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Home | News | SERIOUS CYBER CONFUSION
SERIOUS CYBER CONFUSION
Friday, 14 July 2000A bulletin board service in Virginia, U.S. and a bank in Spain are tangled up in what is arguably the most severe case of domain name confusion to date.
The Bulletin Board Virginia lived a quiet existence at the cyber address bbva.com. Then the Spanish bank Banco Bilboa Vizcaya merged with the Argeninian bank Argentaria SA. Result: One of the world's largest banking conglomerates, with the initials you guessed it BBVA.
Jim Caldwell, in charge of the bulletin board, has received up to 100 e-mails per day, intended to go to the bank.
Some of the mails include sensitive information, such as account numbers.
The problem is reportedly that bank customers assume that e-mail addresses to bank employees end with @bbva.com. They don't. The correct address is grupobbva.com, but that will change shortly to bbva.es. (Wall Street Journal, 6 juli, 2000)
The Bulletin Board Virginia lived a quiet existence at the cyber address bbva.com. Then the Spanish bank Banco Bilboa Vizcaya merged with the Argeninian bank Argentaria SA. Result: One of the world's largest banking conglomerates, with the initials you guessed it BBVA.
Jim Caldwell, in charge of the bulletin board, has received up to 100 e-mails per day, intended to go to the bank.
Some of the mails include sensitive information, such as account numbers.
The problem is reportedly that bank customers assume that e-mail addresses to bank employees end with @bbva.com. They don't. The correct address is grupobbva.com, but that will change shortly to bbva.es. (Wall Street Journal, 6 juli, 2000)