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 [...]

How hard it is to tell a real email from a fake email?  It is real hard, as the recent confusion at the popular site WOW Insider demonstrated. Over the last several days, Blizzard, the publisher of leading games such as World of Warcraft, Diablo and Starcraft, responded to a security problem by sending a password reset email to users.  On December 14, WOW Insider, a popular Warcraft blog and information site, warned the WOW community that the password reset email was a phishing attack.  On December 15, WOW Insider retracted the phishing story and advised the WOW community that [...]

  The Anti-Phishing Working Group (“APWG”) is worldwide watchdog organization composed of more than 1,800 companies, government agencies and solutions providers.  APWG is committed to wiping out internet scams and fraud. The APWG just released their First Half 2010 Report.  You can get the full report here: http://www.antiphishing.org/reports/APWG_GlobalPhishingSurvey_1H2010.pdf The report discusses the disturbing trend we reported in our October 22, 2010 IRS Warning posting.  This is the trend of using fraudulent emails to trick people into infecting their own machines with malware.  The APWG explains that unlike the bad old days, where the criminals took victims to fake websites to [...]

 You may have received an email claiming to be from the IRS warning you about a problem with a tax payment. It may say something like, “LAST NOTICE: We decline your Federal tax payment,” followed by an ID number. Or, “LAST NOTICE: The Identification Number used in the company identification field is not valid.” Jane Bryant Quinn has written an excellent posting about this scam. You can find it here: http://moneywatch.bnet.com/investing/blog/make-money/new-irs-phishing-scam-a-criminal-gang-is-in-your-mailbox/577/ Among the points she makes is that if the IRS is really after you, they will send you a written notice using the U.S. Postal Service – they [...]

Iconix commends the sponsors of the Annual UK National Identity Fraud Week, which commenced October 18, 2010, for their continuing efforts to extend awareness of the problem of identity theft. Now in its sixth year, the campaign seeks to help prevent identity fraud by providing practical help, tips and guidance to safeguard your identity. This awareness drive has been put in place by an expert group of public and private sector partners, including the CIFAS, The Association of Chief Police Officers, The City of London Police, The Metropolitan Police, National Fraud Authority, The Identity and Passport Service, The British Retail Consortium, [...]