UPS Scam Virus Targets Former Pastor of First Baptist Church

According to news published by ChurchSolutions on October 27, 2008, 65-year-old Ed Johnson former pastor of First Baptist Church situated in Ocala, US, lost about $10,000 to online thieves in October 2008. This happened when a virus filched Johnson's credit card details after rapaciously hijacking his internet banking accounts.

The reports also disclosed that the virus hacked 5 credit accounts of Johnson, including 2 private credit cards, 1 corporate credit card and 2 bank debit cards. With these stolen accounts, the unknown thieves made purchases at Wal-Marts, Tractor Supply Company stores and gas stations.

The Sheriff's Office said that Johnson's computer received virus from an e-mail he believed to be from the United Parcel Service. The e-mail informed the former pastor about the failure of delivering a package he was expecting to receive. However, when Johnson clicked on a link within the e-mail, a pop-up suddenly warned him that his computer was infected with a Trojan virus. Johnson did not know that the computer virus could reach the files on his system that contained his banking information. But after several weeks, the financial fraud came into limelight, with the greater number of the online transactions curiously related to purchases at Tractor Supply Company.

Johnsons, who transacts with the bank via internet, said that he knew about the possible damage to his files from a virus, but never thought that his private security would be at risk, as reported by Ocala on October 25, 2008.

Apart from this, the Sheriff's Office believes that the scam relating to Johnson's credit cards might be linked to incidents in Lee County. A person there named Jorge Isandy Meireles Provendo was detained recently for possessing 40 fake credit cards that were used to make purchases at various Tractor Supply Company stores.

Moreover, Jennifer Fisher, Assistant Public Information Officer, Marion County Sheriffs Office, said that she wasn't aware about the number of other local persons who might have fallen victim to the widespread UPS Trojan that launched its first attack in July 2008, as reported by Ocala on October 25, 2008.

» SPAMfighter News - 14-11-2008

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