Posts tagged Phishing at Switched

Posts with tag phishing

Law Enforcement Finally Catching Up With Online Scammers Worldwide

by Will Safer, posted Nov 18th 2008 at 6:38AM

According to USA Today, hackers and phishers have a little less job security these days thanks to an FBI and Secret Service that are more focused and nimble in their efforts to crack down on Internet security scofflaws. Add in a little cooperation from foreign-based law enforcement from countries like Romania, Turkey and Germany, and the ne'er-do-wells of the 'net aren't netting as much pilfered "e-loot" as they'd like.

Online crime is an estimated $200 billion per year market, and during tough economic times the efforts of cyber criminals are expected to increase. The FBI and Secret Service though have made significant inroads during the last year into busting up some serious crime rings by getting indictments on some high-profile spammers and the folks behind the computer break-in of TJX and other companies. They say their success comes from better training for more agents who stalk the online scammers.

The international effort is also the result of better training and communication – and stiffer penalties for those who get caught.

"It's not a question of whether you will be caught, but when," Hemanshu Nigam, chief security officer of MySpace, told USA Today. [Source: USA Today.]

As Economy Falters, Phishing and Spam E-Mail Scams Surge

by Tim Stevens, posted Oct 9th 2008 at 11:35AM

As Economy Falters, Phishing and Spam Scams Surge

These are scary times for those with retirement savings tied to the markets. As things plunge faster and further than they have in years, many are crying recession and worse, while some others are seeing a boom. Many of those in the latter group are scammers, preying on people looking for answers to make a quick buck. Phishing attacks are surging now as people are being a little more emotional in their online banking habits, and a little less careful.

Phishing attacks -- essentially fake e-mails from familiar banks and other institutions masquerading as the real thing -- are on the rise, preying on people's panic about potential bank failures to get them to click through and enter their log-in details. Recent scam e-mails purporting to come from banks such as Chase and Washington Mutual are currently making the rounds.

Modern browsers like Firefox 3.0 and Internet Explorer 8 will warn you when you hit such bogus sites, but you can never be too careful. As always: Be wary of where you click, and if you're unsure that a given site is legit type in the URL to your bank by hand and log in from there. Think twice before reacting to some provocative e-mail subject line that's somehow related to protecting your financial assets, since those are precisely the sorts of phrases that are being used as bait by evildoing phishers. It's all too easy to fall prey to these tricks, so better to be safe than sorry. [From: USA Today]

Related Link:

12 Most Dangerous E-Mails

Brad Pitt, Beyonce Are Top Names Criminals Use to Lure Victims Online

by Peter Mychalcewycz, posted Sep 17th 2008 at 4:12PM

Next time you go looking for the latest gossip on your favorite celebrity, think twice. If you plan on looking for information on Brad Pitt or Beyoncé, you may want to think four times.

Cybercriminals are capitalizing on our star-obsessed culture by creating fake Web sites and links to celeb info that look legitimate, but end up infecting the PC of anyone who clicks upon them. According to McAfee, the California-based company that probably manufactures your security software, you have an 18-percent chance of infecting your PC if you go looking for info on Brad Pitt.

18-percent!? Sorry Brad, but pictures of you in a bathing suit are not worth corrupting the brilliant screenplay we are writing and coincidentally want you to star in. Call us!

Beyoncé is the most dangerous female to look up, followed by Heidi Montag.

The moral of this story? When attempting to live vicariously through a celebrity, we suggest you do it the old fashion way: posters and a TV. [From: Reuters]

Hacker Kevin Mitnick to Release Tell-All Book

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Aug 30th 2008 at 2:15PM

World famous geek and hacker, Kevin Mitnick, who tapped into the FBI's phones to stay one step ahead of his pursuers and could launch a nuclear strike by whistling into a phone (according to legend), is writing a tell-all book.

The first person in our list of famous hackers spent over four years in prison before finally being sentenced in 1999 and was released in 2000. Now that the statute of limitations has expired on many of his crimes and the seven-year court ban on him writing about his exploits has passed, Mitnick has decided to share his side of the story and set straight the myth of Mitnick.

While Mitnick may have never been able to incite a nuclear holocaust by blowing through his pursed lips, he did gain access to the systems of most of the major corporations of the day, including Sun, IBM, DEC, and Nokia. His autobiography is sure to make clear why he was considered "the most wanted computer criminal in United States history." [From: Wired]

Click Here for the World's Most Famous Hackers

Internet Provides New Opportunities For Political Dirty Tricks

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Aug 27th 2008 at 1:01PM

Dirty tricks used to mislead voters and keep them away from the polls, but new Web-centric attempts to disenfranchise voters are stoking fears amongst voters and activists. In the past, political trickery has relied on phone calls, fliers, and direct mailing, which are much easier to track and prosecute than the new wave of political scare tactics.

Traditional calls, like the push polls in 2000 that lifted Bush over McCain in South Carolina, have been replaced by robo-calls via VoIP that are harder to trace and not subject to the same restrictions land-line and cell phone based political phone campaigns are. Such tactics were turned on African-American voters in North Carolina during this primary season when calls were placed that led voters to believe they were not properly registered.

More familiar online techniques such as phishing, pharming (secretly redirecting traffic from one site to another), and good old fashioned typo-squatting have also made their way to the political arena. The primary battle between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton saw hackers redirecting visitors to Obama's social networking site MyBarackObama.com to Clinton's home page.

Experts expect to see spam e-mails giving out incorrect polling locations, misleading information about who can and cannot vote, and even money making and identity theft schemes centered around voter registration.

