Commonwealth Bank urges people to avoid email scams

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia is reminding people to keep their personal and bank account information secure.

Following a series of scam emails purporting to be from the financial services provider, the bank claims that although such messages may look authentic, as they look to obtain sensitive details, they need to be ignored.

According to the bank - which offers the Commonwealth Gold credit card and Commonwealth Platinum credit card among its range of credit card products - the scam campaigns are requesting people to upload their account details, activate cards and unlock frozen accounts.

However, the lender points out that it does not contract is customers via email in a bid to obtain personal details.

"While many people delete these emails, some may be unsuspecting victims of these scams. We recommend people remain alert and delete any email that claims to be from the Commonwealth Bank seeking personal information," Ross McEwan, group executive of retail banking services for Commonwealth Bank, states.

Those concerned about credit card and bank account security were advised that scam emails often have poor spelling, punctuation and grammar.

Meanwhile, Strike Force Gamut - a taskforce set up by New South Wales police - recently urged people to keep an eye on their credit card accounts to ensure that unauthorised transactions have not taken place and that all bills and statements containing sensitive information are destroyed.

Written by Mark Hornby