Barracuda Warns Of Email Money And Information Schemes

Barracuda blocked over 1.5 million phishing emails in May and 1.7 million so far in June. It has documented three kinds of attacks.

Money scams — The intent is to swindle users out of money, although the techniques are often the same as those used when trying to spread malware.The malefactors promise a large sum to the user, but request that a smaller sum be paid first as a deposit.

Information Scams — These are efforts by criminals to garner information from the user. For example, a spoofed bank message might do the trick — if the consumer clicks on the link, they will be prompted to enter their user name and password in a different window.

Malware Distribution — Criminals pursuing these scheme try to persuade the user to open an attachment, pretending it pertains to an urgent matter. The purpose is to get the person to install the malware on their computer.  

Multiple File Extensions — Another way of sneaking malware into a computer is to convince the user to include attachments with multiple file extensions. In theory, a “PDF.zip” file extension, say, should raise a red flag because there are two different file types. But these extensions are file types that look familiar.

Barracuda also warns users to beware of disguised links and spear phishing attempts. The latter are “crafted to target a single, specific individual in order to create a sense of trust with that person.”

The messages blocked by Barracuda represent 10,000 unique attempts in May and 2,000 in June.

 

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