There’s a renewed effort from spammers trying to hijack legitimate Craigslist.org accounts.
One version currently in distribution arrives:
Subject: flagged & removed: 36984099
From: “Craigslist” <no-reply@craigsIst.org>
To further add the appearance of legitimacy and to help evade spam filtering systems the number at the end of the subject line is randomized.
A surprisingly well done spoof of a Bank of America notice is making the rounds and is convincing enough to trick a number of email recipients:
Subject: IMPORTANT – Account Deactivation Notice
From: Bank of America Alert <onlinebanking@ealerts.bankofamerica.com>
The email, actually sent from foreign servers, warns:
We have noticed that you need to resolve important security issues on your account to prevent temporal deactivation. It is therefore recommended that you complete this process. Your security is important to us.
Please click on the link below to resolve this issue:
www.bankofamerica.com/upd.screc/id.2140180220.sessid/home.sec.index.cfm?page=update
One of the “better” Wells Fargo Phishing frauds we’ve seen lately (and there are a lot to choose from) arrives as:
Subject: Wells Fargo Online Fraud Prevention.
From: “Wells Fargo Online”<wellsfargo@wellsconnect.wellsfargo.com>
The basic pitch:
Wells Fargo’s Internet Services Group Fraud Operations would like to verify some recent activity on your account.
Here’s a complete copy of the fraudulent spam email:
A new version of an old virus fraud is circulating with a spoofed Microsoft address:
Subject: Critical security patch released!
From: Microsoft Corp. <windowsupdate@microsoft.com>
What’s clever and also amusing about this is it pretends to address a recent Microsoft update that addresses a different kind of spoofing:
We see so much spam, it actually gets rather boring after awhile. That’s why we sincerely appreciate spam that’s unusual or especially clever.
This spoofed Ebay Phishing Fraud email certainly fits the bill of interesting and very effective spam:
Subject: Message from eBay Member Regarding Item #
From: eBay <aw-notice@eby.com>
In the actual spam email, the item number is usually from an actual Ebay auction and the question certainly sounds plausible. We’ve seen many variations, but here’s a common example:
Hi , i`m from London and i want to ask you the buy it now price with delivery included ? Do you accept paypal ? Thanks!
A highly targeted spam Phishing fraud campaign is actively going after TCF (a regional bank) customers.
The email arrives:
Subject: Your account has been locked.
From: TFC Bank <service@tcfbank.com>
But does not come form any legitimate TCF server, instead, traveling through sites such as:
from ds2017.centos-server.net ([207.45.176.146])
The message itself warns:
The typical bank Phishing fraud spam email warns you about your account security, claiming there have been unauthorized transactions or invalid login attempts from overseas.
In a creative twist, the latest spam Phishing campaign targeted toward J.P. Morgan Chase customers uses more of a carrot than a stick; announcing that you’ve received a billing refund.
Subject: You have received a refund of $70.95
From: J.P. Morgan Chase <online.service@chase.int.com>
Spammers are again looking to hijack Google AdWords accounts by mass mailing campaigns targeting legitimate AdWords account holders.
Messages arrive as:
Subject: Account has stopped running this morning.
From: “Google AdWords”<adwords-noreply@google.com>
While the emails typically spoof the adwords-noreply@google.com address, they are sent from stolen and fraudulently registered email accounts.
The message itself looks like:
After seeing countless bogus email campaigns claiming to be from UPS, DHL, Fed Ex and the United States Postal Service all used for spreading viruses, it was inevitable that we would also start seeing similar messages claiming to come from Canada Post arriving as:
Subject: Your package has arrived!
From: “Canada Post”<tracking@canadapost.ca>
While the From address says it’s from Canadapost.ca the latest batch actually came from Germany, via:
web08.konfigserver.de ([83.141.3.208])
Here’s the complete email:
Email Phishing frauds for Bank Of Montreal are in high gear, with most arriving as:
Subject: Important Notice From Online Banking
From: BMO Bank of Montreal <helpdesk@bmo.com>
Though the sending address is of course spoofed, with these actually coming from bogus and hijacked mail servers such as:
‘from beta.dnshree.com ([208.87.243.22])
<nobody@beta.dnshree.com>
Here’s a full copy of of the email fraud:
