Cybercriminals have spammed out a malicious attack, posing as a notification from the FBI that you have been visiting illegal websites.
A typical message reads as follows:
Subject: You visit illegal websites
Attached file: Document.zipMessage body:
Sir/Madam, we have logged your IP-address on more than 40 illegal Websites. Important: Please answer our questions! The list of questions are attached.
If you make the mistake of running the program in the attached ZIP file, you’ll find that your computer is hit with a fake anti-virus attack – designed to scare you into handing over your credit card details.
Sophos products intercept the email messages as spam, and also detect the attachment as Mal/Bredo-K and Troj/BredoZp-DM.
Of course, if you have your wits about you you would realise that the email looks very suspicious in the first place. But there’s always the danger that some folks will be so worried that the FBI believes they might have been visiting naughty websites, that they’ll click on unsolicited email attachments without thinking.
I'm so glad we live in a country where the FBI doesn't have the right to do that…. & even if it did, do you think it would send an email about it?… No, it would come knocking at your door!!!
Or, more likely, your neighbour's door: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?stor…
Knocking at your door? No, it would launch a missile at your house or fly a Drone into it..
What makes me laugh is how/why would the FBI be monitoring illegal websites and attacking users instead of attacking and shutting down the illegal site?
The sites could be hosted outside the US, in which case the FBI would not have the authority to shut them down. Unless they can seize the domain, they would have to rely on the authorities in the country where the site was hosted, who might not be inclined to help – the site might not even be illegal in the host country.
Short of setting up a Chinese-style national firewall to block the sites, the only option is to go after the users.
Agreed. I don't think the people behind this malware rate our intelligence!
Mark at http://www.idgconnect.com/blog
i had that happen to me last night thinking i did something wrong so i click on the thing and the next thing i know all my files were deleted and my music games everything was gone
ha, yes, fbi has not authority on domain that is outside of US but they can block US user to get to that site, oh no that would be taking our freedom away…
I have just got that email and i sent it to the police here, i hope they choke on there efforts, i live in Australia so now they are trying it here
I also live in Australia and I received this several times over a week. I knew it wasn’t from the FBI as it had numbers in the email address, contained a suspicious attachment and why would the FBI contact someone over email? Honestly, they would rock up at our doors should we be caught visiting illegal websites. But after a week or so they stopped emailing me. But what I have noticed is that they use a different number in the email address each time.