Commonwealth con man charged
Commonwealth con man charged
Australian police have charged a man in relation to the Commonwealth Bank email con that was reported last week(Read original story). The email encouraging Commonwealth Bank NetBank customers to reactivate their accounts due to a technical update required customers to provide both their username and passwords online. A request that would never be made by the Bank.
The as yet unnamed suspect is due to appear in court on April 10, to answer charges of obtaining money by deception and Australian Federal Police spokesman, Steve Simpson said that, "there may be additional charges laid before the suspect's court appearance."
Simpson could not confirm the circumstances surrounding the arrest other than to say that there was a current investigation into the matter and a number of parties are involved in that.
"The suspect is the only person charged at this stage, but the investigation is ongoing," Simpson said.
Commonwealth Bank customers were the first to raise the alarm of the scam with several hundred calling the bank to confirm the authenticity of the email.
The genuine looking Web page did not raise alarm for others, but how many is still not known. The Commonwealth Bank has stated that the Internet service is secure and that the matter is now being dealt with by the Australian Federal Police.
"It is very difficult to comment on the matter, as it is now in the hands of police and they are handling everything. Unfortunately we can't release any details of numbers or how it happened," said Bryan Fitzgerald, a spokesperson with the bank.
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