Phishers Mimic Google Adwords

Saturday, May 3rd, 2008

Google Adwords account holders are being targeted by criminals out to trick them into handing over credit card information using a clever URL spoof that has gained popularity in recent weeks. On the face of it, the scam follows a traditional attack route involving the sending of spam e-mail to random ...

CEOs targetted by sneaky phishing scam

Tuesday, April 15th, 2008

Panos Anastassiadis didn't click on the fake subpoena that popped into his inbox on Monday morning, but he runs a computer security company. Others were not so lucky. In fact, security researchers say that thousands have fallen victim to an email scam in which senior managers such as Anastassiadis are told ...

New Crimeware-as-a-Service Market Thriving

Sunday, April 13th, 2008

First it was do-it-yourself malware and phishing toolkits, then it was specialized sites selling stolen FTP credentials and credit card accounts, and now it’s the next phase in cybercrime: crimeware as a service. Researchers at Finjan, MarkMonitor, and Trend Micro are among those seeing a new cybercrime business model, where ...

Internet Fraud Dupes Men More Often Than Women

Sunday, April 6th, 2008

When it comes to being taken in by Internet fraudsters, men have a knack for losing cash, according to a new report from the Internet Crime Complaint Center. Data compiled from more than 206,000 complaints received last year by the U.S. Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) shows that men lost US$1.67 ...

Heads-up: Dangerous new customized IRS scam steals data

Saturday, April 5th, 2008

This afternoon, we got a highly customized email purporting to come from the IRS, which of course, does nothing more than load malware. The email is made out to a key financial contact here at Sunbelt (name obfuscated for this post). As you can see, it’s quite convincing. (Incidentally, “Sunbelt Software Distribution, ...

The Anatomy of a Vishing Scam

Saturday, March 15th, 2008

A series of well-orchestrated wireless phone-based phishing attacks against several financial institutions last week illustrates how scam artists are growing more adept at fleecing consumers by exploiting security holes in seemingly unrelated Internet technologies. The scams in this case took the form of a type of phishing known as "vishing," wherein ...

Image Spam Slips into Inbox

Saturday, March 8th, 2008

Spammers have begun using come-ons such as stock-pushing images as e-mail stationery backgrounds to evade antispam technology and shovel their unwanted messages into your inbox. One antispam vendor has spotted the technique in its early stages, but expects we'll see more of it. In a sample e-mail, the subject read 'GED' ...

Surfers urged to take Phishing IQ Test

Saturday, March 8th, 2008

A new website has been built to educate British online consumers about the dangers of phishing scams. The Phishing IQ Test has been set up with faux emails from banks and e-commerce vendors, and users are invited to judge whether they are legitimate or not. A results page reveals the correct answers ...

Scam Alert: Juice Boost

Saturday, March 8th, 2008

From the scam of a lifetime department: A spammer in our Broadband Tweaks forum is pushing a referral scam service called Juice Boost, which promises users 2Mbps speeds for free, anywhere there's a phone line, using "State-of-the-art data compression, byte stream and ultimate data burst technology". The service also promises ...

Liebermann Inc. Hoax Analysis - The 17k 92-inch monitor

Saturday, March 8th, 2008

"On September 22, 2003 I was first made aware of this company's (fictitious) display product known as the Grand Canyon. I looked briefly at the press release on their site and thought: "oh that's cool, but too exotic for me." On Thursday the 25th, I somehow got the idea that ...