Posted on 09/03/2005 4:15:59 AM PDT by Our_Man_In_Gough_Island
Computer users are being urged to be on guard for a bogus e-mail that pretends to offer news updates about Hurricane Katrina as a means to infect their PCs. The malicious e-mail gives a brief news bulletin on the disaster before urging people to click "read more" and be taken to the full story on a website.
Yet once directed to the website, a virus is sent to the user's computer.
People are also being told to watch out for fraudulent e-mail scams pretending to raise cash for Katrina victims.
It's sickening to think that hackers are prepared to exploit the horrendous situation in an attempt to break into computers for the purposes of spamming, extortion and theft
Graham Cluley, SophosLabs
The separate virus and fake donations bogus e-mails have been discovered by computer security firms SophosLabs and Websense Security Labs.
They are similar to previous fraudulent e-mails connected to last year's Indian Ocean Tsunami.
Delete e-mail
Under the virus scam, the hackers send a "Trojan" virus to the victim's computer, which can give them complete access to, and control of, its files.
While the user is not infected if he or she simply read the e-mail without opening the attachment, people are urged to delete such e-mails immediately.
It is also recommended that people check that their virus-protection is up to date.
To avoid being conned out of money, people are being urged to double-check the validity of any charity which asks via e-mail for a Katrina donation.
"The hurricane is a dreadful natural disaster, and it's sickening to think that hackers are prepared to exploit the horrendous situation in an attempt to break into computers for the purposes of spamming, extortion and theft," said SophosLabs senior technology consultant Graham Cluley.
How bald-tire stupid does a person have to be to respond to one of these? I beleiev scams like these serve a Darwinian function in seperating money from those people too stupid to manage it and placing it in the hands of those far more clever. Geeezus.....
I think e-mail offers are great! I am currently partners with the brother-in-law of the former King of Nigeria and I will be rich beyond my wildest dreams! The money should hit my bank account any day now. Then we'll see who's sorry!!!
BBWWWAAAHHHAAAAA!
ping
Why that's funny....I am currently partners with the brother-in-law friend's cousin of the former King of Nigeria...and I too am expecting money to hit my bank account very soon, ah man these shlubs are gonna be so jealous they didn't get that suspicious to good to be true but real e-mail.
Electronic looters.
That is a good description. They live under rocks, if you ask me, and crawl out whenever a victim limps by.
Oh, yeah, well I'm current partners with the King of Nigeria's wife (um no not that kind), his brother, cousin, aunt, and grandma. The president of Mozambique's wife, the oil minister of Venezuela, and the top Emperor penguin of Antarctica have all given me promises of huge sums of money. I can't wait to get my dough.
I will be even richer. I get about 4 or 5 notes from these guys a day. Hey, I think I know a new way to pay off the national debt.
A person who puts out these scams has no mind or conscience for that matter.
I went to that website you mentioned. It looked a little too plain for the savlation army, so did a google, clicked on the international version of salvation army, then to the usa site, then to the donate page. it came up with a donate page that is the same as you are directed to form your website.
Short version : that website you put up is legit - probably is not "professional" looking as they created it in a hurry to better to handle the donations.
(I wasn't able to donate do to some type of problem. i'll wait unitl tonight and hoefully they'll have less traffic)
Oh yeah, the back-alley scamsters are already gearing up. Welcome to the big city; want to buy a bridge or hold this $17 million for a few days?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.