The email messages below, which appear as if they came from the National Westminster Bank (NatWest), claiming payments have been placed on hold due to inactivity, are phishing scams. The phishing scams are being sent by cyber-criminals to steal the recipients' NatWest usernames, passwords, personal and financial information, by attempting to trick them into clicking on a link in it which goes to a fake NatWest or phishing website.
Samples of the "NatWest Pending Payment Placed on Hold" Phishing Scam
Subject: Serious Issues
Some payment was placed on hold due to inactive of your account
for some days
Please Click here for your account to be active again to receive payment
Please Note: Your account will be active within 24hrs
Natwest
Subject: Reviewing Payments
You have 1 new mail concerning a payment made to your account
The payment has been placed on hold
Click here to follow instructions for verification process
NATWEST
Subject: Issues About Payment
You have a pending payment slated on your account.
Payment did not reflect due to errors
Click here to find out and resolve
NATWEST
The link in the email message goes to the fake or phishing NatWest website, which will ask the potential victims who have clicked the link to enter their NatWest's username, password, credit, personal information and other security information needed to hijack their accounts. If the potential victims enter the information requested, it will be sent to the scammers behind the fake email and phishing website. With the potential victims' information, the scammers will be able to gain access to their accounts, sell the information to the highest bidder and further scam the victims. In this case, the NatWest customers who were tricked can end up being victims of identity theft and credit card fraud.
NatWest's customers who have unknowingly clicked on the link in the email message are asked to change their passwords immediately and contact NatWest for help.
NatWest customers should never click on a link in an email message or anywhere else to login or sign into their online accounts. They should instead, always go directly to www.natwest.com and sign in from there.