A Global Phishing Scam Targets Party PokerSecurity vendor Websense announced that the most popularly used poker website in Australia had become the target of a worldwide phishing scam. An online poker player uses a credit card number whenever he wants to gamble. It is only an icon on the desktop and clicking on it displays the username and password like in e-mail. Websense describes the attack as trying to snatch personal account information of Partypoker.com users by tricking them with a spoofed e-mail having a link that leads to a phishing site. The e-mail states that the U.S. has passed a new online gambling law and so to know further details users must login. Eventually, it redirects them to a phishing site hosted in U.S. that asks users to update their usernames. On October 13, 2006 President Bush signed "The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act", which stops U.S. banks and other brokers from moving funds to online gambling sites. The President signed the Act after arrests of several online gambling executives in the U.S, like the CEO of BetonSports, a company in public trading in the U.K. According to "The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act" (UIGEA), federal regulators need to pass regulations to spot and stop money transfers to gambling sites. This must happen within 270 days of the declaration of the bill as law. As a result of the legislation, some gambling sites are not accepting U.S. players in their games. The UIGEA added one provision that was friendly to online gambling companies. It permits regulation of Internet gambling within its boundaries, enabling companies to operate and flourish in U.S. The FBI has estimated online gambling to grow at a rate of nearly $10 billion per annum hence it is an increasing problem. According to Joel Camissar, country manager of A/NZ at Websense, Australians consistently access Party Poker among all gambling sites. Therefore, it is not surprising that phishers are making this brand their latest target. Using Anti-Phishing Working Group statistics, Camissar said traditionally 90% of phishing attacks targeted financial institutions. Now the trend is turning towards companies like Party Poker, also to make monetary gains, he said. Related article: A New "Blackmailing" Variant Creeps Around… » SPAMfighter News - 3/6/2007 |    |
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