Holiday Scam Mentions Robbery, Urgent Monetary Help via E-mail

Researchers at Microsoft have cautioned about one scam e-mail that's posing as a message from a friend whom robbers looted, leaving him in dire need of money.

The researchers note that often this implies hackers compromised the electronic mail account of the friend and used it for dispatching own fake e-mails.

Appearing somewhat genuine, the fraudulent e-mail, expressing hope that it reaches the recipient promptly, tells about the sender journeying Edinburgh, Scotland where his money-bag containing his passport and other personal belongings was stolen. And though he has secured a tentative passport from the embassy, he still requires buying a ticket as also paying hotel bills, the e-mail continues.

Additionally, the phishing message explains that the friend contacted his bank; however, he could access his account and deposits only after days, being situated at Edinburgh. Therefore, he requires the e-mail reader to lend him a sum of money with which he can pay his expenses, while he'll return it immediately on getting back home. To reach him, e-mail is the best option sine he has lost his cell-phone during the theft as also doesn't have any other accessible number to provide, the message concludes.

Here security specialists observe that being the holiday season, increasing number of individuals are traveling, consequently, cyber-criminals regard this time as most appropriate for devising scams and conning end-users.

Meanwhile, during December 2011 itself, another e-mail scam impersonated Delta Air Lines, while containing sufficient web-links towards making recipients feel a false sense of reading an authentic e-mail (actually bogus). This scam e-mail asserted about recipients having bought one Delta ticket so the charges have been debited to a payment card, while a receipt/invoice, really carrying malware, is given as an attachment.

Hence, users receiving such e-mails should erase the messages alternatively, notify about them. Moreover, if any e-mail claiming to be from a friend asks for money then first it must be verified over phone say, prior to sending the sum. Besides, for e-mail scams masquerading as tickets, their attachments shouldn't be viewed. Lastly there's nothing good like using one's commonsense to remain safe from the above scams, the specialists conclude.

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» SPAMfighter News - 1/2/2012