Phishing involves sending an email purporting to be from an actual financial organization, company, government institution, or similar in an attempt to fraudulently obtain addresses, full names, bank account numbers, credit card numbers, and other pieces of personal information.
Phishing Scam Tactics
Employing the tactics shown below, third parties are purporting to be from ANA in an effort to steal our customers' personal information. If you receive an email concerning something irrelevant to you, please delete it immediately. (Please do not open any file attachments or click on any links contained in the email.)
1. Approach by Malicious Third Party
A malicious third party sends an email purporting to be from an actual financial organization, company, government institution, or similar to a customer. They create a fake email address, etc. and use this to send the email in order to trick the customer into believing that it has been sent from an actual company. The email may have an attachment or contain a fake link that looks just like the company's one.
2. Customer Enticed through Skillful Techniques
The third party skillfully entices the customer into clicking on the fake link by sending an email with a subject line such as "Confirm Information" or "Update Your Personal Profile." The customer is then encouraged to enter their personal information (e.g., ID, password, credit card number, bank account number) on a fake website. Furthermore, if the customer opens any files attached to the email, their PC may become infected with a virus and their stored personal information stolen.
3. Fake Website that Perfectly Resembles an Actual One
The customer is directed to a fake website that was created to perfectly resemble that of an actual company. Any information entered by the customer on the website is then stolen.
4. Stolen Personal Information Used for Fraudulent Purposes
The stolen personal information is then used for fraudulent purposes.
Protecting Yourself from Phishing Scams
If you have not registered your email address on the ANA website but receive an email purporting to be from ANA or another company related to ours, or if you receive an email concerning something irrelevant to you, please remember the following points.
- Do not reply to emails purporting to be from ANA or another company related to ours.
- Do not click on any links contained in emails purporting to be from ANA or another company related to ours.
- Do not, under any circumstances, open any files attached to emails purporting to be from ANA or another company related to ours.
- * Some of these scams rely on exploiting vulnerabilities in web browsers. The tactics employed by scammers are growing more and more sophisticated by the day, and we therefore recommend that you always update your web browser. We also advise updating your antivirus software to prevent information leaks through virus infections.
- * For the latest information on phishing scams, please see the Council of Anti-Phishing Japan website (available in Japanese only).