ATM Swindle Unmasked
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A computer security researcher figures out exactly how a high-tech scammer
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The Banker-AJ trojan has been coded to lie dormant in the background on infected Windows PCs. When users visit legitimate online banking Web sites of certain UK banks, the malicious code is
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(InfoWorld) - Stolen bank account numbers are commanding the highest price in an underground trade of personal details stolen by hackers, according to a survey released Monday by security vendor Symantec. Bank account details command prices of up to $400, while credit card details sell for between $0.50 and $5, e-mail passwords from $1 to $350 each, and e-mail addresses from $2 to $4 per megabyte, according to Symantec's Internet Security Threat Report, which covers the first half of the year. The online trade in stolen details highlights the commercialization ofÂ Internet crime, with gangs researching, developing and marketing nefarious software for other criminals, said William Beer, director of security practice for Europe. There has been an increase in the quality and quantity of malicious code sold on the Internet, driven by well-funded international groups of criminals, Beer said. The hackers are obtaining the information through increasingly targeted attacks on computers that often involve collecting personal information about a person from social networks such as MySpace or Facebook, Beer said. With specific personal details, the hacker can construct a personalized e-mail that entices the victim to either click on an attachment containing malicious software or visit a phishing site. Symantec is also seeing multistage attacks where the attacker places a small piece of software on a target computer that then acts as a beachhead for downloading other software. "The end user will not even notice the attacks have taken place because it's a very gradual process," Beer said. On the spam front, Symantec said it has noticed a 30 percent drop in so-called "pump-and-dump" spam, where e-mails touting penny stocks are sent out, causing a rise in the stock price before the perpetrators sell the stock early. The decline can be attributed to aÂ crackdown by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Also down is the percentage of spam with images, which started as a highly effective way to bypass spam filters but is now less so. About 27 percent of the spam analyzed by Symantec between April and May contained images, down from 50 percent the first week in January, Symantec said. The decrease is due to an improvement in spam filters as well as the decline in pump-and-dump spam, which often used images, the company said.
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No honour among Web 2.0 thieves Cheapskate fraudsters hoping to run phishing scams for peanuts have themselves been hoodwinked. Security watchers have spotted a free phishing kit containing a hidden backdoor that siphons off stolen credentials from the fraudsters who use the technology.â¦
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Don't get caught with a sudden need for cash.
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That email from your bank may be more than a friendly enquiry. It could be the hook of a Phisher, the new breed of Internet fraudster intent on stealing money by tricking customers into divulging online account details.
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Don't believe everything you hear: That's message from security researchers tracking a spam scam that uses audio files to push an ongoing pump-and-dump stock scheme.
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A fraudster posing as chairman of Barclays tricked his own bank's credit card arm into issuing a new card before taking cash from his account, a Barclaycard source said on Thursday.
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The FDIC on Friday issued an alert about an increasingly common e-mail scam designed to steal personal information and money from millions of unwary consumers.
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An innocent financial background check can send ripples through your credit file.
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Sensitive customer details are lost in an Atlanta burglary - the third such theft in a year. For the third time in a year, criminals have stolen computers that contained names and sensitive financial information of customers of Wells Fargo &amp; Co.
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Business & money: Jon Robins on the credit reference error that linked an innocent Briton to a wanted man.
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Wild Wild West Hackers attempted to swipe $450,000 after stealing login credentials associated with bank accounts run by the city of Carson, California. Police are working on the theory that the password for the general fund account was stolen after miscreants planted key-logging spyware onto a PC used by city treasurer Karen Avilla.â¦
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How to steer clear of "free checking" pitfalls.
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By Greg Miller, Columbia Daily Tribune, Mo.  Sep. 23--Sabrina McDonnell knew that online crime was bad before Internet scoundrels flooded inboxes with phony e-mails trolling for First National Bank & Trust Co. account information.
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In a twist, security researchers have discovered a group of hackers who are exploiting a new category of victims -- aspiring Internet scammers.A Moroccan group called &quot;Mr. Brain&quot; is offering free phishing kits on a Web site hosted in France, said Paul Mutton, Internet services developer at Netcraft, a security company in Bath, England.The software packages make it easy to quickly set up a fraudulent Web site mimicking a known brand in order to trick people into divulging credit card details or bank account numbers. Templates for spam e-mail are also included, targeting brands such as Bank of America, eBay, PayPal, and HSBC.Mr. Brain&#39;s Web site lists the kits and what kind of details each one is capable of collecting, such as usernames, passwords or Social Security numbers. Netcraft posted screenshots on its Web site.But what the aspiring scammer doesn&#39;t know is that the phishing kits are designed to send any sensitive information that&#39;s collected back to e-mail accounts controlled by Mr. Brain, Mutton said.&quot;Obviously, that&#39;s why they are offering this stuff for free,&quot; Mutton said. &quot;I was impressed by it.&quot;Mr. Brain hides the special e-mail function in a blend of PHP scripts, one of which is encrypted, Mutton said. Just in case someone decrypts it, Mr. Brain has written at the top of the file &quot;Don&#39;t need to change anything here. Created by Mr. Brain Morocco Team.&quot;The scheme seems to be targeted at new phishers, Mutton said. Mr. Brain benefits since other wannabe scammers shoulder the cost and risk of finding an ISP (Internet Service Provider) to host the phishing site, Mutton said.&quot;Essentially, they&#39;re exploiting all these novice phishers -- basically getting them to do all the hard work,&quot; Mutton said.It&#39;s difficult to tell without further research how many of the free phishing kits linked with this latest scam are live on the Internet, but Mutton said Netcraft noticed one earlier this month targeting Bank of America.&quot;Clearly, these are actively being used in phishing attacks,&quot; Mutton said.
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One Fool unearths an overlooked Chinese stock.