Airline Phishing Scam Reveals Notorious Intentions of Hackers

A new phishing e-mail scam is posing a severe threat to numerous Internet users. The safe-appearing e-mail, purporting to be coming from an airline, is actually a trick employed by the hackers to secretly obtain the bank account information and other personal details of the users, as reported by onenews on November 20, 2008.

The fake e-mail thanks the users for the online purchase of flight tickets and states that they have charged the cost using his credit card. It further informs the users that an invoice and the copy of the ticket are attached along with the mail and directs them to obtain their hard copy by double-clicking on the attachment.

However, double-clicking the link redirects the user to a phony website, which tracks all the actions performed by him on his PCs and forwards the details to the hacker. After this, the hacker can easily access the bank accounts of the victim or exploit his personal details.

One of the victims stated that he mistook the phishing e-mail for a legitimate one and thought that he was charged erroneously. Thus, to clear his suspicions, he double-clicked that attachment but fortunately his antivirus software removed it immediately. This incident strikes a chord to update the antivirus software regularly, as per the security experts.

Experts added that though online purchase of air tickets might prove to be a good deal, but users need to be vigilant. However, many websites may offer such luring deals, which the users find hard to ignore. When these online tickets don't arrive, the buyers' vacation dreams flew off.

Several scams attract people by offering them easy and handsome amounts. Moreover, there has been a considerable rise in the scams related to the recruitment of money mules to carry out the online transfer of funds across various countries. Similarly, other illicit job-associated scams are also mounting up in the recent times.

The security firm, Cyveillance, highlighted that in October 2008, the average number of phishing scams per day exceeded 1,750 from just about 400 in entire quarter one of 2008.

Related article: Airlines Bear Brunt of E-mail Ticketing Scams

» SPAMfighter News - 12/3/2008