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Look... You've Got KGB Mail
Techtree News Staff, Aug 10, 2006 1415 hrs ISTSophosLabs has issued warning against an email claiming to come from a dying KGB agent, offering to reveal secrets about the JFK assassination.
SophosLabs has issued a warning asking users to be wary of a certain email that claims to come from a dying KGB agent, offering to pass-on secrets of erstwhile US President, John F Kennedy's assassination.
Sophos says the spam is an attempt at luring lovers of conspiracy theories into handing-over cash and confidential information to scamsters.
The author of the email reportedly says he is suffering from a terminal disease; and has access to declassified CIA documents, files from the former KGB, as also revealing interviews with key people. The author goes on to say that the information he has to give, could make the recipient famous.
The email says that the information the author has to disclose can be talked about with friends and neighbors, written about in a shocking book, shared on radio talk shows, and so on. The email says that with this coveted information, issues can be raised and answers demanded not in 50 or 100 years, but on a right-here-right-now basis.
Commenting on the latest spam, Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant, Sophos, said, "There is a conspiracy at work here, but it's not about whether someone was lurking on a grassy knoll in Dallas, on 22 November 1963. Internet criminals are conspiring to steal sensitive information, and raid the bank accounts of unsuspecting Internet users. If everyone showed the same skepticism to unsolicited emails, as some do to official investigations into the Kennedy assassination, then maybe less people would end-up as victims of the scam."
This email con-trick, according to Sophos, is just another variant of the 419-odd existing email scams. These are believed to have originated in 'usual suspect' Nigeria, and are named after the relevant section of the Nigerian penal code. Largely in the nature of unsolicited emails wherein the author offers a large amount of money, and once the victim has been drawn-in, requests are made by the fraudsters for sensitive private information leading to financial theft and other such.
In fact, a recent survey revealed that US consumers alone have lost nearly $630 million to email scams over the past two years, with Australians too reportedly falling for such nefarious schemes.
Some examples of recent email scams include messages claiming to come from: a persecuted widow of the late Nigerian Head of State, an associate of the massacred Nepalese royal family, what's more - an African astronaut stranded on the Mir Space Station.
As a precautionary measure, Sophos has advised companies to automatically update their corporate virus protection, as also run a consolidated solution at the email gateway to guard against viruses, spam, the works
Sophos says the spam is an attempt at luring lovers of conspiracy theories into handing-over cash and confidential information to scamsters.
The author of the email reportedly says he is suffering from a terminal disease; and has access to declassified CIA documents, files from the former KGB, as also revealing interviews with key people. The author goes on to say that the information he has to give, could make the recipient famous.
The email says that the information the author has to disclose can be talked about with friends and neighbors, written about in a shocking book, shared on radio talk shows, and so on. The email says that with this coveted information, issues can be raised and answers demanded not in 50 or 100 years, but on a right-here-right-now basis.
Commenting on the latest spam, Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant, Sophos, said, "There is a conspiracy at work here, but it's not about whether someone was lurking on a grassy knoll in Dallas, on 22 November 1963. Internet criminals are conspiring to steal sensitive information, and raid the bank accounts of unsuspecting Internet users. If everyone showed the same skepticism to unsolicited emails, as some do to official investigations into the Kennedy assassination, then maybe less people would end-up as victims of the scam."
This email con-trick, according to Sophos, is just another variant of the 419-odd existing email scams. These are believed to have originated in 'usual suspect' Nigeria, and are named after the relevant section of the Nigerian penal code. Largely in the nature of unsolicited emails wherein the author offers a large amount of money, and once the victim has been drawn-in, requests are made by the fraudsters for sensitive private information leading to financial theft and other such.
In fact, a recent survey revealed that US consumers alone have lost nearly $630 million to email scams over the past two years, with Australians too reportedly falling for such nefarious schemes.
Some examples of recent email scams include messages claiming to come from: a persecuted widow of the late Nigerian Head of State, an associate of the massacred Nepalese royal family, what's more - an African astronaut stranded on the Mir Space Station.
As a precautionary measure, Sophos has advised companies to automatically update their corporate virus protection, as also run a consolidated solution at the email gateway to guard against viruses, spam, the works
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(3) Comments
kasongo gopal
,brazzaville, on Sep 30, 2007 06:21 PM
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