Phishing

[red321]

http://gizmodo.com/the-number-of-people-who-fall-for-phishing-emails-is-st-1697725476

 

Wow...hard to believe

 

A study of 150,000 phishing emails by Verizon partners found that 23 percent of recipients open phishing messages, and 11 percent open attachments. Is that not crazy? One in 10 people opens an attachment when they have no idea what they’re opening.

 

[Thomas]

Not really considering there really is no training or attempts to educate the public at large.  Technology is just not a crucial part of a significant portion of the population.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2015/04/13/101-part-one

 

In related infosec news, one group of hackers were responsible for over 35% of SSH traffic on the entire L3 backbone. Just attempting to brute force anything and everything that allowed remote root login attempts.

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Group-Uses-Over-300-000-Unique-Passwords-in-SSH-Log-In-Brute-Force-Attacks-478094.shtml

[red321]

I should not I've spent the last few weeks trying to remove some friggen malware that keeps popping up. Deals4me, Flashcoupon, etc. Not sure what I installed that slipped that in as an add-on, I'm usually pretty diligent about not installing anything I'm not 100% sure about. That damn program keeps trying to re-install itself every week or so...which means it has something hidden somewhere. Did a full clean today starting with MalwareBytes and then ending with Hitman. Hitman seemed to find a bunch of hidden files.

 

I can only imagine what the normal, "non IT" population computer's look like.

[Blarg]

It looks like a clusterfrack. It used to be you wanted a doctor or lawyer in the family, now you get more value out of an computer tech. I am so glad my oldest picked that profession.

[Tank]

i've noticed a significant increase in the number of nigerian prince scam emails over the last six months. doesn't seem to be any end to them.

[Vegas Halo Fan]

i've noticed a significant increase in the number of nigerian prince scam emails over the last six months. doesn't seem to be any end to them.

 

I read somewhere that computer fraud is the second leading source of income in Nigeria. Sending out tens of thousands of scam letters costs nothing, and with free computers available for use in places like libraries, you don't even have to own a computer to get in on the gravy train. Even if they only get one sucker out of every 10,000 e-mails, that is significant income for very little effort.

 

I used to get a bunch of these, but mine tailed off at about the time yours picked up. Maybe I'm not on the latest list that is being circulated around the scammer community.

 

I read them for amusement. If it contains a hyperlink, I pass my pointer over it to see where it would actually lead if I were stupid enough to follow it. Some of them are so uncreative that you would have to be incredibly ignorant to buy them

 

Examples: One said that I had $5 million waiting at some bank in Burkina Faso. All I had to do was appear at the bank, ask for the cash and they would give it to me. The bank had supposedly been instructed to give the money to "the first foreigner who asks for it." To buy off on this, you would have to believe that a bank would have that much cash on hand, and that they would give it out to a nameless person without identification just because they asked. One also has to wonder what my chances would be of even making it to the door with that much cash before it would be taken from me. I suppose that they would just give me an inconspicuous paper bag to carry it out in. Besides that, the position was only going to pay $20K per year, which might be a crapload in Ghana but it isn't squat here. They could have at least made the salary more appealing.

 

One said that I had been appointed as a special envoy to the United Nations on behalf of Libyan refugees for the Government of Ghana. I was supposed to send copies of all of my identifying information (they're appointing me as an ambassador, but they don't know who I am). Poorly-conceived identity theft scam.

 

Still another is the dying person with no heirs. This came from a woman who was supposedly dying of cancer in a hospital in some African shit hole. I was supposed to believe that she was in a hospital that probably didn't have bandages or proper medicine, but they had broadband internet access that allowed her to contact me. I was also apparently supposed to believe that she had selected me personally from among the billions of people who inhabit this planet upon whom to bestow her personal fortunes. The first thing that struck me was that if she really had all those millions, she would have gone somewhere where they practiced proper medicine. Then again, people who actually think these things through aren't who the scammers are hoping to reach.

Edited April 17, 2015 by Vegas Halo Fan

[Mark68]

I'm getting fewer and fewer of the emails from that Nigerian prince fellow.

 

I am, however, seeing plenty of phishing emails that are from "Wells Fargo", "Bank of America", and a lot from "PayPal".

 

They go to my junk folder, which I tend to delete en masse, but the ones I recognize as phishing, I move to the proper (Phishing Scam) folder. Maybe Microsoft (I use Hotmail as my primary email) will compile them?

 

I do try to make sure I keep up my antivirus software. I'm currently using ESET NOD32 Antivirus 8.

[Vegas Halo Fan]

I get some every now and then that state that my account has been compromised, but all I have to do is follow the link to fix it. Almost always it is allegedly from a bank I have never done business with.

[gotbeer]

I should not I've spent the last few weeks trying to remove some friggen malware that keeps popping up. Deals4me, Flashcoupon, etc. Not sure what I installed that slipped that in as an add-on, I'm usually pretty diligent about not installing anything I'm not 100% sure about. That damn program keeps trying to re-install itself every week or so...which means it has something hidden somewhere. Did a full clean today starting with MalwareBytes and then ending with Hitman. Hitman seemed to find a bunch of hidden files.

 

I can only imagine what the normal, "non IT" population computer's look like.

 

This is one reason why I've turned off ads on my browsers.  One wrong click, and these things can install quick.