A number of customers have over the past few days received a fraudulent email purporting to be from Bank of Valletta requesting them to visit a website through a link in the email “to re-activate their online services”, the bank said yesterday.

The email was sent through a technique known as “phishing”, which is an attempt to criminally and fraudulently acquire sensitive information, such as usernames, passwords and credit card details, by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.

Bank of Valletta said it has taken immediate steps to disable the fraudulent website linked to these emails and pointed out to customers that it would never request 24x7 login credentials, pins or credit card details by email, telephone or other means of communication.

The bank said there could be more scams in the future to lure customers into surrendering such information. It said that customers should remember never to follow links directly from emails but to type the Bank’s url, i.e. www.bov.com, directly on their web browser when they wish to visit the BOV website.

For more information customers may contact the BOV’s Customer Service Centre by phoning on 2131-2020.