The false e-mails received by users are designed to appear as if they have been sent from Barclays' customer services, with the subject field chosen at random from a list of options. Some of these options include: Barclays bank official update, Barclays bank -- Security update, Please Read or Verify your data with Barclays bank (the full list is available at Panda Software's Virus Encyclopedia).

The message text, imitating Barclays' corporate image, informs users that the bank is upgrading software and that they should go to a link in order to confirm their bank details. Users that click on the link will access a form, similar to those used by the bank, requesting their account number, credit card number or PIN. There are 61 different variants of this message, using a wide range of message subjects and sender addresses. This tactic is used deliberately in order to bypass anti-spam systems.

It is significant that not all of the e-mail messages point to the same Internet address in order to collect stolen data, but, in fact, the criminals have prepared at least five false domains to hinder attempts to close all of them down. In any event, PandaLabs is contacting the technicians in charge of the sites that have been located - all of them in Korea- in order to shut them down as quickly as possible.