Tesco Bank customers targeted by fake Twitter account

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 7 Feb 2012 at 07:00

A fake Twitter account has been attempting to trick Tesco Bank customers into handing over account details, PC Pro has discovered.

The spoof account @TescoBankCC - which had been running for several weeks but has now been deactivated - was targeting customers who tweeted about Tesco's banking or credit card service.

Masquerading as the company's customer services team, the account appeared to be successfully convincing customers to hand over their telephone number, presumably in an attempt to steal login details and other personal data in subsequent calls.

"You should have received your call now. Hope all is sorted. Have a good day :)," read one tweet on the fake account. "Hope you received your call today. All should now be sorted," read another.

The account used genuine Tesco contact numbers and addresses on its homepage, and adopted the breezy, personal style used by such corporate accounts. Cheekily, it even handed out internet security advice in several tweets.

The official @UKTesco account has been contacting Twitter users who were targeted by the fraudsters.

"Following routine monitoring that identified a fake TescoBankCC Twitter feed we took swift action to notify the small number of followers that this is not an official Tesco Bank feed," Tesco said in a statement sent to PC Pro, shortly before the fake account was disabled. "Customers should not share any personal data through this feed and we are liaising with Twitter to ensure this is removed."