The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) today issued a warning that it has receieved reports of fraudulent schemes misrepresenting FBI agents, officials and/or FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III.
The fraudulent e-mails give the appearance of legitimacy due to the usage of pictures of the FBI Director, seal, letterhead, and/or banners. The types of schemes utilizing the names of FBI agents, officials, or the Director’s name are typically lottery endorsements and inheritance notifications.Other fraudulent schemes representing the FBI claim to be from our domestic as well as overseas offices, the group stated.
The schemes cover a range from threat and extortion e-mails, Web site monitoring containing malicious computer program attachments (malware), and online auction scams.The social engineering technique of utilizing the FBI’s name is to intimidate and convince the recipient the e-mail is legitimate if it weren’t for the fact that the FBI does not send out emails soliciting information from citizens.
The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) is a partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C).
There have been upticks in other fraud or phishing schemes as well using Regions Financial and the Coca-Cola Company as bait. The company issued the following statement on its Web site in response to the scam: “The Coca-Cola Company is in no way associated with these e-mails. Do not reply to these e-mails or letters with any information.”
Some observers think 2008 is going to be nasty year for security-related problems. Look for a rising number of compromised Web sites that quietly attack unsuspecting visitors, “parasitic” malware that eats desktop files, and a stream of exploits targeting high-profile events such as the 2008 Olympics and the U.S. presidential elections, experts warn.
Layer 8 in a box
Check out these related security stories:
FBI issues pair of email scam warnings
FBI ‘Bot Roast II: 1 million infected PCs, $20 million in losses and 8 indictments
FTC says 8.3 million hit with identity theft
GAO rips airline security, says it easily got bomb making materials past TSA screeners
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Suspected Scam warning
I believe my lady friend is in the middle of a suspect International "NANNY WANTED" scam by a family pretending to employ a nanny for their 2 children 18 months and 4 years. They claim to live and work for a oil company in Aberdeen Scotland U.K. They ask for 800 pounds U.K. being payment for a legal representative to arrange travel docs and work permit etc to enter the U.K. They offer 3 months pay in advance and a one way air ticket from your resident country. Beware these people are very slick with photo's of the children and his wife.
But when we asked for I.D. from them to varify the photos of them "It was a case of Oh! My company wont release my passport" to photo copy it to send to you and no drivers license. I advised my friend to absolutely not send any money to him or his representative for travel documents.When they became aware of my intervention they quote; said "We will help you by paying half" and you will only need to Pay 400 pounds U.K. I feel bad for people who get sucked into these sort of scum bag scams so I post this latest one now in the hope you wont get ripped off like my friend nearly did.