Northwest Airlines Caution Customers of a Phishing E-mail

Northwest Airlines issued a warning on July 25, 2008 of an e-mail containing false ticket confirmation and enrollment information was being circulated in its name. Also, it is suspected that the e-mail contains a computer virus that corrupts the users' system when an attached file is opened.

The email begins with thank to the user for availing of just started service "Buy flight ticket online" of the company on its Website. It states that an account was available for the user and provide him/her a password and account number. It also mentions the amount that was being deducted from the recipient's credit card.

Moreover, the virus hidden in the attachment is called Trojan.Zbot1715 and is capable of infecting computers. Also, the e-mail contains grammatical and spelling errors, indicating that it is fraudulent.

This kinds of e-mails are generally part of "phishing" schemes that typically used to grab personal information like personal identification, social security and credit card numbers and other information that aid in stealing an end-user's identity.

Meanwhile, Midwest Airlines, which was similarly spoofed, said that it had no role in the e-mails. The real e-mails from airline company actually the outcome of tickets bought by customers and therefore, contain information recognizable to the customer.

Meanwhile, Al Lenza, Vice-President of E-Commerce, Northwest Airlines, said that customers are required to know that these dubious emails not sent by Northwest, as reported by Marketwatch on July 25, 2008. Lenza added that if the e-mail's format did not appear familiar to the recipient, and he/she had not recently bought a ticket, then he/she needed to avoid the attachment.

Moreover, Craig Schmugar, Researcher at McAfee Avert Labs in Santa Clara, Calif., reported that the spoof e-mails started arriving in the mailboxes in Twin Cities just after 7 a.m. on July 25, 2008. According to him, the e-mails were possibly the creation of scammers from Russia who in the third week of July 2008 had released a similar onslaught of spam mails involving United Parcel Service, as reported by startribune on July 25, 2008.

Related article: Northwestern University Suffers a Third Computer Hack During 2005-07

» SPAMfighter News - 8/5/2008