Identity Theft

The theft of your identity occurs by either tricking you into providing your personal information such as login details, credit card numbers or social security numbers, or by physically stealing your wallet etc.

The most common way to get your personal details is by sending you a message via text, email or phone, indicating there is a problem with your account. The message tries to get you to call a number or visit a website and enter your details.

Within the message you receive is usually a link to the website they want you to login to, which is usually a fake replica of the real website you think you are going to.

You can avoid this type of scam by never clicking on a link in the message, and always typing the name of the business into the address bar yourself. If you are asked to ring a phone number, always look it up in the directory.

Although the physical theft may include your purse or wallet, sometimes it includes your written personal details recovered from your trash cans on a variety of accounts, invoices and credit card invitations.

The way to avoid this is to shred all documents with your personal information on them.

There are instances of identity theft that you can't prevent such as large scale hacking of business computers that store your personal details, or where your credit card is taken out of your sight for processing [restaurant] and the staff can record your details and the security number on the back.

You can minimize the effects of this type of theft by monitoring your accounts online and subscribing to an ID theft protection service.

Social Security Scam Email

The email is a scam and is not from Social Security Administration. It is designed to collect social security numbers and fool you into installing a trojan that will steal information from your computer.

If you click on the link you will be taken to a fake website designed to look like the genuine United States Social Security Online website.

You are first asked to enter your Social Security Number and then click a "Continue" button, upon which you will be taken to a second fake webpage where you will be instructed to click another button that will supposedly generate your annual Social Security statement.

By clicking the button however you do not generate a statement, but instead download a trojan called the Zbot.P trojan. Once it is installed on your computer, the trojan can collect information such as your passwords and send them to Internet criminals.

Scammers often use government department names on their emails in an attempt to trick you into giving up personal information or downloading malware.

Always be wary of unsolicited email from government departments if they are asking you to enter private information. If you need to access the government department's website, do so by typing the address into your browser's address bar, instead of clicking a link.

Hotmail and Yahoo Email Scam

The message states that they are having 'congestion' problems due to anonymous registrations and so they need to delete some accounts to deal with this problem.

To prevent your email account being closed, you are instructed to reply to the email and provide your username and password. Some emails ask for additional information.

This email is not from Hotmail, Windows Live or Yahoo. It is a phishing email scam designed to steal your account login details. If you reply, you will be handing over your email account to the scammers for them to do as they wish.

One of the scammers main uses of these email accounts is to gain access to the contact list. Once they have the contact list they can send emails to those contacts on the list,and it will appear to come from the account owner.

A common strategy is for the scammers to send an email to the contact list [which will be in the account holder's name], stating they are stuck in an overseas country, or had an accident in an overseas country, and they need money to be sent to them.

Some of the recipients will likely believe it and send money because it will come from the original account holder's account with their email signature etc.

The real owner of the email account is unlikely to know that this is happening.

Although the scammers can use different reasons to get you to send your login details [such as the email account exceeding its storage limit, or increased security changes or system upgrade] the result is always the same – they want you to send your login details.

Be cautious of any messages asking for login details as they are almost always a scam.

Anti Virus Software Scams

These pop-ups [known as scareware] look authentic and may even display what appears to be real-time anti-virus scanning of your hard drive. The scareware will show a list of reputable software icons; however, you cannot click a link to go to the actual site to review or see the recommendations.

The scareware is intimidating to most users and extremely aggressive in its attempt to lure you into purchasing the rogue software that will allegedly remove the viruses from your computer.

Once the pop-up appears it cannot be easily closed by clicking "close" or the "X" button. If you click on the pop-up to purchase the software, a form is provided that collects payment information and you are charged for the bogus product.

In some instances, whether you click on the pop-up or not, the scareware can install malicious code onto your computer.

Downloading the software can result in viruses, Trojans and/or keyloggers being installed on your computer.

The assertive tactics of the scareware has caused significant losses to users and the FBI has an estimated loss to victims in excess of $150 million.

Be cautious — cyber criminals use easy to remember names and associate them with known applications. Beware of pop-ups that are offering a variation of recognized security software. It is recommended that you research the exact name of the software being offered.

Take precautions to ensure your operating system is updated and security software is current.

If you receive these anti-virus pop-ups, it is recommended you close the browser or shut the system down. It is suggested that you run a full, anti-virus scan whenever the computer is turned back on.

With the festive season approaching, the Federal Bureau of Investigation [FBI] is reminding people that cyber criminals continue to aggressively create new ways to steal money and personal information. Scammers use many techniques to fool you including fraudulent auction sales, reshipping merchandise purchased with a stolen credit card, and sale of fraudulent or stolen gift cards through auction sites at a discounted price.

Fraudulent Classified Ads or Auction Sales

Internet criminals post classified ads or auctions for products they do not have. If you receive an auction product from a merchant or retail store, rather than directly from the auction seller, the item may have been purchased with someone else's stolen credit card number. Contact the merchant to verify the account used to pay for the item actually belongs to you.

You should be cautious and not provide financial information directly to the seller, as fraudulent sellers will use this information to purchase items for their scheme from the provided financial account. Always use a legitimate payment service to protect purchases.

With product delivery, unfamiliar Web sites or individuals selling reduced or free shipping to customers through auction sites many times are deemed to be fraudulent. In many instances, these Web sites or sellers provide shipping labels to their customers as a service. However, the delivery service providers are ultimately not being paid to deliver the package; therefore, packages shipped by the victims using these labels are intercepted by delivery service providers because they are identified as fraudulent.

Diligently check each seller's rating and feedback along with their number of sales and the dates on which feedback was posted. Be wary of a seller with 100% positive feedback, if they have a low total number of feedback postings and all feedback was posted around the same date and time.

