Package Delivery Failure Spam Mails Still Prevalent

Graham Cluley, Senior Technology Consultant, Sophos, writes in a blog posted on Sophos.com on September 2, 2009 that hackers continue to take advantage of human beings' excitement of receiving a surprise package. In fact, spammers are seizing this excitement by sending a special kind of spam mails that allegedly inform of a package delivery failure.

To support his statement, Cluley mentions a standard malicious e-mail, which spammers are using to break into a user's computer.

While addressing the customer (e-mail recipient), the spam mail regretfully states that DHL, the company that delivers packages, has failed to deliver a certain parcel dispatched on July 19, 2009 at the stipulated time. Failure in delivering the parcel is due to the incorrect postal address of parcel recipient.

Subsequently, the unsolicited e-mail directs the recipient to take a print of an attached invoice and carry it to the company's local office to collect the undelivered parcel. Furthermore, the e-mail tries to sound authentic by concluding with the words "Your DHL Delivery Services."

Cluley says that the particular spam attack is highly unsophisticated as the unsolicited e-mail's 'From' space is completely empty, indicating that the sender did not even bother to make a pretense that the e-mail was sent from a DHL ID.

Yet a fair number of people might open the attachment without giving proper attention or exercising necessary caution. Consequently, in case the compressed file within the attachment is opened, it would infect the user's system with a malicious Trojan named Troj/BredoZp-E.

Based on an analysis, Cluley states that the Trojan gives malicious hackers unauthorized control of the infected PC.

In fact, MX Lab, an online security vendor, detected and reported the same kind of spam mail during August 2009. In that e-mail, which had a similar text as the one reported by Sophos, there was a Trojan malware called 'W32/Trojan3.AKD' that infected numerous computers.

Thus, Cluley recommends Internet users that they should remain cautious of unsolicited e-mails, especially e-mail attachments that are not solicited. They should ensure that the anti-spam and antivirus software installed on their systems are always maintained up-to-date.

Related article: Pushdo Sent Through E-cards Rank First on March Malware Chart

» SPAMfighter News - 9/25/2009