Phishers Target FCC’s Official Site

Companies have been cautioned by the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to beware of a phishing scam posing as its Fee Filer payment system, as reported by computeractive on September 5, 2008.

Phishing is a kind of social engineering technique wherein phishers exploit e-mails or spoofed internet sites to fraudulently obtain private information.

According to FCC, it had received complaints that non-governmental organizations (NGOs) were supposedly taking advantage of malevolent Websites to mislead companies seeking to pay their regulatory fees to steal financial details. The phishers convinced the clients about their dependability and persuaded them to disclose their financial details.

The messages, which claim to have originated from the FCC, ask customers to pay their regulatory fees via its online payment system but subsequently lead customers to a link demanding private details.

Furthermore, the stolen detail is subsequently utilized to obtain the fee payer's ID and financial assets. Usually, identity thieves utilize another person's private information to steal his or her financial assets, pile up charges on the target's present credit cards, request for loans, capitalize on all facilities or benefits in the target's name, and also file fake returns.

These days phishing scams frequently using legal agencies and establishments to trap victims. Prior to the FCC warning, several other US companies have become victims of phishers.

In the meantime, people are urged to ensure the authenticity of the FCC site prior to disclosing any financial information.

There have been several instances of a US government agency being used as bait by spammers in the past. Previously, e-mails claiming to have come from the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Trade Commission have been utilized to persuade consumers into opening malevolent attachments and pilfer financial details. Moreover, the scams are frequently part of targeted phishing attacks, which seek a handful of affluent targets, instead of a multitude of persons of assorted assets.

Furthermore, the US-CERT (Computer Readiness Cert Team) urges people to study the FCC announcements and check the Avoiding Social Engineering and phishing Attacks article for additional data on social engineering strikes.

Related article: Phishers Expand Their Sphere of Attacks

» SPAMfighter News - 9/11/2008