E-Mails Targeting Businessmen With False Claim of Containing Official Complaints

The Better Business Bureau and Federal Bureau of Investigation have issued a warning for business owners against a phony e-mail that might target them and their organizations by claiming that the Internal Revenue Service, US Department of Justice, Better Business Bureau or Social Security Administration filed a complaint, as reported by PR on June 11, 2008.

Law enforcement agencies disclosed that recipients receive the complaints in an e-mail format that contains personal identification information such as name of an addressed person to make e-mail looks legitimate.

The FBI Officials revealed that scammers use similar techniques to get more personal information and generate an emergency situation to call on the given phone number or click on the link that opens a dangerous attachment.

The authorities said that generally, such phony e-mails ask recipients to open the given link if they want to read complaint but opening the link might end up downloading a potentially harmful virus software into their system. The virus conceals itself in screen saver file in the system where no antivirus software identifies it during the scan. The virus searches for user names and passwords, trace online activity and collect information relating to password.

Meanwhile, scammers continue to use the name of Better Business Bureau to run phishing scam. Fake e-mails claming to have information on the complaint filed by Better Business Bureau actually containing malicious links and harmful viruses and have been sent to consumers and businesses across the country.

Paulette Hotton, President, Connecticut BBB, said that BBB's computers along with its e-mail systems are fully secure and not involved in this scam. BBB and government are working jointly to stop such attacks. Moreover, BBB does not send communications regarding complaints to companies by e-mail containing a link, as reported by PR on June 11, 2008.

The BBB Officials said that recipients might get an e-mail from any of the following URL- operation@bbb.org, complntscentercase@bbb.org, fraud@bbb.org, idetheft@bbb.org, compl-srv@bbb.org, complaints@bbb.org, consumercomplaints@bbb.org, complaints-serv@bbb.org, onlineidentitytheft@euro-viza.com and seatac@bbb.org.

Another fake e-mail address from where recipient might get e-mails is diputes@la.bbb.org but the message contains lots of spelling and grammatical errors. Therefore, the Officials of both BBB and FBI are asking Internet users to delete such mails at first sight.

Related article: E-Crime Reporting Format To Be Launched in July

» SPAMfighter News - 6/30/2008