Patiala: Amanjit Singh a tea estate employee, who actively used internet for banking transactions has found a sum of Rs.92,000 missing from his bank account. He recently received an email, which lured him into entering his bank account details on the pretext of the bank 'updating' its computer system.

An email which looks identical to the bank's email and asks for sensitive information like bank account username, password, or credit card details has been the favorite tool of phishers to elicit vital details. Looks like Amanjit also fell into the trap.

He had an account in the Kolkata branch of ICICI Bank and has reported the matter to the police. According to the report filed by him Rs. 92,000 were withdrawn and transferred to an account operated from Chennai. Police has registered a case of cheating under Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the IT act.

ICICI Bank has detailed guidelines on its website on how to deal with phishing. In fact the bank has taken numerous measures to make its customers aware about phishing.

The ICICI Bank website has a graphic, which warns the user to protect himself from phishing.

The internet banking login page of ICICI Bank has an important notice placed right next to the text boxes, which clearly states that ICICI Bank does not ask you for any personal information other than your user ID and password when you log into www.icicibank.com.

ICICI Bank provides detailed guidelines on how its customer can protect themselves from such frauds and categorically states that "it will never send e-mails that ask for confidential information. If you receive an e-mail requesting your Internet Banking security details like PIN, password or account number, you should not respond."

It seems that though the bank is doing its part, the volume of customers who are aware of phishing are very few. The matter is indeed serious and with hackers threatening the banking industry by hiring money mules and perpetrating phishing attacks on customers, it is high time that the banks speed up their effort towards making their customers more vigilant.