Exids IT Solutions

What goes around comes around.  Almost.  It seems that the FTC has decided enough is enough when it comes to nasty companies doing nasty things to peoples computers and blow the whistle.

The accused is Sanford Wallace, the owner of the company Smartbot.net.  He has been fingered for creating malicious software that is designed to exploit a flaw in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer web browser…  the same browser that 85% of internet users utilize.

The grounds of such a suit are that Mr. Wallace and his firm has been “installing” this software without user’s permission.  In fact, once a user has unknowingly been infected, the CDROM tray opens and a message on your screen appears that says:

“FINAL WARNING!! If your cd-rom drive’s open . . .You DESPERATELY NEED to rid your system of spyware pop-ups IMMEDIATELY! Download Spy Wiper NOW!”

Ironically (and fortunately for Mr. Wallace), his company is the sole beneficiary of the proceeds made from any purchases of Spy Wiper.  A pretty good business model when you consider that the only thing they need to get rich if for you to visit a website designed to infect you!

This type of tactic is not uncommon, in fact, it’s common place.  Since the advent of affiliate marketing, anti-spyware software companies have been happy to give up a portion of their profits to anyone who refers someone to buy them.  If you are a programmer, you have great incentive to create spyware that holds a user for ransom – ransom that will be paid in full when you buy the software recommended to remove the spyware.  Luckily, the software you recommend to remove the spyware happens to be the same software you make a chunk of money off.

The U.S. District Court judge that ordered the re-payments should take a long and hard look at this growing epidemic, and consider a more bold punishment.  A slap on the wrist is all Wallace has suffered.  The millions in profits he’s being forced to give up was never really his in the first place.  It’s like taking the loot back from a bank robbery and telling the robbers not to do it again.

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I received an email from someone today claiming that I will receive a $20.00 credit to my Chase Manhattan Bank account for taking a quick 5 question survey.

Obviously this is a scam.  First of all, the type of scam being used is a Phishing scam.  There is a link in the email that I am asked to click on to be taken to the chase bank web site.  Now, at first glance when you look at the link, it appears to take you to the chase bank website, however, upon further inspection it becomes clear that the website you will be taken to is actually http://www.compexbrno.cz/~mp3/update/chase-rewarding/clients-asp/cgi/index.html.

I took a screen shot to show you this.  If you place your mouse over the hyperlink, a box opens revealing where the link really points to.

If you don’t know what phishing is, and would like to learn more about it, watch this video on how to detect a phishing scam.

This is the email I received

Dear Valued Customer,

CONGRATULATIONS !!!

You have been chosen by the Chase Manhattan Bank online department to take part in our quick and easy 5 question survey. In return we will credit $20 to your account – Just for your time!

Helping us better understand how our customers feel benefits everyone. With the information collected we can decide to direct a number of changes to improve and expand our online service.
The information you provide us is all non-sensitive and anonymous – No part of it is handed down to any third party groups.
It will be stored in our secure database for maximum of 3 days while we process the results of this nationwide survey.

We kindly ask you to spare two minutes of your time in taking part with this unique offer!

To Continue click on the link below:

http://www.chase.com/?CustomerID=8972347&SecureID=xjskid893oe99280-2oeujdywhhhekwod0pqlwoe0

Many Thanks and Kind Regards – Chase Manhattan Bank Customer Department

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Here’s another sample of a fraud email sent from Mr. Lo Ping Wing.  Excuse the formatting, this is how I recieved the email. 