Of course all of the uses of the Internet in politics are not nefarious. Barack Obama has proven himself adept at utilizing social media and activists have been using it to organize large numbers of people since the 2004 Howard Dean campaign. [From: CNN]

Phishers Going After Your Phones in New 'Vishing' Trend

by Tim Stevens, posted Aug 22nd 2008 at 11:20AM

Hopefully we've covered enough tales of phishing woe that you're now cautious of clicking on links and entering in your personal info. We've also talked about the process of whaling, and how modern phishers are getting sneakier with their fake e-mails. Now, though, some are giving up on flooding your e-mail inbox entirely and instead heading for your voicemail inbox.

The process has been dubbed 'vishing' (which we don't think rolls off the tongue quite like 'phishing') and often entails a scammer using bogus services to trick the caller ID system on your phones into making you think your bank is calling you. You'll then be redirected to another number and prompted to enter in information like your Social Security Number, bank number, or PIN -- and you can guess what they'll do with that. Some scammers haven't quite given up on e-mail -- they're sending e-mails (instead of phone calls) and then expecting you to dial them up and enter all your personal info!

You'd never do such a thing, though, right? [Source: USA Today]

Watch Out: Fake News Phishing E-Mails Are Getting More Official-Looking

by Tim Stevens, posted Aug 14th 2008 at 12:34PM

Last month we reported on a new tactic being used by phishers, those shameless people wanting your private info and access to your PC. They were sending out spam that looked like stunning news headlines in the hopes that you'd be suckered into clicking. Now, they're getting a little more cunning, going for somewhat less sensational headlines and more official looking e-mails that are even catching some security-savvy users off guard.

Valleywag received one such e-mail claiming Microsoft had purchased AOL and looked to be an official dispatch from MSNBC. It linked to a page that was appeared to be hosted at MSNBC.com, but behind the scenes routed clickers to a bogus Web site that prompted users to install a new version of Adobe's Flash plugin for Web animations. In actuality, the users were installing a Trojan Horse that gave attackers access to their PCs. More proof that everything you read on the Internet isn't true -- and that most people are definitely out to get you. [From: CNET News and Valleywag]

Internet Fraud Largely Ignored By US Prosecutors, Report Reveals

by Tim Stevens, posted Aug 13th 2008 at 3:15PM

Internet Fraud Largely Ignored by Prosecutors

According to a recent report by the Center for American Progress (CAP), it's estimated that Internet fraud, whether it be scams or phishing or just plain 'ol spam, cost American consumers a whopping $7.1 billion in 2007. Last year, 20 states tracked complaints from Internet users and, across all the states, 20,000 cases of Internet fraud were reported. Despite these reports, the total number of prosecutions for Internet fraud in 2006 and 2007 combined was a whopping 55, meaning the vast majority of online perps got off without even being investigated.

That's a pretty disappointing success rate, to be sure. Much of the problem stems from the fact that many of these scammers reside in foreign lands, complicating prosecution. But, as we saw recently in the arrest of Albert Gonzalez and his purported international cohorts who stole 41 million credit cards, sometimes international locations aren't enough to dodge the long arm of the law. [Source: Reuters]

Scammers Taking Advantage of Rising Gas Prices

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Jul 29th 2008 at 5:12PM

There's nothing like a crisis to get the scammers out in full force. Sure, taking advantage of weary drivers isn't nearly as nauseating as cashing in on death and human tragedy, but there is still plenty of shame to be had in taking advantage of those whose wallets are strained.

As gas prices speed towards $5 a gallon, scammers, phishers, and thieves have flocked to the Web with various ploys to make a quick buck off of careless and desperate motorists. E-mail inboxes have been flooded with offers for $2.49 a gallon gas cards, free fuel, and even kits to run your car on water. The trick to avoid being taken in by scams like these is to simply understand that if it involves your gas tank and sounds too good to be true, it's probably a scam.

Cards that offer pre-paid, locked in gas prices seem like a good deal, but many companies offering such cards (like MyGallons.com) don't actually have any deals in place with gas companies. Kits that claim to extend your gas milage with water are pure fantasy. The mason jar-like contraptions claim to pull hydrogen from water and feed it into your air intake. While engineers say the concept might actually work (if properly isolated in a laboratory), you would would only see very modest increases in fuel efficiency.

Avoiding being taken in by these scams is as easy as accepting that high gases prices are a painful fact of modern life. Europeans have been paying these prices for years. Besides, there is plenty to like about high gas prices. [Source: PC World]

Experts Fear Internet Addressing Flaw Already Being Exploited

by Tim Stevens, posted Jul 23rd 2008 at 8:33AM

Remember that major DNS flaw we reported about a few weeks back? The one that was patched before it was announced but attacks were feared anyway because some folks are slow to update (or patch) their systems? Well, not one but two separate means for exploiting the flaw have been discovered, and one has already been added to an incredibly popular suite of hacking tools, leading one security expert to believe attacks have already begun.

Dan Kaminsky, a security expert and the guy to originally discover the flaw, believes attacks are happening now. "This attack is very good. [It] is being weaponised out in the field. Everyone needs to patch, please." He's urging network administrators and IT personnel everywhere to upgrade their systems to prevent this flaw, which could allow hackers to redirect traffic meant to go to banks and other secure online sites to anywhere they like.

It's a big step beyond the typical phishing attack, where scammers try to get you to click on a link on a site that looks like the real thing. If those phishers were using this exploit there would be no easy way for you to tell the site you were typing your password into is the real thing! Again, the patch is out there, so hopefully major sites have been fixed, but still it wouldn't hurt to be a little extra cautious for awhile before typing in your info. [Source: BBC News]

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