Aberdeen Public is Receiving Western Union Scam E-mail

An alarm has been raised for the public in Aberdeen (Scotland) regarding a fraudulent, phishing e-mail, which is entering the inboxes of unsuspecting netizens.

Reportedly, the Trading Standards Team of Aberdeen City Council is warning that a fake Western Union e-mail has been found making rounds in the area's cyber zone.

The public was alarmed of the issue when Kate Dean, Councilor for Aberdeen received the message which she subsequently forwarded to Trading Standards, as reported by Eveningexpress.co.uk on March 11, 2010.

Starting with a 'thank you' note, the e-mail message acknowledges the recipient's apparent use of "Western Union Money Transfer" to make monetary transactions.

It further states that the recipient's cash dealing has been approved, and therefore was ready for collection.
In the meantime, the e-mail also tries to appear genuine and legitimate. So it tells the recipient that it may be possible that restrictions or delays take place with transfers to some specific locations.

Thereafter, the e-mail reveals details of the transaction viz. the MTCN (Money Transfer Control Number). It also quotes $159, 99 as the sum waiting for the recipient to pick up. Apparently, the user can find all this information from a given attachment, which he certainly requires to open.

But, the user is also asked to follow a Web-link, which actually opens onto a spoofed site that closely resembles the original website of Western Union.

Principal Officer of Trading Standards, Del Henderson commented that the spoofed e-mail clearly represent any of those phishing e-mails that lure people into handing over personal information, especially their banking details, according to a statement published by Tradingmarkets.com published this on March 10, 2010.

The officer strongly recommends users to refrain from responding to such messages.

In addition to this, they must delete those e-mails without the slightest delay. Furthermore, recipients of the said fraudulent e-mails can dial the helpline numbers of Trading Standards Team to report the incidences.

In the end, anyone receiving bogus e-mails must necessarily make his anti-malware solution up to date. This move will definitely help to block these e-mails, like the current Western Union phishing e-mail, and not let them enter his mailbox at the very outset.

» SPAMfighter News - 3/20/2010