PayPal Phishing Scams Continue
Thursday, November 15, 2007

Online payment company, PayPal is almost continually targeted by phishing scammers. Usually, the scammers send out emails that try to trick recipients into following a link to update their PayPal account details. The emails may look quite legitimate and include PayPal logos and formatting.

Many of the scam emails claim that the recipient's PayPal account access will be restricted unless he or she updates account details. Those who fall for the ruse and click on the included link will be taken to a bogus login page that closely resembles a genuine PayPal web page. The unwitting victim may enter login details and other personal information such as credit card numbers on the bogus website. Scammers will then be able to collect all of this submitted information and use it for fraudulent activities.

PayPal has extensive information about phishing scams on its website.

See also:
Phishing Scams - Anti-Phishing Information

A typical example of a PayPal phishing scam email:

Dear PayPal Member,

This e-mail was sent to you because we have detected an error in your billing information on file with Paypal during our regular schedule account maintenance and verification. This might be due to either following reasons:

A recent change in your personal information (i.e. change
of address).
Submitting invalid information during the initial sign up
process.
An inability to accurately verify your selected option of
payment due
an internal error with our processors.

Click or copy into your browser the link below and confirm your Paypal account information, otherwise your Paypal account access will become restricted:

[Link to bogus website removed]

Thank you for your patience as we work together to protect your
account

Sincerely,

--------------------------------------------------------

PayPal, Security Advisor. Please do not reply to this e-mail.
Mail sent to this address cannot be answered.

2007 Paypal Corporation. All rights reserved.

PayPal Email ID PP562

posted by Brett Christensen @ 8:11 AM, ,


Lottery Scams - Short Version
Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Of late, I've been receiving a number of quite primitive lottery scam emails like the example I have included below. Scammers usually go to at least some effort to make their bogus "winning notification" emails seem legitimate. In fact, some lottery scam emails are quite sophisticated and even include official looking graphics and formatting.

However, these "quick and dirty" versions are so amateurish it is hard to see how even the most gullible recipient would fall for them. With such poor grammar and formatting, the messages barely make sense.

Perhaps this particular scammer is new at the game, or just plain lazy.

That said, some naive recipients might just be curious enough to reply to the message asking for more information. Of course, once contact has been made, the scammer may be able to convince his victim to send upfront fees, ostensibly to allow the release of the non-existent prize money. Or he may gradually collect enough information to steal his victim's identity.

Sadly, the criminal would only need to con one or two victims to make this primitive scam attempt pay off handsomely.

For details about lottery scams, see:
Email Lottery Scams - International Lottery Scam Information

An example of one of the scam messages:

This is to inform you that your email ID with your email Do email us for Clarification and Claim of your $2,000,000.00 dollars won in the lottery Award, kindly Contact on this email
addres: payagency4@netscape.net ,Mr,cole van Hans

win 106, lucky no,f3-11234p, tic no,L-44s209m, Ref no,L413979,
Tell: 0031-61-11-464- 78, Regard,mrs versloot,PRO CO-ORDINATOR
payagency4@netscape.net ,Tele: 0031-61-11-464-78

posted by Brett Christensen @ 11:26 AM, ,


The Legendary Ekranoplan
Thursday, November 8, 2007

Stories about a supposedly secret Russian craft called an "ekranoplan" are regularly featured on websites, blogs and online forums. Information about the craft also circulate via email, often with the following image attached:



The strange-looking craft might seem like something from science fiction, but ekranoplans are real and the photograph is genuine. Although they may resemble aircraft, ekranoplans are in fact ground-effect vehicles that fly a few feet above any flat surface. Very basically, air compressed under a wing moving near the surface provides lift to the craft.

The ekranoplan in the photograph is a Soviet vehicle seen on the Caspian Sea during the 1960's. An article about the craft on The Register notes:

During the mid-1960s chilly height of the Cold War, US photo reconnaisance spotted a strange apparition on the shores of the Caspian Sea - a gigantic 100m-long aircraft with inexplicably truncated square wings. US Intelligence dubbed the beast the "Caspian Sea Monster", unaware that the Russians were developing not, as they thought, an enormous conventional seaplane, but rather a 550-ton water-hugging behemoth designed to use the ground effect to skim the ocean at high speed, undetected by radar.

The Russians are not the only ones to built such craft. Others have continued to develop them to this day.

For an in depth analysis and history of ekranoplans, see:
In search of the Caspian Sea Monster

Other ekranoplan resources:
Wikipedia: Ekranoplan
YouTube video of an Ekranoplan

posted by Brett Christensen @ 6:24 PM, ,


The Amazing "Rock House"
Wednesday, November 7, 2007

An email forward is currently circulating that contains an image apparently depicting an amazing house perched atop a towering offshore rock outcrop. A number of people have contacted me to ask if the image shows a real place.

Not surprisingly, the answer to that question is "no". The image is a Photoshop creation rather than a genuine photograph of a real house. It is an entry in the Bizarrchitecture 3 Photoshop contest conducted by Worth1000. The entry was created by Norrit and is titled Bond Mansion.

The image also circulates as part of a larger collection of pictures apparently depicting houses in weird places.

An example of the message:

Subject: The Amazing, "ROCK HOUSE"



posted by Brett Christensen @ 4:27 PM, ,


Dancing Skeleton Malware eCard
Thursday, November 1, 2007

After months of widespread publicity about bogus eCard notification emails that point to malware websites, Internet users are hopefully becoming more aware of the potential security risks.

However, at Halloween, people expect to get Halloween related eCards. Cyberscum have capitalized on this by bombarding inboxes with eCard emails that promise "just a little Halloween fun" for those who click an included link.

Clicking the link brings up a Halloween themed web page that contains malicious javascript code that tries to download malware. The page urges the visitor to click another link to download a dancing skeleton. However, the "dancing skeleton" is a .exe file that can install still more malware on the victim's computer.

An example of the malware email:

Subject: Watch him dance

Just a little Halloween fun.[Link Removed]

posted by Brett Christensen @ 8:20 AM, ,