Scammers love to feast on human weakness. This time they aim to exploit human ‘need and greed’ to its optimum best. Using recent news is quite common in spam. For example the Libyan uprising, with its rise and fall of Gaddafi, has left a large vacuum with money that is entrapped in the cross fire. But logically speaking, a third-party mediator is a necessity here (scammers love to highlight that) and who else could be a better person for that role than YOU? So, act immediately! Don’t waste time; give your lucky stars a chance to shine.
We are monitoring different emails from senders alleging Gaddafi’s wife, daughter, and personal guard are moving huge amounts of money out of Libya. Here are scam samples we came across as soon as Tripoli was captured—camouflaged traps for anyone who would allow him- or herself to be ensnared by greed.
Subject: Cooperation - Please Treat Urgently!
Subject: From Safia Gaddafi,Please kindly open the attached file for more information
Subject: LET US WORK TOGETHER.
Subject: My name is Ayesha al-Gaddafi
The above email samples are classic example of 419 scams. Fix your eyes on this interesting part from the alleged doctor: he wants you to urgently reply to an email address different from the one he is using to correspond with you. All these emails discuss sums of money in the tens of millions and a fair share to the victim upon moving the money out of Libya.
This should be sufficient to get the alarm bells ringing in your head. Remember that neither Libya, Gaddafi, nor the alleged doctor needs your help to transfer money out of the country. Such scams are mere snares to harvest your email address and your personal details.
Symantec is monitoring these trends and we caution recipients to be wary of such emails that come from such unexpected sources.
Thanks to Christopher Mendes for contributing to this blog