subject: You lose when you 'win' posted: Wed, 19 Jan 2005 10:19:09 -0000
[Another claim that malware is now spread by spam. Presumably
Outlook/Outlook Express users can become infected as they go through
their inbox clearing the spam, if they have their preview pane
enabled. I can't help thinking that emails were just plain text, this
would be impossible. - Stu]
You lose when you 'win'
You win some you lose some
Dinah Greek, Computeractive 18 Jan 2005
ADVERTISEMENT
As more people sign up to eBay, fraudsters are continuing to target
them by infecting their computers with malicious software to steal
their sign on details.
While the scam is not new, sending sellers spam email that is
infected with software known as a keystroke logger is still
profitable for these criminal gangs. When these emails are opened the
software is downloaded to the victim's computer and proceeds to
capture every keystroke a person types on their computer and the
gangs can profit in a number of ways.
This lets the thieves steal people's passwords and account details.
The gangs - thought to be based in Russia and eastern Europe - target
buy buyers and sellers using this information.
They can watch the seller's online auctions and transactions and send
emails to unsuccessful bidders purporting to come from the seller.
Bidders are told the winner has dropped out and they have now won and
are asked to send payment.
The fraudsters can also hijack peoples' PayPal accounts. They sign on
as that person and 'bid' for items being sold by another gang member
and use the victim's PayPal account to transfer the money, usually
via Western Union after 'winning' the auction.
A National Hi Tech Crime unit spokeswoman said. "[They are] using
eBay to launder money from compromised bank accounts through eBay to
co-conspirators".
Ebay said that despite these frauds it is one of the safest places in
the world to trade and it was working closely with the authorities on
dealing with internet crime.
"eBay and PayPal use state of the art technology to ensure the sites
are as secure as possible and while our security group is reviewing
the situation, we're confident this poses minimal risk to our
community of 125m users.
"eBay's specific commitment to improving spoof awareness can be found
in the ebay.co.uk Safety Centre where we offer tips and advice on how
best to protect yourself against spoof through information and on-
line tutorials."
---
* Origin: [adminz] tech, security, support (192:168/0.2)
generated by msg2page 0.06 on Jul 21, 2006 at 19:03:56
search: