US Capitol Police Investigate Senators’ Death Rumor

The US Capitol Police started to investigate a fake e-mail scam that reports death of at least three Democratic Senators - Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey, Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Dianne Feinstein of California - in the first week of July 2010.

Unfortunately, a number of California news outlets got e-mails from the office of Feinstein that she had died due to cancer. On the very next day, Vermont news outlets got fake e-mails that the Senator Leahy died during sleep. As per the security experts, these e-mails looked real and authentic.

Besides, the fake e-mails contained phone number of the respective Senators' offices along with the names of staff members. However, in at least two cases, the names of staff members, who normally sent news, were not the same.

The interesting fact to note is that the office of Feinstein categorically said on the morning of July 5, 2010 that it was false and a complete rumor. Although the nature of the matter was quite serious, the Vermont Democrat (Leahy) revealed that he was in good humor when he had come to know about the situation.

Nevertheless, Leahy said that he was concerned that cyber criminals could use similar types of e-mails to spread wrong information about him and other members of the Congress, as reported by vpr on July 6, 2010.

The US Capitol Police Spokeswoman Kimberly Schneider said that the police were investigating into the rumor, but she declined to make any comment on how many were there and didn't provide any other detail.

Apart from the above politicians or Senators, other politicians had their accounts broken in by the hackers in the past. These people included Sarah Palin (American Author and Speaker) and Jack Straw (UK Justice Secretary). However, in those cases, the e-mails didn't talk about death. In the case of Straw, criminals used the plot that the politician had lost wallet in Nigeria and asked for $3,000 to return home, whereas in the case of Palin, the bogus e-mails centralized on very poor password reminder decisions of hers.

Related article: US Passes Baton to Asia in Spam Relay

» SPAMfighter News - 19-07-2010

Share and tell your friends!



Read IT-Security News

2012 December November October September August July June May April March February January	2011 December November October September August July June May April March February January	2010 December November October September August July June May April March February January

2009 December November October September August July June May April March February January	2008 December November October September August July June May April March February January	2007 December November October September August July June May April March February January