Phishing under the name of Wikipedia
Spammers are currently sending out large numbers of phishing emails entitled “Wikipedia e-mail address confirmation” that are designed to trick people into visiting compromised web pages
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Source: The H Security
Malicious Facebook Farm Town Ad Redirects to Fake Antivirus
PC World – A malicious advertisement has been found within an application for Facebook that redirects users to fake antivirus software, according to a security researcher.
The banner advertisement for greeting cards is intermittently displayed with an application called Farm Town, which has more than 9 million monthly users according to information published on Facebook.
If the bad Shockwave Flash advertisement is displayed, the user is redirected from Facebook through several domains and ends up on a Web site selling fake antivirus software, said Sandi Hardmeier, who studies malicious advertisements and blogged about the issue.(See also “How to Remove Fake AV Software.“)
Source: Yahoo! News: Software News
Record Year for Online Fraud
Good times for online fraudsters says FBI.
According to the FBI the losses for victims of Internet fraud in the US was estimated to 560 Million US dollars last year. This is almost the double amount compared to 2008.
I don’t know if ironic is the right word to use, but one of the most common tricks was to use FBIs name to trick victims to pay money or to give out sensitive information.
Internet Complaint Crime Center received 336,655 complaints about net fraud, an increase of 22%.
NW3C Director Donald Brackman said the report’s findings underscore the threat posed by cyber criminals. “The figures contained in this report indicate that criminals are continuing to take full advantage of the anonymity afforded them by the Internet. They are also developing increasingly sophisticated means of defrauding unsuspecting consumers. Internet crime is evolving in ways we couldn’t have imagined just five years ago.” But Brackman sounded an optimistic tone about the future. “With the public’s continued support, law enforcement will be better able to track down these perpetrators and bring them to justice.”
Sources:
Read the full 2009 Crime report (PDF)
FBI Pressrelease
Until next time 
Peter – Your Online Security Guide
Phishing: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [alerts@cdcmailsystem.gov]
Did you get an email from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [alerts@cdcmailsystem.gov], then DO NOT respond or click any links.
This is a fake message trying to get you to give up personal information that will be used for illegal purposes.
I have received several of these the last few days with slightly different wordings, title and sender information. In any regard you can be sure that CDC or other government organizations will not email you about information like this. An easy way to see where the link goes in messages like this is to hold your mouse over the image. As you can see on the image of the email I have enclosed here it goes to a website on Isle of Man.
Until next time – Stay Safe!
Peter – Your Online Security Guide
Hotmail Passwords Phishing
Microsoft has confirmed that thousands of hotmail passwords has leaked on the internet.
Microsoft claim that the company hasn’t been hacked, but the information was retrieved by the hackers by phishing. It is rumored that over 10,000 accounts has been hacked. Hotmail has over 400 million registered accounts.
If you own a hotmail account you should head over there urgently and change your login information.
Warning Phishing Attempts with Fake Microsoft Mail
This morning I received an email looking like it was sent my Microsoft alerting me about a critical update for Microsoft Outlook. The Microsoft updates are normally automatic so I got suspicious.
Hovering my mouse over the link my suspicion was confirmed. It’s an advanced phishing attempt to lure information from the recipients of this email.
Phishing Attempt - Click for larger image
If you would proceed downloading this code it will NOT update your Outlook software, but instead install malicious code on your computer.
The so called Trojan that’s installed is created to gather sensitive personal information, log in names and passwords. The trojan will watch you visit major banks, facebook accounts, Myspace and Youtube.
Never click on links in emails that you aren’t familiar with. You can read more about Phisihing here.
Keep safe!
Peter – Your Online Security Guide
Do you Bank, Invest or Shop online?
Identity Theft is on the Rise – Protect yourself Today
Do you bank, shop or chat to friends online? If your answer is yes you need to protect your identity online. Most of us do not think of online identity protection and we don’t realize the risk we put ourselves everyday. This is how many of us become victims of online scams. You do not have to be a Victim of Spammers!
Together with Softwarecasa we would like to make sure that you are protected and due to the tough economic times we are going to make it affordable by offering all our clients $5.00 Coupons as a special introductory price for GhostMyMail which protects your online identity and stops spam. In just a few seconds you can be fully protected. See below for info on how to redeem your $5.00 coupon.
Spammers will do just about anything to bypass filters to reach your inbox as a quick way of getting rich. We always hear of Millions of people like you and I whose personal information such as credit card details has been stolen through the internet. However you do not have to be a victim and you can stay one step ahead of the spammers by using GhostMyMail. This software will create a temporary, anonymous email address every time you shop or chat and this could save you millions!
Ghost Your Mail and Protect Yourself Today
Use GhostMyMail today which will create anonymous email addresses to send and receive messages freely while hiding your identity from the outside world. You will be able to safely bank, invest, shop and chat on the Internet without worrying that you may fall victim to scams. Also your inbox will be protected from being flooded with unwanted email, wasting your time. Get protected today!
