Cant Keep Quiet!

There’s a type of “phishing” that’s on the rise. It’s called “vishing.”

“Vishing” occurs when you receive a automated phone call or an e-mail that says that your account or debit card has been compromised in some way. You could be told the card will be “temporarily locked out of the system” until you resolve the problem. You’re given a number to call to resolve the problem.

The number takes you to an automated answering program that asks for your account number or debit card number to verify the account.   You will probably also be asked for the same type of information requested in typical “phishing” scams.

If you receive an e-mail, it may start out like this one

We are aware that some of our members have received fraudulent e-mails stating to click on a link to address an issue with their account. Please do not respond to this e-mail. It is not from XXXXXXXXXXX.

Be warned, it has even been reported that large scale “vishing” operations may have set up a “call center” with people pretending to work for the company in question.

I received one of these e-mails today.  It was from a bank that I had never heard of and it was sent to an e-mail account that I rarely use.

By the way, it was sent to a gmail account.  I have two gmail accounts.  One I use for this blog.  The other is the one I rarely use.  Neither account is used for personal information.

I found this advice when I was looking into information about “vishing”

If you have a question concerning your account or credit/debit card, you should contact your bank using a telephone number obtained independently such as; from your statement, a telephone book, or another independent means.

It is excellent advice.  You should do that  if the questionable request comes by e-mail or phone.

Technorati Tags: vishing

Have you noticed that you’re getting more junk e-mail lately? More spam is getting past your filters offering to sell V1úgra (Viagra) or stocks? If so, you’re not alone.

According to U.S. email security company Postini 7 billion spam e-mails have been sent worldwide so far this month. That’s nearly 3 times the number sent in June (2.5 billion). The company expects the amount to go even higher as we get closer to Christmas.

The rise is due in part to a computer program called “Stration” can hijack your home computer. This “Trojan horse” program will then force your computer to send out the e-mails for the spammers. These “Trojan horse” type programs allow gangs of spammers to create “zombie networks” or “botnets” which can literally link hundreds of thousands of computers without their owners being aware of the problem. This allows spammers to send millions of spam e-mails with anonymity.

Creating laws against spammers doesn’t work. The laws are specific to a state or country and have little effect on spammers working far away from their victims.

The only thing that will work is for people to stop buying from spammers.

The spammers have a lot of incentive to continue sending their e-mails. It costs them next to nothing to send millions of e-mails. If even a handful of people fall into their trap the spammer has made a profit.

As a result, as anti-spam filters become more sophisticated so do spammers. Instead of getting a message about Viagra, a red-flag for anti-spam filters, you’ll get a message for V1u gra which slips through the filters. Another tactic is to send the spam message in a graphic which is harder for the filters to scan.

So what can you do?

Make sure you have an up-to-date anti-virus program installed on your computer. Make sure you keep it up to date since new Trojan horse programs are being created all the time.

Never reveal financial details to a website due to an e-mail asking you to “update your records.” If you get an e-mail from what looks like your bank or any other reputable organization asking for this information it is a scam.

Never, ever, respond to spam e-mails. As long as the spammers can find even a handful of people to reply to their tricks, they will keep sending their garbage out.

Obviously these cretins catch some people with these scams or they wouldn’t keep trying them. I just wish they would stop sending them to me.

Typically when I get e-mail from a bank I know it’s fraud and I delete it immediately. I belong to a credit union, therefore no bank has a reason to get in touch with me about my account. This latest one, however, claimed to be from the National Credit Union Administration, an independent federal agency that charters and supervises federal credit unions.

The first thing that tipped me off was the request for me to click on a link and verify my account information. That’s the oldest trick in the phishers’ book so there’s no way I’m falling for that. Then I checked the e-mail address. Instead of being a .gov like any government group it was a .com.

Then I looked up the National Credit Union Administration’s site and saw a box on the upper right with the words “Internet/E-mail Fraud Alert.” When I clicked on the link I read this:

Recently, there have been multiple e-mail fraud attempts, known as “Phishing”, that were initiated via e-mail sent to both the general public and to some credit union members that appeared to be from NCUA. This false e-mail asked for the recipient to click on a link to verify their credit union account registration. If the recipient proceeded to do so, the link directed them to a false website and asked for their credit union account number and PIN, along with other personal information.

NCUA does not ask credit unions members for such personal information. Anyone who receives an e-mail that purports to be from NCUA and asks for account information should consider it to be a fraudulent attempt to obtain their personal account data for an illegal purpose and should not follow the instructions in the e-mail.

