BBB Raising Warning Against Phishing E-mails

The Better Business Bureau is alerting internet users in the US to be cautious of scam e-mails that are recently being circulated by cybercriminals as the festive season is approaching.

BBB has especially mentioned two variant phishing e-mail scams that are attacking innocent netizens.

As per the first phishing scam, cybercriminals send bogus e-mails pretending to be from the "shipping companies". This e-mail comes with a subject line - "Tracking Number 13040065504". The text of the e-mail alleges that a parcel could not be delivered and suggests the receiver to get the print of the attached copy of the e-mail. However, in reality, opening the attachment installs virus onto the users' computer.

The BBB recommends that netizens should not click any links or open attachments of a suspicious e-mail. Rather, they should immediately visit the shipper's website or make a call.

Besides, BBB highlighted that cybercrooks are utilizing e-cards to install malware onto users' computer. With legal e-cards, cybercrooks are circulating an e-mail attached with a link that will direct the user to the e-card harbored on a website, which will infect the users' machine.

Apart from BBB, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is also alerting the US netizens to be wary of the phishing scams during this festive season.

Commenting on the whole issue, FBI Spokeswoman, Debbie Bertram, (Utah, US) stated that, the FBI is likely to witness a small increase in these scams during the festive season. Since people are busy with planning, shopping, and travelling, they tend to fell prey to such kind of scams, as reported by The Standard on November 30, 2010.

Bertram quoted the instance of Utahans and stated that they (FBI) had not witnessed any incidence of Utahans declining for the text message or phone call versions of the scam until now, but at least a few have been cheated by bogus e-mails.

Finally, both the agencies are suggesting netizens to immediately delete the e-mails after forwarding them to the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) at the website www.ic3.gov.

Related article: BBA Outlines Steps To Ward Off Online Fraud

» SPAMfighter News - 12/16/2010