Financial spam triples
Monday, January 12, 2009
Spam emails targeting the financial information of users have tripled this month over the same period last January, DarkReading.com reports.
Emails displaying messages about users winning overseas lotteries and various contests currently make up approximately 10 percent of the email being sent around, which is an increase from the 3.1 percent from the same period in 2008, according to the article.
The messages appear to be using the economic downturn to entice people looking for a quick financial fix through won money. Security officials also warned about emails touting low-cost college degrees and requests from a user's financial institution for their personal information, states the website.
Because of last week's report of the rise in unemployment, Cybercriminals are seemingly targeting those who are out of work through these financial scams, a trend some security professionals say will last most of the year.
Spammers are also incorporating more sophisticated attacks by placing embedded malicious links into what appears to be legitimate newsletters, which may contain information about the economy.
The website also reported cybercriminals may be exploiting tiny URLs with innovative phishing attacks that can grab a user's financial information through a series of malicious links.
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