Customers unconvinced of banks' anti-phishing efforts

Almost half the banking customers surveyed by silicon.com believe their banks should be doing more to clarify when and how they will be contacted.

The greatest concern with this issue is the worry that unclear communication strategies can create uncertainty for phishing scams to prey upon.

And a worrying 46.7 per cent of silicon.com readers agree that their banks need to do more to clarify the ways in which they bank will contact them.

For example a number of readers have criticised LloydsTSB for 'cold calling' users with SMS text messages asking them to call a given number. Recipients who do so are asked to divulge certain personal bank details - with no two-authentication confirming they are even talking to their bank.

Another reader banking with Egg received an automated call asking him to call a given number where he was asked for certain log-in details - again with no way on the call of ensuring he was indeed speaking to a member of Egg's staff.

In the hands of criminals such approaches could easily be adapted to steal complete log-ins and passwords.

Reader Paul Green, who witnessed this system first hand, told silicon.com: "Considering how many phishing scams have been going around this year it strikes me as a little odd that Egg is carelessly behaving like the scammers."