Gift Card Scam

Be careful about purchasing gift cards from auction sites or through classified ads. If you need a gift card, it is safest to purchase it directly from the merchant or another authorized retail store. If the gift card merchant discovers the card you received from another source or auction was initially obtained fraudulently, the merchant will deactivate the gift card number and it will not be honored for purchases.

Phishing and Smishing Schemes

Be wary of e-mails or text messages you receive indicating a problem or question regarding your financial accounts. In this scam, you are directed to follow a link or call the number provided in the message to update your account or correct the problem. The link actually directs you to a fraudulent Web site or message that appears legitimate where any personal information you provide, such as account number and PIN, will be stolen.

Another scam involves victims receiving an e-mail message directing them to a spoofed Web site. A spoofed Web site is a fake site or copy of a real Web site and misleads the recipient into providing personal information, which is sent to the scammer's computers.

Tips

Here are some tips you can use to avoid becoming a victim of cyber fraud:

•Do not respond to unsolicited [spam] e-mail
•Do not click on links contained within an unsolicited e-mail
•Be cautious of e-mail claiming to contain pictures in attached files, as the files may contain viruses. Only open attachments from known senders. Virus scan the attachments if possible
•Avoid filling out forms contained in e-mail messages that ask for personal information
•Always compare the link in the e-mail to the link you are actually directed to and determine if they actually match and will lead you to a legitimate site
•Log on directly to the official Web site for the business identified in the e-mail, instead of "linking" to it from an unsolicited e-mail. If the e-mail appears to be from your bank, credit card issuer, or other company you deal with frequently, your statements or official correspondence from the business will provide the proper contact information
•Contact the actual business that supposedly sent the e-mail to verify if the e-mail is genuine
 

Email Account Deactivation Warning, and Facebook Password Reset Confirmation 

The Email Account Deactivation Warning email advises you that your email account has been deactivated due to unusual activity being detected.

The email instructs you to extract and run an attached "mailbox utility", supposedly in order to restore your email service.

The email however is not from your ISP or hosting company and the attachment does not contain a mailbox utility. In fact, if you open the attachment, it will install a copy of the Mal/EncPk-LP trojan on your computer.

The email messages use fake sender addresses to make it look like they originate from your service provider [if your email address was yourusersname@provider.com, the malware email will arrive with an address like automailer@provider.com and will also end with a line such as "best regards, provider.com technical support"].

This is done to trick more people into opening the email by trying to look legitimate.

The Facebook Password Reset Confirmation email states that your password has been changed as a security measure, and that your new password is in the attached document.

The goal of the email is to get you to open the document to read your new password, and if you do this, you will in fact be launching a copy of the Bredolab Trojan. Once installed, this trojan is able to download and install other malware components such as keyloggers and password stealers and allow Internet criminals to control your computer from the other side of the world.

If you receive an email like this or the one above, don't open any attachments or click on any links in the message. It is quite easy for criminals to make it appear that an email is legitimate by using fake "from" addresses, disguised links, and logos or other graphics stolen from the genuine company's website.

Remember You will never be sent any new passwords in an attachment.

Be aware that the Bredolab Trojan is also distributed via emails that include fake shipping confirmation messages and messages supposedly confirming the order of goods bought online.

Flu Pandemic Counterfeit Antiviral Drugs Making Scammers Rich

Sophos, a British security software firm has said it has intercepted hundreds of millions of fake pharmaceutical spam adverts and websites this year, with many of them trying to sell counterfeit antiviral drugs like Tamiflu.

Tamiflu is an antiviral marketed by Switzerland's Roche Holding and known generically as Oseltamivir and is the frontline drug recommended by the World Health Organization to treat and slow the progression of flu symptoms. GlaxoSmithKline makes another antiviral for flu, known as Relenza.

Sophos said many of the gangs behind the websites were based in Russia and the top five countries buying fake Tamiflu and other medicines on the internet were the United States, Germany, Britain, Canada and France.

"The criminal gangs working behind the scenes at fake internet pharmacies are putting their customers' health, personal information and credit card details at risk."

Sophos said criminal gangs were operating medicines websites branded as the "Canadian Pharmacy" to try to appear genuine.

It said its research showed that on one network operated out of Russia, called Glavmed, it was possible to earn an average of $16,000 a day promoting pharmaceutical websites.
"But the criminals can be members of more than one affiliate network, and some have boasted of earning more than $100,000 per day," it said in a statement.

The pandemic H1N1 flu virus has now spread to 206 countries since it was first discovered in March. There have been more than 6,250 deaths to date, mostly in the Americas.

Banking Fraud Combined with Work at Home Scams

One of the most common ways is when the targeted organization receives a 'spear phishing' email which either contains an infected attachment, or directs them to an infected web site.

Once you open the attachment or visit the web site, malicious software [malware] is installed on your computer.

The malware contains a key logger which will harvest your business or corporate bank account log-in information. Shortly after, the scammer either creates another user account with the stolen log-in information, or directly transfers your funds out of your accounts.

The next step is for your money to be directed to the bank accounts of people within the United States. Most of these people are unaware of what is happening and have been recruited through work-at-home advertisements, or have been contacted after placing resumes on well-known job search web sites.

These people are often hired to 'process payments', or 'transfer funds' and are told they will receive wire transfers into their bank accounts. Shortly after the funds are received, they are directed to immediately forward most of the money overseas using wire transfer services such as Western Union and Moneygram.

Protecting your computer against malicious software is an ongoing activity and, at minimum, all computers need to have antivirus and firewall software, that is regularly updated.

Further information is available at http://www.us-cert.gov/nav/nt01/.