[pchelpers] News:Spammers Revive The Whaling Industry

Wednesday, April 16, 2008 - by Gregory Sullivan

Anybody who has e-mail knows all about phishing scams. As spam filters
and firewalls become more potent, and users become more sophisticated
and informed about responding to online deceptions, the spammers have
had to become more sophisticated in their approach too. One approach
spammers now use is to avoid mass e-mailing and tailor their message to
a few high-profile targets. They call this approach "whaling." 

Thousands of high-ranking executives across the country have been
receiving e-mail messages this week that appear to be official subpoenas
from the United States District Court in San Diego. Each message
includes the executiveʼs name, company and phone number, and commands
the recipient to appear before a grand jury in a civil case.

A link embedded in the message purports to offer a copy of the entire
subpoena. But a recipient who tries to view the document unwittingly
downloads and installs software that secretly records keystrokes and
sends the data to a remote computer over the Internet. This lets the
criminals capture passwords and other personal or corporate information.

More here:
http://www.hothardware.com/News/Spammers%5FRevive%5FThe%5FWhaling%
5FIndustry/
-- 
John Durham
Site http://modecideas.com
Server hosted on Ubuntu 4.10
Good advice is like good paint. It only works when applied.



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