Chinese phishing attack hits Bank of Scotland

A phishing attack is being launched against Bank of Scotland customers from a web site based in China.

The attack comes from emails that have been widely spammed out claiming that online customers of Bank of Scotland (BOS) need a software upgrade and directing the recipient to a new web page.

"The Bank Of Scotland Technical Department is performing a scheduled software upgrade to improve the quality of the banking services," it reads.

"By clicking on the link below you will begin the procedure of the user details

confirmation."

The page has been carefully designed to look legitimate and asks for business or personal login details.

"The phishing site is hosted in China and was up at the time of this alert," said internet monitoring firm Websense, which issued the alert.

The Anti-Phishing Working Group warned in May that phishers are increasingly looking to move away from attacking online payment services like PayPal and concentrating on online banks. BOS is the UK's largest mortgage and savings provider and has assets of over 540 billion.