If you responded to such an e-mail and provided any confidential account information, please notify your credit union immediately of the scheme. You should also change your account’s PIN, and take any additional action recommended by your credit union to protect your account.

If you feel that you have received a fraudulent phishing e-mail purportedly from NCUA please forward the entire e-mail message to Phishing@ncua.gov

Additionally, you can file formal complaints concerning any suspected fraudulent e-mail with the Internet Fraud Complaint Center (IFCC) at ncua@ic3.gov. The IFCC is a partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the National White Collar Crime Center.

Of course, it just confirmed what I already knew.

I don’t think this can be said enough. Never believe any e-mail that claims to be a banking institution and needs your account information. They are just trying to steal your money and your identity. If no one fell for these tricks, these cretins would stop sending out these phisihing attempts.

I received an e-mail with the subject Unauthorized Access Report (KMM9755003V34721L0KM) today.

The contents of the e-mail stated

You have added accessdenied11@aol.com as a new email address for your PayPal account.

If you did not authorize this change or if you need assistance with your account, please contact PayPal customer service at:

http://www.paypalonlineupdate.info/index.htm?row/wf/f=ap_email

Thank you for using PayPal!

The PayPal Team

Please do not reply to this e-mail. Mail sent to this address cannot be answered. For assistance, log in to your PayPal account and choose the “Help” link in the header of any page.

————————————

PROTECT YOUR PASSWORD

NEVER give your password to anyone and ONLY log in at https://www.paypal.com/. Protect yourself against fraudulent websites by opening a new web browser (e.g. Internet Explorer or Netscape) and typing in the PayPal URL every time you log in to your account.

————————————-

PayPal Email ID PP007

Looks legit, doesn’t it? It’s not.

A legitimate e-mail from paypal would have had this subject

New email address added to your PayPal account

And would have read

Dear Firstname Lastname,

You have added newe-mail@newe-mail.com as a new email address for your PayPal account.

If you did not authorize this change or if you need assistance with your account, please contact PayPal customer service at:

https://www.paypal.com/us/wf/f=ap_email

Thank you for using PayPal!

The PayPal Team

Please do not reply to this email. This mailbox is not monitored and you will not receive a response. For assistance, log in to your PayPal account and click the Help link located in the top right corner of any PayPal page.

—————————————————————-

PROTECT YOUR PASSWORD

NEVER give your password to anyone, including PayPal employees. Protect yourself against fraudulent websites by opening a new web browser (e.g. Internet Explorer or Netscape) and typing in the PayPal URL every time you log in to your account.

—————————————————————-

PayPal Email ID PP007

There are very few differences between the two e-mails other than the subject. The real e-mail from PayPal is addressed directly to me while the fake one is not. Another difference is that the fake one has the real url for PayPal in the area under Protect Your Password while the real one does not.

The biggest and most telling difference, though, is the URL given to click if you need assistance. The real one starts with https://www.paypal.com/ while the fake one starts with http://www.paypalonlineupdate.info/.

According to PayPal, legitimate e-mails from PayPal will ask you to click on a link with https://www.paypal.com/ in the beginning. If you’re asked to click on anything else it is a fraudulent request.

So who does http://www.paypalonlineupdate.info/ belong to? According to Web Whois this url is owned by someone claiming to be Peter Jaly from Australia. His e-mail is woolleyc1949@yahoo.com.

I’d send him an e-mail but I don’t want him to have verification of my e-mail address.

There’s a new e-mail virus going around that is fairly recent. It started back in February of 2005. The e-mail looks like this

Subject: You visit illegal websites

Dear Sir/Madam,
Content-Type:

we have logged your IP-address on more than 40 illegal Websites.

Important: Please answer our questions!
The list of questions are attached.

Yours faithfully,
M. John Stellford

++-++ Federal Bureau of Investigation -FBI-
++-++ 935 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Room 2130
++-++ Washington, DC 20535
++-++ (202) 324-3000

The attachment does not contain questions that you must answer. It contains the Sober K virus. The Sober K virus is a mass-mailing worm that will send itself to e-mail addresses gathered from compromised computers.

On February 22, 2005, the FBI issued a press release warning about this scam. You can also find out more information about this e-mail at Snopes.com.

In case you’re wondering why I occasionally post about various phishing scams and other e-mail scams, it’s because I can’t stand someone passing something to me that is a hoax and asking me to pass it on. I don’t report anything to anyone without checking it out first. Basically, I’m doing this because I want to warn people about REAL scams that could cost them money or compromise their computers. I’m also hoping it will encourage more people to check things out before forwarding them to everyone in the address book.

When it comes to e-mail, a little suspicion never hurt anyone.