document, which the cybercriminals claim is a document with "Recommendations for Online-Banking Operations" written by a famous international cyber-safety specialist. But, once visitors attempt to open the malicious document, they will be prompt to enable Macro or "Content", and if they do, the set of Macro instructions will attempt to download Trojan horse or other malware, and infect the visitors' computers with them.

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The Trojan horse or other malware can be used by cyber-criminals to steal the infected computer users' banking, social media, PayPal and other credentials. They can also be used to steal the victims’ financial information and other sensitive information without their knowledge. Please note that the Trojan horse will only infect computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system. Users of the Mac, IPhone, IPad, Blackberry, Windows phone or Android phone are not affected. And, remember, although the fake and malicious email message appears as if it was sent by the Reserve Bank of Australia, it was not. The cyber-criminals responsible for the emails, spoofed the email message to make it appear as if came from them, to make the email message look legitimate. So, there is no need to contact Reserve Bank of Australia. Cyber-criminals spoofed email addresses to trick their victims into opening malicious attachments or clicking malicious links, thinking the fake email message was sent from a legitimate company.

Remember, never enable Macro or "Enable Content" for a Microsoft Word, Excel or other Microsoft Office documents, regardless of where the email message came from.

Macro was created to automate tasks in Microsoft Office, but cyber-criminals started abusing this useful tool over a decade ago, by using it to download and infect their victims’ computers with viruses, Trojan horse and other malware. That is why Microsoft decided to disable Macro by default and gave Microsoft Office users the option of enabling or disabling it.

The Reserve Bank of Australia "New Advises For Online Banking Security" Phishing Email

From: RBA Information Technology Department
Subject: News: new advises for online banking security

Dear Australian online-banking client,
At the moment we have revealed hacker rush against customers of different banks. For your own security, our analysts have made a set of standards tied to the operation of online banking. To guarantee security of your funds, please learn the rules on our official website:

link removed

Reserve Bank of Australia GPO Box 3947 SYDNEY NSW 2001 AUSTRALIA

© Reserve Bank of Australia, 2001-2016. All rights reserved.

Now, persons who were tricked into opening the malicious Microsoft Word document and enabling Macro or "Enable Content," should do a full scan of their computers with the antivirus installed on them.

Check the comment section for additional information, or share what you know or ask a question about this article, by clicking the 'View or Write Comment' button below.

Note: Some of the information in samples on this website may have been impersonated or spoofed.

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