October 25, 2017

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Phish NETS: PayPal Account, USAA Banking, and DropBox

Any time you receive a notice from a financial account that begins with “Dear Customer” you ought to be on your guard.  It doesn’t mean these are all phishing scams but if these notices are telling you that there is a problem with your account and advise you to log in or activate something, then lunge for the delete key!  Like this email that seems to come from PayPal.  But look closely and you’ll see that it comes from oaypal @ service-DOT-info.  The link for “Confirm Your Account” points to a hacked webserver in South Africa (.za = 2-letter country code for South Africa).

Delete!

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Your USAA Online Banking has been locked!  And blocked! “For your protection,we have blocked access to your online banking account because there were attempts to change your account information from an unauthorized party.”  That’s startling!  But look in the upper right corner of the email…. USAA # ending in XXXX.    XXXX?  Seriously?  And the from email address is meant to sound official but is as phony as a $3 bill.  And so is the website you’ll be sent to if you click the link for “Initiate the verification process.” – 123sportsbetting.com.

Now deeeeleeete!

We’ll be upfront and honest here… We’re not entirely sure if this next scam is a phishing scam or just click-bait to a malicious website.  We tried to locate the page on the webserver to find out but were not successful.  In any case, this can’t be good for you.  “Drop Box: You have a new file”  But the email came from dpbox-DOT-co.  “.co” as in Columbia.  And the link doesn’t point to Dropbox.com, but drotbox-DOT-co.  You know what to do.

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YOUR MONEY: UGG Sale, Cheap Flights, and Make Money From Woodworking

We’ve seen bogus ads for designer products offered at unbelievable sale prices.  They make great click-bait because everyone loves a good deal.  Here’s another one, this time for UGGS boots.  Up to 80% off!  But if you look closely at this ad you’ll see that English is not the author’s strength. “Order One Boots Get One Gloves Free”   The email came from the domain gggg-boot-sale-DOT-top and links point back to the malicious domain qzbndv-DOT-loan.  Time to give this email the boot!

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Want to learn about “the hidden airline loophole that let’s you book $1000 flights for $20 or less?”  All you need to do is click the link to watch their video!  When people do this, they are often told that they need to install or update some software to see the video.  Can you guess what’s in that software?  Yup.  Maaaalwaaaare!  Bad software.

Just delete now.

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This next piece of click-bait is meant to entice someone with good wood-craft skills to click it and infect his or her computer with malicious software.  “Make money with your woodworking skills”  We liked their subject line…. “open this NOW”  It could just as easily have said “infect your computer NOW.”  The links in this email point to a domain, wprofitfr-DOT-bid, that was registered using a private proxy company in Panama on the day the email was sent.  Delete.

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TOP STORY: DO NOT REPLY!

Just about everyone we speak to reports that they receive random texts and emails from people they either do not know or can’t identify.  Some of these are downright creepy.  Even if these messages don’t carry a malicious attachment or contain a malicious link, they are meant to trigger a response.  Our advice in each of these possibilities is to resist.  Don’t download, don’t click, and as you’ll see from these three recent messages sent to us by one of our TDS readers… Don’t reply!

The reader first received this message from an unknown source…  “ATTN [name] We Have an IMPORTANT Message for You” “Click Here”  That’s the worst thing you can do!  And see the two links at the bottom of this message… “If you wish to unsubscribe, please click below link” and “If you’d Like to unsubscribe or have received this message in error please click here…”  Those are equally dangerous click bait!

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And then about a week and a half later our reader gets this rather strange message from “Jessica” saying “I saw you last day, I knew it…” and “Hi, We Need To Talk”  No, you don’t need to talk!  Do not engage with “Jessica.”  We don’t know what “her” game is but we are certain of two things…

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1. “Her” name is not Jessica. In fact, it is more likely that you are being contacted by a male criminal whose first language is not English. (We make this claim because the majority of scams that target Americans originate with criminal groups overseas made up mostly of men.)
2. Engaging in a conversation with “Jessica” will somehow end in a financial loss for you if you’re not careful.

And then, another two weeks later, our reader received this ominous message from “hey”…   “surpriiiiise!!  I swear you didn’t expect i can reach you by email…”  If that isn’t creepy, we don’t know what is!  Again, this message is meant to garner a response…  Who is this?  What do you want?  Do I know you?  But RESIST!  It will only confirm for these bastards that they can get your attention.

Do Not Reply!

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No doubt, our long-time readers are thinking “no way would I reply” because they know better.  But what about your kids?  Or your elderly parents?  Or your friends who aren’t too savvy using their smartphones?  Can you imagine any of them replying to these messages?  If you can, show them these messages and ask them what they think?  Ask them if they want to receive our newsletter!

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