Online Security Guide » Phishing

Kids Next Scam Target Through Games

admin — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 11:36:25 +0000

Kids Next Scam Target Through Games (image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/radiofree/3602149122/)

A number of educational online games for pre-schoolers has been found having malicious trojans in them.

Catalin Cosoi, head of online-threats lab for BitDefender, spotted more than a half-dozen infected children’s games on Chinese websites.

The trojans are injected into the Flash-based games code. And with it it is possible for the Phishers to infect computers and personal information may be at risk.

Source: http://www.securitynewsdaily.com/

Facebook Adds Anti Phishing Net

admin — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 08:48:18 +0000

Facebook has initiated working with Online security firm Websense to protect users from Phishing by adding a phishing safety net.

Next week you will be met by this safety pop-up if you are heading for a potentially dangerous website:

Facebook is a likely target for scammers and often people click on links supposedly posted by friends. The target is to gain access to passwords.

Source: BBC News

Fight Back Against Phishing

admin — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 12:37:56 +0000

Are you also tired of the endless amounts of trickery and online scams. Perhaps it’s time to fight back?

Here are some addresses you can forward such emails to. Also included are bank, and business addresses for reporting phishing and scam emails.

US CERT (US Computer Emergency Response Team) phishing-report@us-cert.gov
Federal Trade Commission spam@uce.gov
EarthLink Fraud fraud@abuse.earthlink.net
Anti-Phishing Working Group reportphishing@antiphishing.org
Fraud Watch International fraudwatch@fraudwatchinternational.com
Phish Tank phish@phishtank.com
Chase Bank abuse@chase.com
Zenith Bank ebusiness@zenithbank.com
Oceanic Bank customercare@oceanicbank.com
Abbey National Bank customerservices@abbey.com
Union Bank PLC customerservice@unionbankng.com
Lloyds TSB Banking emailscams@lloydstsb.co.uk
South Western Federal Credit Union contactus@swfcu.org
Federal Express abuse@fedex.com
DHL Express Fraud.alert@dhl.com
Wells Fargo reportphish@wellsfargo.com
Publishers Clearing House PCHabuse@pch.com
Capitol One abuse@capitalone.com
Pay Pal spoof@paypal.com
Bank of America abuse@bankofamerica.com
USAA Bank abuse@usaa.com
HSBC Bank usphishing@us.hsbc.com
NatWest Bank phishing@natwest.com

If you want to fight the sleezy scum of internet frauds you can join the phish-fighting community at Phishtank, a site where anyone can submit, verify, track and share phishing data. More at www.phishtank.com.

Until next time

Peter – Your Online Security Guide

Protection from the Phisherman

admin — Fri, 13 May 2011 11:32:25 +0000

The entire objective of phishing is to steal your identity and thus get your money. Knowing this can save you from a lot of trouble and pain. Don’t click on links from strangers (don’t take candy either). These scams are called phishing because they “fish” for your dough and ID. There are precautions you can take, most importantly learn how to recognize a scam when you see one.

Con men say that “a sucker is born every minute”. On the Internet, it seems that a scam is born every minute while simultaneously recycling the old. I still get emails from Nigeria alerting me to the funds they have waiting for me.

The phishermen will attempt to alarm you. They will tell you the sky is falling and your account is about to be shut down. Don’t fall for it. Banks do not send emails to folks telling them their bank account is going to be closed. They just don’t operate that way.

The phishermen will promise you that you can go from rags to riches with very little effort on your part. Just sign on the dotted line…

The phishermen will present you with a deal that sounds too good to be true. And you know what – it is too good to be true. Don’t fall for that con.

The phishermen in times of trouble like a natural disaster will humbly request your donation to some charitable organization. Make sure they are really a valid charity before dispensing your hard-earned cash.

Alas the phishermen does not spell all that well and is guilty of some atrocious grammar. You don’t have to pull out your grammar text to recognize the tortured English you are reading.

The phishermen love scams like tech support, lotteries or sweepstakes. They often use famous names in their emails. Keep the delete button handy.

As we have discussed so many times, please watch out for the Rogue security software scams a favorite of the phisherman. Rogue security software, aka “scareware,” is software that appears to be beneficial from a security perspective but provides limited or no security, generates erroneous or misleading alerts, or attempts to lure you into participating in fraudulent transactions. These scams can appear in email, online advertisements, your social networking site, search engine results, or even in pop-up windows on your computer that might appear to be part of your operating system, but are not. These guys are most insidious so stay suspicious.

Sponsored by Vipre Antivirus AntiSpyware

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Survey scammers take aim at Call of Duty

admin — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 06:24:18 +0000

Do you prefer to:
a) shooting people
b) not shooting people

Fraudsters have exploited excitement over this week’s launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops as a base for online scams.…

Supposed cracks for the eagerly awaited first-person shooter actually take gamers through a variety of shonky online surveys, warns GFI Security researcher Chris Boyd.

The surveys falsely offer iPads and suchlike as potential prizes for completing a series of questions. In reality, the surveys only exist to trick potential marks into handing over personal information for later misuse.

Source: The Register – Security

Don’t Talk To Strangers

admin — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 08:08:02 +0000

I received an invitiation from this girl(?) today. I declined.

Malware City just published a very interesting experiment. Creating a 20-year old girl persona they contacted and befriended 2,000 people.

The study focuses on how easily social network users make new virtual acquaintances by accepting friend requests sent out by perfect strangers, and on what kind of information they disclose to these recent friends.

Malware City doesn’t reveal which social network they have used for the study but they reveal “First, a social network was chosen. The choice was based on the fact that the network was large enough to make it possible for the “friends” sample to meet the representativeness criterion.” Taking into consideration the size and the possibilities of communication, my guess is Facebook was used for the study.

Second, a test-profile was created in order to analyze a so-called “friendship rate” as a function of sex, age and interests. This test-profile was that of a fair-haired woman, aged 21, acting as a very, very naïve interlocutor.

In my opinion it’s a very interesting study. I am quoting one of the most striking results here:

“…after a 2 hour conversation, 73% revealed what appears to be confidential information from their work place, such as future strategies, plans, and unreleased technologies/software.”

Read about the study at Malware City

Phishing under the name of Wikipedia

admin — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 10:24:22 +0000

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.

Source: The H Security

Malicious Facebook Farm Town Ad Redirects to Fake Antivirus

admin — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 10:15:44 +0000

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

admin — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 11:37:58 +0000

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]

admin — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 12:45:47 +0000

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!