An alert systems integration manager in Melbourne got a fake banking site targeting Westpac last week shut down. The site was being hosted on an internet-connected computer without the knowledge of the owner.

Julian Perry, who works for a company that supplies technology services to the automotive industry, said his interest was fuelled by the fact that he is also a Westpac customer.

"There's no rocket science.. just analyse the email, and make a few phone calls," he said. A look at the headers on the scam email told him that though the originating host was announcing itself as olb.westpac.com.au (the correct address for the Westpac online banking site) it was actually a dialup subscriber in the US (though from the speed, it might be broadband). "It was presumably a trojan'ed PC - I didn't bother to look further," he said.

He examined the link inside the email and decoded and shortened it to find out the website to which it linked.

By Online Staff at TheAge.com.au

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