Technology

Asian Bank Warns About Fake Emails As Internet Scams Continue

Tom Burroughes Group Editor 18 December 2014

Asian Bank Warns About Fake Emails As Internet Scams Continue

The trend of Asian banks suffering problems of fraudulent emails or websites impersonating legitimate operations continues. Bank of East Asia, or BEA, warned the people receiving emails about LinkedIn profiles of two of its senior figures, that they were fraudulent. It has contacted the social media firm about its concerns.

The trend of Asian banks suffering problems of fraudulent emails or websites impersonating legitimate operations continues. Bank of East Asia, or BEA, warned the people receiving emails about LinkedIn profiles of two of its senior figures, that they were fraudulent. It has contacted the social media firm about its concerns.

Emails about “Eric Fook Chuen Li” and “Alan Wong Chi-Yun” and a “business proposition” requiring “utmost discretion” should be treated as fake, the Hong Kong-based bank said. Neither Eric LI Fook-chuen, non-executive director, nor Dr Allan Wong Chi-yun, deputy chairman and independent non-executive director of BEA’s board of directors has any affiliation whatsoever with these LinkedIn profiles, the bank said in a statement yesterday.

The bank warned recipients of the invitations to delete the messages and not reply to the following email addresses: fookchuenli@securecryptedmail.com or dr.alanwcy@hkbea.email, which are provided in the messages.

BEA added that LinkedIn profiles have been discovered bearing the names of the following directors of the bank: Professor Arthur LI Kwok-cheung; Aubrey LI Kwok-sing, and Winston Lo Yau-lai. People should also disregard communications in connection with these profiles, the bank said.

Earlier this week, Hong Kong’s financial regulator issued another warning about a fake banking website, in this case of a site purporting to be the official site of Wing Lung Bank Limited. There have been a number of warnings about such fraudulent websites. In October, for example, the HKMA told the public to be on guard about websites purporting to be those of Wells Fargo, National Association (Wells Fargo) and Bank of China (Hong Kong), adding to a number of recent alerts about internet scammers and fake emails. At a time when the Hong Kong Monetary Authority has been busy alerting the public about temporary closures to some bank branches amid the pro-democracy clashes in the city, it has also had to continue warning about internet fraudsters.

 

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