scam 419, 419 Fraud, Scam Emails, Money Scam, Email Spam , Scam Videos, Scam News

The Phishing Activity Trends Report [PDF] for the third quarter of 2009, released by the Anti-Phishing Working Group, paints a grim outlook when it comes to phishing. Almost all information relating to phishing attacks are on the rise.

Phishing attacks used to only be a trouble for the corporate brands being exploited and consumers who got scammed by entering their personal financial details into the snare of a phisher's Web site.

Not any more. Not with the significantly improved quality of many phishing e-mails seen today. They now rival e-mails sent by legitimate businesses. And the ease of spawning a well looking phishing and malware serving web site does not help. Or the speed at which most people will click on anything that appears to have come from someone they belief.

As was famous to those who have been paying attention to the IT risk landscape for some time, but was just newly made clear in the Aurora attacks to the rest of the world, it only takes one wrong click (and a zero-day attack or an unpatched browser) to shake the foundations of any organization's IT security efforts.

Too bad, after nearly a decade of phishing growth, the security industry hasn't enhanced its ability to squash the phishing threat. According to the APWG, the number of unique phishing websites reported to them broke fresh records when it tallied 56,362 in August. The earlier high was way back in April 2007, when they reached 55,643.

Unique phishing reports submitted to APWG during this period also ruined new records, reaching 40,621 in August, a 5.5 percent lift over the earlier record in September, 2007.

And while the total number of malware infected computers dropped to approximately 11 million - more than 48.35 percent of the total sample of scanned computers were impure.

As for the the country that hosted the majority phishing sites in the third quarter of 2009? That would be the United States, taking the prize in July, August, and September. In September, the United States hosted 75.76 percent of all such sites. Second and third place was Hong Kong and China, with 6.49 percent and 3.44 percent correspondingly.

Be careful out there. We're awash in a cesspool of malware.

A businessman has been scammed of R24 000 after he answered to an Absa Bank phishing email that seemed so authentic it appeared to submit to Internet banking problems he had reported to his bank.

Doug Baker, 75, questions whether the scam was an inside job, and accuses the bank of not sufficiently protecting his bank account.

Baker, who lives in Durban, lost R23 812 from his business account in just a few minutes after he respond to an Absa email addressing the problems he had been experiencing with his Internet banking.

Baker had made numerous unsuccessful attempts to log on to his Internet banking. 

The email, got on February 16, read: "Protecting the privacy of your Internet banking access and of the Absa banking network is our primary apprehension. We observed some invalid login attempts into your Absa online bank account; therefore we have momentarily limited access to some aware Internet banking features. Please follow the link below and we will validate and restore your Internet banking access immediately."

Thinking the "invalid login attempts" referred to his troubles logging in to his Internet banking, Baker replied to the email, sending the receiver his personal banking information, including his pin code.

It was only after the scam was exposed that Baker noticed the email address was not an Absa address.

Starting at 7am that day, Baker's money was taken in eight transactions, the first three in amounts of R1 000, then a R12 Vodacom prepaid top-up, and the last four in amounts of R5 200 each. He was called by a bank official at 8.30am and told of the scam. 

"The money was taken out as cash send. Usually any transfer of funds only goes through at 7pm, thus giving the account holder time to stop the payment if it is not authentic. However, the cash send facility makes any transferred amount instantly available. He asked Absa why they do not protect this option with a password or SMS," he said.

Absa did not specify whether they would be refunding Baker's lost money, saying he replied to a phishing email and compromised his personal details.

"The scammers then did three cash send transactions, one Vodacom prepaid and four urgent payments to FNB accounts," said Absa spokesman Patrick Wadula. 

"The fraud was identified by Absa monitoring and the client was advised about the fraud and FNB was advised to block the accounts at FNB.

"Presently we do not have the blocked amounts held at FNB. We are still busy with this via the inter-bank liaison department."

US net crime loss complaints almost twice in value from $265m in 2008 to reach $560m last year, according to official figures.

An annual report of the FBI-backed Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), relished on Friday, reports that the unit handled 336,655 complaints in 2009, a 22.3 percent increase on 2008.

Approximately 16 per cent of the complaints involved scams where criminals pretend to represent the FBI, while 11.9 per cent involved the non-delivery of merchandise or payment, the second most commonly reported claim of wrongdoing.

419 Advanced fee fraud scams ranked third with 9.8 per cent of complaints. Identity theft and overpayment fraud scams were also frequent causes for complaints.

Of these complaints 146,663 were referred to local, state or federal law enforcement agencies. Referred cases commonly concerned financial loses, focusing on five groups:

• Non-deliverey of merchandise and/or payment ranked (19.9 per cent).
• Identity theft (14.1 per cent).
• Credit card fraud (10.4 per cent).
• Auction fraud (10.3 per cent).
• And Computer fraud or hacking (7.9 per cent).

It’s happening in Bucyrus  city in the U.S. state of Ohio, a small city of about 15,000. people there who have Verizon cell service are getting calls from people asking for credit and debit card details in order to reactivate cards that have allegedly been deactivated as a result of “suspicious activity.”

A police dispatcher in Bucyrus told News that not only has her department received several calls from people, but at least four banks have called to say they are aware of what’s going on. Local police have called in the FBI to take over the case.

Escaping a scam like this can be easy if you follow a couple pieces of advice, police say. Don’t give out information to the caller. Call your Credit Card Company or bank if you think there’s a trouble. Then you know just whom you are dealing with.

Several banks in that country part of Ohio have to close customer accounts and open new ones as a result of the scam.

While there has been much argue about what was truly the first spam, these unsolicited messages became well known in the mid 1990's. When people understand that this was the most cost-efficient way to advertise on the web, spam quickly became a serious issue - the RBL (Real-Time Black List) released in 1997 was solid proof.

Over the years, spamming techniques have developed in order to penetrate several filtering programs designed to stop the problem. As soon as new blockers and filters are developed, spammers quickly find a way around them. This had led to a cruel cycle that is spiraling out of control.

Marvel where all those frustrating scam messages come from? Who sends them? Well, you have got some answers here. Panda Security, a player in antivirus and preventive technologies sector, has stated in its report that India is the world's number two spammer. Surprised? Even we were.

Panda Security has released a report stating that Brazil, India, Korea, Vietnam and U.S. head the list of countries from which most scam was sent during the first two months of the year 2010. With admiration to the cities from which spam was being sent, Seoul was first in the list, followed by Hanoi, New Delhi, Bogota, Sao Paulo and Mumbai. 

The five million emails investigated by Panda Labs came from a total of approximately one million different IP addresses. This illustrates that the spam is mostly sent from zombie computers belonging to a botnet. This way, the computers of the infected users themselves are those which send the spam. The cybercrooks have thousands of computers at their removal, which do the dirty work for them.

Spam is nothing but a business and is used mainly either to distribute malware or sell/advertise all type of products. Therefore, as long as there are users, no substance if they are few, who trust these messages, it's sufficient to continue betting on it.

Originally, the intended victim is instructed to provide company letterheads and pro forma invoicing that will be used to explain completion of the contract. One of the reasons is to use the victim's letterhead to forge letters of recommendation to other victim companies and to request out a travel visa from the American Embassy in Lagos. The victim is told that the completed contracts will be submitted for approval to the Central Bank of Nigeria. Upon approval, the funds will be sent to an account supplied by the intended victim.