Sophos – Nigerian Spam Campaign Shifts to New Attack Trick

Security experts at SophosLabs said that they had found a new change in the working of famous 'Nigerian spam', as reported by itworld on August 10, 2009.

The new spam e-mail claims that it has come from Personal Assistant of Zimbabwe's President 'Jacob Dube'. In this e-mail, Dube describes the President as despot responsible for fixing the recently held elections. Dube further claims that the President asked him to transfer $22.5 Million to his Malaysian account so that he could escape to Malaysia if he were extradited by the opposition from the country.

As per the details given in the e-mail, Dube had other plans. He kept the money for his personal use or would probably invest in oil/gas contract of the e-mail recipient's country, said the e-mail.

Dube further added in the e-mail that he had already deposited the money in a South African bank. Now he wants that the e-mail recipient should belong to South Africa so that the ownership of deposit could be changed in the name of a person who helps Dube in his plan. Dube has hired a lawyer who will help in changing the ownership of the fund in the interested person's name. The explanation given by Dube is that if the money were transferred to his account, then he would land up in judicial trouble.

Dube also added that in his e-mail that with that money, he wanted to start a new life after he had migrated to the e-mail recipient's country. This spam e-mail clearly exemplifies that the danger South Africa could face, giving more information about the new attacks on citizens in the country.

The unsolicited e-mail ends with a message from Dube in which he has asked for e-mail recipients' name, address, age, phone, occupation, address and fax numbers.

Prashant Kumar, Security Expert, SophosLabs, said in his blog that the e-mail was forwarded by a common e-mail provider such as @mighty.co.za. This e-mail was not sent to target a particular user but to a large number of potential victims.

Finally, Prashant Kumar has advised that e-mail recipients should be careful and do not reveal their personal details to potential scammers.

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» SPAMfighter News - 9/3/2009