According to the Internet Crime Complaint Central (IC3), scammers have once again found a way to gain entry to our computers and personal information – this time by setting up fake websites that pose as legitimate social network sites.
IC3, the federal government’s agency that tracks cyber crime trends and cyber scams, just released a report detailing its findings related to a December 2010 investigation that turned up slight misspellings of social networking sites, being used as a social engineering ploy.
The perpetrators would purposely misspell the name of a site and then redirect users to websites coded to look like a similar site. After being redirected, users were then redirected to answer three or four simple survey question. After answering the questions, they were offered a choice of three free gifts that included high dollar gift cards to popular retailers or various brands of laptops. After users clicked on the gift of their choice, they were redirected to another site claiming to give gifts in exchange for completion of surveys. Those surveys typically asked for the name, address, phone number, and e-mail address of the user. Users spent countless hours filling out multiple surveys and the gifts went undelivered. During the time in which users were filling out those phony surveys, personal information was being collected by the scammers.
Another scam aims to swindle online marketplace sellers by generating fake receipts. The Receipt Generator is an executable file that has been circulating on hacking forums lately. The scam is interesting because it does not target PC users, but rather sellers on online marketplace websites. eBay is one site that has been home to quite a few scams, but this particular type is new. Normally, consumers fall prey to scams, rather than sellers.
The IC3 warns both buyers and sellers to be extremely careful when surfing the web or taking place in internet commerce. Always check the web address when you are being redirected to another site online – you want to make certain that the site you are about to visit is the one you intended to view.
For a list of tips on how to avoid becoming a victim of online scams, visit http://www.ic3.gov/preventiontips.aspx.
