Internet Security

Fraud Alert

Here are some examples of hoax and spam emails recently recieved by members and reported to IHQ.

If you have any doubts about any email you receive, you can paste the contents of the email into a search engine such as Google - many websites will list the most common scams.

The site www.hoax-slayer.com adds new articles every week, educating web users about email and Internet security issues.

Example 1

Portraying to be the victim, the hacker uses the victim's account to send a notice to their contacts. The notice claims the victim is in immediate need of money due to being robbed of their credit cards, passport, money, and cell phone; leaving them stranded in London or some other location. Some claim they only have a few days to pay their hotel bill and promise to reimburse upon their return home. A sense of urgency to help their friend/contact may cause the recipient to fail to validate the claim, increasing the likelihood of them falling for this scam.

I hope you get this on time, I made a trip to Edinburgh Scotland,  and had my bag stolen from me with my passport and personal effects therein. The embassy has just issued me a temporary passport but I have to pay for a ticket and settle hotel bills. I've made contact with my bank but it would take me days to access funds in my account from Edinburgh, I need you to lend me some funds to cover these expenses. I can give back to you as soon as I get in.

I can be reached by email, as I lost my cellphone in the robbery and don't have access to a phone at the moment.

Let me know.Thanks

How you doing? I made a trip to London, Got mugged at gun point last night! All cash, Credit card and phone was stolen, I got messed up in another country... stranded in London, fortunately passport was back in my hotel room.  It was a bitter experience and i was hurt on my right hand, but i could be just fine. I am sending you this message cos i don't want anyone to panic; I want you to keep it that way for now!

Our return flight leaves in 12 hours but I’m having troubles sorting out the hotel bills, wondering if you could loan me some money to sort out the hotel bills and also take a cab to the airport about (1,400.Pounds). I have been to the embassy but they aren't helping issues, I have limited means of getting out of here, so I really need your help.I will be waiting to hear from you so that i can give you the details on how you can send the money to me.

Thanks

Example 2

You will be contacted by a person claiming to be a domain name registration agent. The agent will inform you that a third party is interested in, or just about to purchase an internet domain name similar to that of your business or organisation. The person will tell you that they want to give you first refusal on the domain name but you must act quickly if you wish to secure the name. The agent will pressure you into agreeing to pay an excessive fee for a domain name. In reality no interested third party exists.

(If you are not in charge of this, please forward this urgent email to your CEO. Thanks )

Dear CEO,

We are a leading internet solutions organization in Asia, and we have something urgent to confirm with you. Yesterday we received a formal application from a company called " Nippa Investment Co., Ltd". They were trying to apply for " ysmen" as Brand Name and following Domain Names through our organization:

ysmen.asia
ysmen.cn
ysmen.com.cn
ysmen.com.hk
ysmen.com.tw
ysmen.hk
ysmen.net.cn
ysmen.org.cn
ysmen.tw

After our initial examination, we found that the Brand Name and Domain Names above are similar to yours. These days we have been dealing with it. Now we hope to get your affirmation. If your company did not authorize the aforesaid company to register these, please contact us as soon as possible.

In addition, we hereby declare that time limit for this issue is 7 workdays. If your company don’t respond within the time limit, we will unconditionally approve the application submitted by Nippa Investment Co., Ltd.

Best Regards,

Larry Su

Senior Examinant