



Phishing is a scam where hackers 'fish' for your personal details by using hoax emails claiming to be from financial institutions. This method continues to be favoured by online thieves.

Emails claiming to be from banks are often generated overseas and are sent in bulk. The email asks the recipient to provide sensitive information such as their User ID, password, Customer Registration Number or PIN by providing a link leading to a legitimate-looking website, enabling thieves to gather the details for later fraudulent use.

An example of a hoax email is shown below:

Example of a hoax email


You can minimise your risk of becoming a Phishing scam victim by:

Remember that authentic ANZ emails will not request personal details or log on information.

Spyware and Adware


Adware is a type of spyware used by marketers to track Internet user’s habits and interests for the purpose of customising future advertising material. Adware can monitor information such as the types of sites visited, articles read or the types of pop-ups and banners the user clicks on. The information is then used to customise future advertisements directed to the user, or can be sold to a third party for the same purpose.

There are products available that can help you detect, monitor and remove spyware from your computer. Many security software suites come standard with spyware detection and removal features.


Viruses and Worms

A computer virus is software that attaches itself to another program. Similar to a biological virus, it must attach itself to another program to survive and reproduce. Unlike Trojans, which are self-sufficient programs, viruses can only run if the infected program is running. While active, the virus attempts to reproduce and attach itself to other programs. This can tie up resources such as disk space and memory, causing problems on any computer.

An email virus is the latest type of computer virus. It is transported through email messages and usually replicates by automatically distributing itself out to all contacts in the infected email address book.




A Trojan is a destructive program that pretends to be a harmless application. Unlike viruses, Trojans do not replicate themselves and do not need a host program to attach to.

Today's computer users often accept Trojan horses onto their computers, believing that the program is harmless or even helpful. Some Trojans will claim to rid the computer of viruses or other harmful applications, but instead introduce viruses and leave it vulnerable to attacks by hackers.

You can minimise your chances of unintentionally downloading Trojans by: