Spam Scam Says You're Fired

from the well-that-sucks dept

In the last year or so, the concept of "spear phishing" has gained a lot of popularity. Rather than broadly phishing by sending out emails pretending to be from companies with huge numbers of users/customers such as eBay or Citibank, spear phishing is much more targeted, and sometimes much more devious. It is often sent directly to people at a certain organization, made to look like it comes from someone at that organization and designed to play on what that organization does. It seems that some phishing scammers went one step further last week, using a spear phishing attack on employees of the Dekalb Medical Center. The email itself appeared to come from the medical center and told the employees they were being laid off. It included a link to a website supposedly for "career-counseling information," but actually directing people to a website that automatically downloaded a keylogger program. Enough employees were freaked out enough by the notice that they didn't consider it might be a scam, and clicked on the link. Once again, it shows how the scammers continue to adjust and adapt, and how difficult it can be to spot some of these types of scams.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    Rebuplican Gun, 2 Nov 2006 @ 4:43am

    What would Jesus do?

    Hmmmm

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    W?, 2 Nov 2006 @ 5:15am

    Pie anyone???

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Sean, 2 Nov 2006 @ 6:11am

    I predict...

    corporate windfalls if this sort of nonsense keeps up. Congress is dying to regulate the Internet on behalf of their telecom masters, and may gain public support if the Internet denizens (including you and I) cannot control the predators.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      KB, 2 Nov 2006 @ 8:12am

      Re: I predict...

      Nonsense. If someone comes to your door and asks to come into your house for some bogus reason, you would tell them to **** off. If someone sent you a letter or something you'd question it's veracity.

      Just because end-users are STILL too dumb to filter their email does not mean that legislation is required or warranted. Education is required.

      How about this as a radical idea. Make spreading email viruses prosecutable. Anyone stupid (read negligent) enough to spread a worm or virus can be held accountable for that action. If you take the proper precautions, you will be fine.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 2 Nov 2006 @ 4:02pm

        Re: Re: I predict...

        Hrm.. first of all I agree in general terms but it sounds like you haven't quite grasped the reality of the current state of burocracy we live in so the prediction isn't nonsense (IMO).

        Yes, better education should be given to the masses but that's not necessarily going to happen even though it should.

        spreading email viruses is ALREADY prosecutable and plenty of individuals have been convicted for malicious intent after doing just that so your "radical idea" seems radically in the dark.

        Look at the educational state and laziness of people in this country and tell me that they'll vote for better education over government regulation - please. I highly doubt the majority of the sheeple in this country will bother to do what's good for them since they all need to be spoon fed.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Matthew, 2 Nov 2006 @ 6:14am

    Well maybe the text message termination will go aw

    There have been plenty of stories about people that receive a text message informing the said person that his or her services are no longer needed.

    If this story could catch on, and it seems like just the scary thing news shows want these days, then companies will have to grow spines and create policies that require them to fire someone face to face.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Republican Gun, 2 Nov 2006 @ 6:59am

    Crying

    If you do not fire them in person you can not see them cry.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    woodchip, 2 Nov 2006 @ 7:35am

    You're Fired!

    Those Damn Beavers

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    RH, 2 Nov 2006 @ 8:29am

    Tuff Luv

    Tell me the truth, would you accept a termination EMAIL as fact???? Even if companies choose to do this, I would immediately rise up from my chair, and walk to the nearest boss.

    Two choices:

    a) people who click a link from unknown or "potentially unlikely" senders and thus get violated should have no legal recourse at all. You get what you pay for, and if they're not going to educate themselves or use (forbid) COMMON SENSE, then they have to live with it.

    b) stop using a pc

    Next, find someone who can trace the link to a server/ISP, interrogate for the creator/owner/maintainer/billpayer, and arrest them.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    nunya_bidness, 2 Nov 2006 @ 9:59am

    IQ Testing

    The email should be considered an ongoing effort to test the average IQ of employees, and, anyone who falls for the spam should be terminated. Stop stupidity, before it stops you.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Paul Taylor, 2 Nov 2006 @ 10:05am

    Spam detection

    I would love to know what kind of spam detection and mail system they had.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    justme, 2 Nov 2006 @ 3:03pm

    This is why I teach others to pick up the phone and give them a call before you even click on a link in such a email.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 3 Nov 2006 @ 4:37pm

    does anyone know what website this was linked to? i would like to block it just in case :)

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Matt, 10 Jul 2016 @ 11:13am

    Phishing Attacks

    Spear Phishing attacks have always been apart of the internet. Just recently, I keep getting all these emails claiming to be from Fed Ex, but I know better to not click on their spam links.

    They get very annoying, but seriously people, you need to become educated and well aware of these attacks. They are costing our county big time!

    link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.