Cyber-criminals Exploit Facebook with Scam E-mail Ploy

Cyber-criminals' latest attack with an ongoing e-mail scam is on the social networking website, Facebook. Through this scam, they're defrauding people off enormous sums of dollars as they pretend to be a friend requesting urgent monetary help. Indeed, scammers are driving the public towards panic buttons, so it gives away its money, warn security researchers.

In one example, Errole Rembert a coach based in Ohio (US) recently got an e-mail that another coach sent him.

Rembert said that since he coaches sports players, he receives and sends plenty of e-mails to other coaches, and this is something that keeps him up-to-date, as reported by Nbc4i.com on April 20, 2010.

However, Rembert said that he got one e-mail during the last week of April 2010 that startled him.

The e-mail contained another coach's name and urged for help. Rembert read the message since he knew her name.

Through the e-mail, the friend requested him to send her $1,500 to a U.K address where she currently was. The place brought the recent volcano along with travel problems to Rembert's mind.

He said that as the airlines were in a crisis, he instantly assumed that his friend was stranded while being unable to reach home.

But, before taking any action in haste like wiring money, Rembert thought he would call his friend, who surprisingly told him that she was alright. Actually, her e-mail had been hacked and used to distribute mass e-mails to everyone.

Significantly, as per ESET, a security firm, since numerous people are stranded globally due to the volcano disaster in Iceland, cyber-criminals have fast devised a new malicious e-mail campaign utilizing the much-known 'friend-in-need' ploy.

Indeed, the ESET researchers have noticed a rise in phishing e-mails that people calling themselves as friends are sending. These people are seeking to borrow cash with which to supposedly return home from regions they're stuck in, the researchers explained.

Consequently, ESET advises recipients of such e-mails not to respond without doing a cross-check with their friends, say, over phone. Secondly, if the e-mails don't have a personal touch, they do sufficiently indicate that the messages are untrustworthy and typically meant for phishing.

Related article: Cyber Child abuser Sentenced To Imprisonment

» SPAMfighter News - 5/1/2010