pahunkboy
Posts: 33061
Joined: 2/26/2006
From: Central Pennsylvania
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Although many people can recognize a phishing scam, countless more will fall for one. Three new ones have become so alarming, they've sparked warnings from various government agencies including the FBI and Department of Defense. The scams involve claims of Patriot Act violations, WikiLeaks threats, and faked resumes. All this to scare people to part with their money or take actions that will load malware onto their PCs (visiting a malicious Web site, opening an attachment).
The phishing fear factor:
The FDIC issued a special consumer alert about phishing e-mails supposedly sent by the FDIC that attempt to scare users with Patriot Act Violations. "The e-mail informs the recipient that 'in cooperation with the Department of Homeland Security, federal, state and local governments...' the FDIC has withdrawn deposit insurance from the recipient's account 'due to account activity that violates the Patriot Act,'" the alert states. Recipients are told to click on the link to "IDVerify" their account information or else their bank account will remain suspended. Consumers who visit the link are asked for sensitive personal information or malicious software infects their computer. These e-mails are fraudulent. Although the FDIC is investigating, it asked consumers to report such phishing attempts.
Snopes documented an almost identical FDIC phishing scam in 2004. The IDVerify links opened to spoofed FDIC sites, but were traced to servers in Pakistan, South Korea, Seoul, Taipei and Taiwan.
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Another scam meant to scare consumers into complying is related to WikiLeaks. The Spokane BBB warns of a phone scam that threatens consumers with fines and jail time. The described WikiLeaks-inspired phone scam goes like this: "A caller reported she received an automated phone call telling her that her computer and IP address had been noted as having visited the Wikileaks site, and that there were grave consequences for this, including a $250,000 or $25,000 fine, perhaps imprisonment." Then the consumer is presented with options to pay the fine. The FBI said "Caller ID is essentially meaningless" and reflects a spoofed phone number.
http://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/fbi-warns-trojan-tainted-resumes-other-phishi
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