Is Barclays Serious About Fighting Phishing Scams?

 

I am compelled to write yet another note about phishing attacks on Barclays Bank. It did appear that they have stopped but now they are more numerous than ever.


The graph shows all bank phishing scams I have received from the 5th of May until the 7th of October to about ten different web domain names. Blue are messages supposedly from Barclays and the other banks with significant attacks are also shown.

1. As you can see from the graph, phishing scams are increasing in number, rather than decreasing.

2. Barclays now constitute over ninety percent of the phishing messages that I receive and this share has been increasing in recent weeks.

3. Seven of the receiving domains are .com’s so I would hope I’d get a share of messages for foreign banks. I don’t! So have US and Continental banks got a grip on phishing.

4. Bank of Scotland was targeted for several weeks. They stopped on the 9th September and have not resumed. This behaviour has also been seen with the Co-operative Bank, NatWest and Nationwide. I suspect that they may have stopped the problem.

5. I wrote to the Chief Executive of Barclays, John Varley, explaining what I had found and didn’t even get the courtesy of a reply.

I can only assume that either I am being specifically targeted, in the mistaken belief that I have a Barclays account or Barclays are indifferent to security. Note that I would never open an on-line account with Barclays, until they convinced me they had solved the problem of phishing.

A note is now available for downloading and distribution which gives full details.

Is Barclays Serious about Fighting Phishing Scams?
Feel free to read and distribute as you require.