Today, IID released its Q4 2010 eCrime Trends Report.  According to IID, phishing increased in Q4 2010 increased 14% over Q4 2009.  Of particular note was the increase of phishing in the gaming sector – phishing increased 489%!  IID suggests that the high value of virtual gaming goods which are controlled by consumers makes the phishing of gamers particularly lucrative for cybercriminals.  This is IID’s breakdown of phishing attacks by target industry:   The IID report discussed the launch of the “Stop. Think. Connect.” public awareness campaign of the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) in partnership with the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG).  [...]

Goodmail Systems has announced that it is ceasing operations.  Goodmail provides an email deliverability solution that also has an email marking component. Their business offers a three-part solution – An accreditation service in which the email sender is certified by Goodmail using standards determined by Goodmail, with agreement by email services such as AOL and Yahoo! that accredited email will be delivered. An authentication mechanism to verify that messages from Goodmail customers are legitimate.  Inbox marking in which messages from Goodmail customers are identified with a Goodmail mark in the inbox. The fundamental value provided by Goodmail is the first step in this process [...]

appriver's blog reports a phishing scam which pretends to be a McDonald's survey.  The fake McDonald's email offers the recipient a $250 reward for answering five questions.   This is very similar to the recent scam pretending to be a Coke survey.  The scam starts with this email: This email takes the victim to what appears to be a real survey: "Next" takes the victim to the phishing page -- where the identity is stolen: After completing the fake survey, the victim is taken to the real McDonald's website, thereby reducing suspicion.  A similar scam is being conducted against McDonald's in [...]

When I opened my email this morning, I had a message from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), a U.S. government agency, telling me that my account was losing FDIC insurance because of violations of the Patriot Act.  Luckily, the email had a link for me to follow to access the FDIC’s verification system which would allow me to remedy the situation. This email turns out to be another clever phishing scam.  If you follow the link, your personal information may be compromised or crimeware may be installed on your machine.  Read the FDIC’s Special Alert. Actually, I was lucky.  [...]

Coca-Cola sponsors the very popular mycokerewards website.  Over 13 million people have registered at the site to get brand loyalty bonuses. If you are a member of mycokerewards, you want to get special offers from Coke – that’s the whole idea! Recently, bad guys sent an email pretending to be a survey from mycokewards. The link in the email was a classic phishing website.  This email was not the real thing. When you sign up with mycokerewards, you want the real thing – the Real Thing in your cola and the real thing in your email.  As this animation shows, when [...]

Did the President send you an electronic Christmas card?  Really?  Well, it turns out that criminals spent the holidays impersonating the President of the United States in a clever phishing scheme.   Like all phishing schemes, this one appealed to the recipients’ desires, fears and curiosity to get the recipients to act. Relying on the fact that people would be inclined to open a message from the President, these bad guys were able infect computers in a handful of U.S. government agencies, the Massachusetts State Police and the Moroccan Ministry of Industry.  The compromised computers appear to have sent information to [...]