Targeting Sparkasse and Volksbank customers: beware of this scam

Created: 02/23/2022, 12:46 p.m

By: Michelle Brey

Customers of savings banks and Volksbanks are currently being increasingly targeted by fraudsters.

© Noah Wedel/imago

Caution is advised for customers of the Sparkasse and the Volksbanken Raiffeisenbanken.

So-called phishing mails are in circulation, which are aimed at personal data.

Munich - They look deceptively real and are dangerous: phishing emails.

As stated in an article by the consumer advice center, the customers of the Sparkasse and the Volksbank in particular are once again being targeted by fraudsters.

Special caution is again required in the e-mail inbox, because this is not the first time that fraudsters have targeted Sparkasse customers.

It was not until September 2021 that consumer advocates warned of alleged savings bank emails.

Sparkasse: consumer advice center warns of nasty scams - phishing emails in circulation

According to the consumer advice center, there are again many e-mails in circulation that have focused on the data of savings bank customers.

A message said that online banking would be updated.

Customers would therefore have to confirm their data in order to be able to continue using the Sparkasse function.

"What you should only do as a valued Sparkasse customer is to confirm your information," says the wording in the email.

Furthermore, the customer was promised that there would be "new functions" and that these could possibly be explained by an assigned customer advisor.

The content of the e-mail is "that of a typical phishing e-mail", according to the consumer advice center.

Both the indirect address and a reference to a further link ("You can validate your information on the next page") would therefore unmask the attempted fraud.

If it is possible to recognize such emails as fraudulent scams, they should be moved to the spam folder.

That's what the consumer advice center advises savings bank customers in the current case.

What is phishing?

How can phishing emails be identified?

As the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) informs, the word phishing is a combination of the words password and fishing.

This means, so to speak, “fishing for passwords”.

These are "offences ranging from 'simple' data theft to illegal account debits to attacks on critical infrastructures."

So-called phishing emails are fraudulent emails that are often not recognizable as such at first glance due to their camouflage.

Customers receive spam e-mails with a forged sender on behalf of banks, Internet service providers or other companies.

The consumer advice center* points out the structure of phishing emails on its website.

Included are "the salutation, the reason for sending the mail, the need to act, the time pressure, the consequences of inaction".

Special references are an attached link or a file attachment.

These should not be clicked or opened.

Beware of phishing emails: Sparkasse and Volksbanken Raiffeisenbanken targeted by scammers

In addition to Sparkasse customers, customers of Volksbanken Raiffeisenbanken should also read their emails carefully.

Because here, too, scammers try to get hold of data.

An email with the subject line "Deactivation" claims that the recipient ignored various messages.

For this reason, some services affecting the account are "temporarily blocked".

This is in a message that was reported to the consumer advice center.

The customer was then asked to log in via a link in order to unlock the account again.

Last but not least, the fraudsters tried to put pressure on the email recipients: "If you ignore this last email, your access will be blocked until the dispute is resolved.