What is Phishing?

First Interstate Bank and other financial institutions around the country have recently experienced new criminal phishing attacks. Fraudulent websites constructed to appear similar to the First Interstate Bank website and other financial websites, have been discovered and fraudulent e-mails are being sent requesting customers to verify or submit confidential information. While First Interstate actively pursues these fraudulent attacks, new sites and e-mail messages appear constantly.

Phishing is a form of social engineering used by criminals attempting to gather confidential information such as passwords, credit card information, bank account information, etc. Criminals gather this information by masquerading as financial institutions or other business entities via electronic communication, usually e-mail and the Internet, requesting individuals to submit their confidential information.

E-mail addresses, like phone numbers, are NOT private information. Anytime your e-mail address is entered on a website, it becomes public information. Programs have been written which scour the Internet for e-mail addresses. Once these e-mail addresses have been discovered, phishing e-mail messages can be sent to them.

Recently, phishing attempts have taken a more targeted approach by collecting e-mail addresses from websites with the hopes that some of the e-mail accounts will have ties to a particular financial institution. For example, e-mail addresses may be collected from The University of Montana or University of Wyoming websites. The phishing e-mail message will then be sent to all of the e-mail addresses that were collected from these sites with the hopes that a handful of individuals will have an account at First Interstate Bank or other targeted financial institutions.

Many times, once account information is entered into a fraudulent phishing website, the account information is immediately forwarded to another location and can be used minutes after it has been entered. Other times, the information will be collected and used at a later date. If customers enter their account or confidential information on a phishing website, it is important that they notify their financial institution immediately to close their accounts and re-open new ones with new account numbers. In addition, customers may want to contact the various credit reporting agencies to explain the situation and continue to watch their credit report and accounts for unusual activity.

If you have any questions regarding this information, please contact your local First Interstate Bank branch.

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