I am Mr.Lo Ping Wing, Bank Official of Macau Chinese bank, Macau Branch,Macau, China. I have urgent and very confidential business proposition for you. An Oil consultant/contractor with the China Petroleum and Chemical Corp. made a numbered time (Fixed) Deposit for twelve calendar months, valued at US$128,000,000.00 (One Hundred and Twenty eight Million Dollars) in my branch. Upon maturity, I sent a routine notification to his forwarding address but got no reply. After a month, we sent a reminder and finally we discovered from his contract employers that the consultant died from an automobile accident. On further investigation, I found out that he died without making a WILL, and all attempts to trace his next of kin was fruitless, and I beleive this might be due to the reasoning that he might have used a fictitous Identity to open the account.I therefore made further investigation and discovered that the consultant did not declare any kin or relations in all his official documents, including his Bank Deposit paperwork in my Bank.
This sum of US$128,000,000.00 is still sitting in my Bank and the interest is being rolled over with the principal sum at the end of each year. No one will ever come forward to claim it. According to Laws of Republic of China, at the expiration of 5 (five) years, the money will revert to the ownership of the Chinese Government if nobody applies to claim the fund. Consequently, my proposal is that I will like you as a foreigner to stand in as the next of kin to the deceased consultant so that the fruits of this old man’s labor will not get into the hands of some corrupt government officials. This is simple, I will like you to provide immediately your full names and address so that the attorney will prepare the necessary documents and affidavits that will put you in place as the next of kin. We shall employ the services of an attorney for drafting and notarization of the WILL and to obtain the necessary documents and letter of probate/administration in your favor for the transfer. A bank account in any part of the world that you will provide will then facilitate the transfer of this money to you as the beneficiary/next of kin. The money will be paid into your account for us to share in the ratio of 90% for me and 10% for you.We can recommend a Luxembourg bank where that can contact you if we send your email to them as regards opening an online account with them. There is no risk at all as all the paperwork for this transaction will be done by the attorney and my position as the Bank Official guarantees the  successful execution of this transaction. If you are interested, please reply immediately via the private email address above. Upon your response,I shall then provide you with more details and relevant documents that will help you understand the transaction. Please send me your confidential telephone and fax numbers for easy communication. Please observe utmostconfidentiality, and rest assured that this transaction would be most profitable for both of us because I shall require your assistance to invest my share in your country. Awaiting your urgent reply via my email address.
Thanks and regards.

Mr.Lo Ping Wing

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Here’s an example of a phishiing email sent by WellsFargo.  For more information on phishing, visit this page.

The Fraud Email is in Italics Below:

Dear WellsFargo Customers Upgrade 2006

Due to concerns, for the safety and integrity of the wellsfargo
account we have issued this warning message.

It has come to our attention that your WellsFargo account information needs to be
updated as part of our continuing commitment to protect your account in this year 2006 and to
reduce the instance of fraud on our website. If you could please take 5-10 minutes
out of your online experience and update your personal records you will not run into
any future problems with the online service.

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It’s time for another round of sample email fraud!  If anyone has any other fraud emails they would like to have posted, just contact me and I will get them up as soon as posible with a full description.

In the meantime, here’s another one for your reading enjoyment!

From the Desk of:
Mr. Peter Ekeh

With great pleasure I Mr. Peter Ekeh, working with a bank here in Nigeria as a Manager. I am writing you in respect of a foreign customer (an Oil consultant/contractor with our National Oil & Liquidified Gas Sector) whom made a US$25M (Twenty five Million United States Dollars) depository for an investment program that has remained dormant for years now. Hence, I have decided to contact you due to the urgency of this transaction.

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Once again, here’s a classic example of email fraud from our dear friend Susan Harrison-Justain (what a wonderful person! — [not])

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I am going to continue to post sample scam emails in my blog as I have had several requests from you on what the current email scams are.

I’ve created a new category called “Sample Fraud” in my blog that allows you to look through some of the other sample frauds floating around on the internet.  To view them, just click the link “Sample Fraud” on the right hand menu from my blog homepage www.pcsecuritysecrets.com/blog.

This fraud email is from “Mother Sherry booy Jaunther”: Read the rest of this entry »

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It never fails to amaze me – in this email the individual claims to be one of the Accounts Directors to Mikhail khodorkovsky, the richest man in Russia.  He uses a technique to build credibility by linking to news articles about Mikhail khodorkovsky’s arrest on high profile legitimate news sites like the BBC.

This is a fairly stale scam, where they promise you money if you help them get some of the assets out through a government loophole – the catch is that you usually need to put some of you money up at some point.

I’ve posted the scam email below if you want to read more…

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This scam email is an example of lottery fraud…

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Here’s yet another example bank scam email…

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