Evil Phish

Posted on May 17, 2006 by Timothy Burke

Has anybody else noticed an upturn in phishing emails that say “You’ve received a postcard from a family member!” but have a link to an executable of some kind? Very nasty bit of social engineering on the part of whomever came up with that one. These guys are getting smarter and smarter all the time.

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5 Responses to Evil Phish

  1. Endie says:
    May 17, 2006 at 10:33 am

    Surely Evil Phishing should involve an email saying “you’ve received an off-the-wall cover version of an early Frank Zappa number from your hippy uncle”, and then have the attachment brutally overwrite all your data with jazz-fusion led zep crossover mp3s?

  2. Timothy Burke says:
    May 17, 2006 at 10:35 am

    That would be evil indeed.

    Well, actually, I guess it depends on what it was overwriting.

  3. sharon says:
    May 17, 2006 at 1:23 pm

    Nope, the most evil phishing email I’ve ever seen is still one from a year or two ago that went along the lines of: “The gorgeous child porn you ordered is ready and waiting for you! Your credit card has been charged with the amount XX. If you wish to cancel this order click here…” I thought it was sickeningly brilliant as a way to get people to panic and hand over their credit card details.

    Oh, and I think the email purporting to be from an abused wife in Saudi Arabia who needed my help to escape her evil murderous etc husband is the best ‘Nigerian’ spam I’ve ever had. It just tapped into absolutely every western stereotype of Arab/Muslim cruelty to women. (Even the usual illiteracy didn’t matter, since she claimed to have had very little education.) Clever.

  4. Timothy Burke says:
    May 17, 2006 at 1:44 pm

    Yeah, child-porn themed ones are way more powerful, for sure. I got a child porn spam about six years ago and it was very unnerving. Couple that with a phish like you describe and you’ve got a potent bit of nastiness.

  5. joeo says:
    May 17, 2006 at 6:51 pm

    I sent an important email to someone last night and 5 minutes later I got an email that some destination had rejected my email. I was in a panic so I clicked on a txt file. Luckily, my computer asked me whether I really wanted to do this. Bastards.