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A New Phishing Scam Hijacks Users’ E-Mail Contacts

According to a warning released by the Better Business Bureau (BBB), citizens need to watch out for a new phishing e-mail circulating on the Internet. This scam known as the "Wire Transfer Money" scam involves an attack that compromises the user's e-mail contacts.

Once the e-mail address book is hacked, the attacker sends e-mails posing to come from the affected user and feigns that the sender is stranded in an overseas country and therefore, requests his/her family and friends to remit money. Additionally, the message might promise that the sender would pay back the money when he reaches home.

Moreover, according to law enforcement officials, the false complaints arrive via e-mail, addressing the recipient by his/her name and adding some personal details so that the complaint looks genuine.

BBB also warns that some fake e-mails might urge the reader to open a hyperlink to know more about the 'complaint', however, it stealthily drops a virus onto the user's system. The virus then hides inside a file for screen saver where normal anti-virus software would fail to detect it during scanning.

Meanwhile, the BBB said that if anyone finds his e-mail ID hacked, he should treat it as identity theft and go to www.ic3.gov to lodge a security complaint with Internet Crime Complaint Center. Further, he should also ask his family/friends to lodge similar complaints.

Meanwhile, the FBI is cautioning entrepreneurs about fake complaints formally lodged against them or against their organization by what seems like the Internal Revenue Service, BBB, Social Security Administration, or U.S. Department of Justice. Furthermore, the scammers through these scams ask for personal details and falsely create a sense of urgency by asking to click on a link or call at the number given in the e-mail that might be potentially hazardous.

Unfortunately, these kinds of phishing frauds are increasingly launching targeting online users. In related news, a rare kind of hi-tech scam recently targeted a Lynchburg business, giving a new turn to the conventional methods of duping people into parting from their money. The scammers attempt to make storeowners believe that their payment card terminals require software updates.

Related article: A New "Blackmailing" Variant Creeps Around…

» SPAMfighter News - 9/20/2008

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