1. Go to the page for GhostMyMail (opens in a new window so you can have this information handy)
2. Click on “Order Now”
3. Click on “Checkout” enter your personal information and click “Continue”
4. Once on this page click on “have code”
5. Enter your $5.00 Discount Code : boospammers
4. Click on “Checkout” and your discount will be reflected.
If you are way ahead and you have your identity protection covered you may want to protect yourself from hackers and keep your personal data personal! Checkout Softwarecasa’s Special Offer on Steganos Safe on a very special offer but valid only in the month of May, SAVE $5.00.
Phishing – What is it and how do you discover it?
What is Phishing, how to protect yourself against Phishing and examples of Phishing.
Phishing is the use of fraudulent e-mails and Web sites to lure consumers into sharing personal and financial information. According to the most recent data from the Anti-Phishing Working Group, there were 1,125 unique attacks in April — a 180 percent increase over March (statistics from 2004). Since then it has only been growing.
Criminals are sending out millions of “urgent” e-mails trying to get unsuspecting consumers to divulge personal information such as their Social Security numbers or the passwords for their online accounts.
Some tell consumers the federal insurance on their savings accounts will be canceled unless they immediately update their personal details. Others claim to be from Internet service providers redoing their billing lists and others say something has gone wrong with a credit card transaction and that additional information is needed or the card will be canceled.
MySpace & Facebook Virus Attack
Two of the biggest social media sites, MySpace and Facebook, have recently faced a worm which has offered people a video but underhandedly inserts a Trojan into their vulnerable systems.
This social media phenomenon has been bound to catch the attention of vicious hackers and criminals. Especially because many younger users are may not be as cautious in clicking on flashing links or pop-ups. This has contributed to the most recent malware problem circulating the internet.
Vishing and ID Theft – New Consumer Threats
Identity theft is not only done online. In fact the majority is done offline. Only 14% of cases are based online. So although many con artist do this at cyberspace, it can also do damage in the real world. By stealing Id’s, Credit cards and checking accounts they can access into your finances.
GT got her car broken into by thieves. They broke the window of her car and got her purse and some other valuable things. She expected that her credit cards would be used for some unauthorized purchase.
After a few days her bank called trying to verify a large purchase made on her credit card. Not just that, she also got charged for a maternity bill when she wasn’t even pregnant.
“They used my checking account and credit cards before I had a chance to cancel them”, says GT, a PR executive from San Francisco. A few months later she found out that they had also opened a new checking account in her name.
That one incident made her to go in debt and she couldn’t even use the account. This can be frightening to consumers who have credit cards and checking accounts. Someone can just steal your identity.
Now I am more careful and observant, says GT who has just only recently recovered from the financial mess that she encountered.
Majority of the people believe that Identity theft could only do damage when credit cards are used for online purchases. Well they are definitely wrong. A stolen wallet or bag would create a worse scenario.
For the one out of three identity theft victims who knows how their information was taken, more than 75 percent said it involved a physical method such as a stolen wallet, a phone or mail-order sale, stolen mail, or a theft by someone they knew, compared with 14 percent who reported that it involved online access.
What is Vishing
The Wikipedia definition of Vishing:
“Vishing is the criminal practice of using social engineering and Voice over IP (VoIP) to gain access to private personal and financial information from the public for the purpose of financial reward.
The term is a combination of “voice” and phishing. Vishing exploits the public’s trust in landline telephone services, which have traditionally terminated in physical locations which are known to the telephone company, and associated with a bill-payer.
The victim is often unaware that VoIP allows for caller ID spoofing, inexpensive, complex automated systems and anonymity for the bill-payer. Vishing is typically used to steal credit card numbers or other information used in identity theft schemes from individuals.
Vishing is very hard for legal authorities to monitor or trace. To protect themselves, consumers are advised to be highly suspicious when receiving messages directing them to call and provide credit card or bank numbers.
Rather than provide any information, the consumer is advised to contact their bank or credit card company directly to verify the validity of the message.”
Stay tuned for the second part in this series on what to do to protect yourself against vishing, phishing and similar threats.
Until next time
Peter – Your Online Security Guide
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Recently Written
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- Phishing under the name of Wikipedia
- CSI:Internet – The image of death
- Google closes vulnerabilities in Chrome 5
- Adobe’s protection against embedded scripts incomplete
- Microsoft installs another Firefox add-on without asking users’ permission
- Mass website hack aimed at online gamers
- Facebook worms are spreading freely
- Comment: Mozilla does it their way
- Click-jacking on Facebook
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Online threats are increasingly affecting work and leisure, stealing productivity and causing damage. This website is an attempt to help increase the protection and disarm any potential threats.
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