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Phishers read the papers, too
3 Oct 2008 -- On Thursday, September 25, Washington
Mutual Bank collapsed and was immediately purchased by rival JPMorgan
Chase (clearly, already the product of a high-stakes merger). Within a week
of this mega-deal, I received an email which appeared to come from the good
folks at JPMorgan Chase. In four poetically spare lines, I was informed there
was an important message for me, and that I should log in to "Update_Accounts_Online_Banking" to
read it. But I don't have an account with either WaMu or Chase, and I recognized
at once the all-too-familiar scam. (Of course, the subject line "Information
your account!" was a tip-off too.) If you're a WatchGuard Wire reader,
you probably would have recognized it just as quickly.
So, why bring yet another bank-oriented phishing scam to your attention? Only
to point out the alarming speed with which scammers can take advantage of news
headlines...when they see them as opportunities. The extraordinary financial
turmoil the USA has been plunged into is just the sort of uncertainty that
could lead less-savvy users to click that link. After all -- in a landscape
that's changing fast enough to make those checks you've just ordered useless
by the time they arrive in the mail -- do you know who's managing your money today?
These troubled times should put network administrators on the alert; it's not a bad idea to warn your end-users that they can expect much more of this financials-related spam. "The secret behind the bailout" is another popular topic. And for those of you who aren't in the US, it's still worth reminding your minions that spammers keep up on current events...sometimes better than you do. Remember what a phishing magnet the Beijing Olympics were. -- Mark Waldstein
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