Sophos Identifies New iPhone 5 Phishing E-Mail

Security researchers from Sophos, the security company warn that one fresh phishing scam has been identified that exploits the public's enthusiasm about the new iPhone 5. Actually, rumors are going around that Apple is preparing to declare 'iPhone 5' on June 7, 2011 at the San Francisco scheduled WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference); as a result, scammers are doing everything possible for capitalizing on the fad.

In the meantime, Sophos observes that phishers in their scam electronic mail claim that there are many features in the latest iPhone such as transparent mode, wider display and so on.

But, it seems that the scammers are short of sufficient knowledge since they use the header, "Finally. The amazing iPhone 5, Now available in black edition." Moreover, their message seems to be dispatched from noreply@apple.com, the security company points out.

Furthermore, the phishers have forcibly added a "G" as well as an "S" too to the name's suffix solely to increase its impression, Sophos outlines.

Remarking about the above mentioned fraudulent e-mails, Senior Technology Consultant Graham Cluley at Sophos stated that certainly, the iPhone 5's images showing an in-built hardware keyboard was something anyone would long for. Digitalartsonline.co.uk reported this on June 6, 2011.

In addition, if anybody followed the web-link embedded on the e-mail, he might have to pay dearly, considering the lure that was being utilized. So were curiosity given importance, it could result in installing a dangerous Trojan onto any Windows computer.

Cluley stated that paradoxically, the malware spam did not contaminate iPhone or even end-users of Mac from Apple; it solely contaminated the Windows OS. Incidentally, researchers at Sophos have identified the malware as Troj/Zapchast-B.

However, winding up the discussion, security researchers said that it wasn't unprecedented to have a fraudulent, phishing campaign take advantage of the craze generated for iPhone 5's introduction. For, during early May 2011, M86 another security company reported an e-mail scam on Facebook that lured victims with guarantees for information on Apple's iPhone 5; nevertheless, the info was totally a fake that cyber-criminals actually utilized for tricking unwitting Internet operators into doing whatever the criminals wished.

Related article: Spike in Attacks Causes Early Release of Windows Patch

» SPAMfighter News - 6/15/2011