New eBay Phishing mail scares users into revealing information

What do you do when you receive an email from an online financial company that you regularly deal with, informing you about the completion of a transaction that you never did in the first place?

There's a good chance you might lose your senses for a short while. That's exactly what people behind this new Phishing scam targeting eBay customers are hoping for!

The advanced AntiVirus, AntiSpam and Content Security solution provider MicroWorld Technologies says a new email in circulation tries to pilfer confidential account information of eBay customers by sending them a tricky phishing mail. Appearing as a routine conformation message from eBay, it tells the recipient that she has sent $249.20 to an email address at aol.com.

Then it shows a Transaction ID and Subject to numb the unsuspecting victim. To view the details of the transaction, she is told to click on a link. It ends with a 'thank you for using eBay' line, deliberately used to aggravate the user. Once she clicks on the 'view details' link, a new page opens up where her account information will be captured by online criminals behind the scam.

"At the end of the day, a phisher's goal is to make you visit the spoof website of any reputable organization, and they will try every trick in the trade to achieve this end," observes Sunil Kripalani, Vice President, Global Sales and Marketing, MicroWorld Technologies. "With so much awareness being spread by various agencies and considerable coverage in mainstream media, one would tend to think that it's hard to fool people in this fashion any more. But the facts tell you a different story."

According to Sunil, Phishing scams still manage to loot millions out of people's bank and other accounts every year, while the far reaching impact of loss of personal information like Social Security Number, Date of Birth and Mother' Maiden Name goes largely unnoticed by many.

"The most disturbing trend in Phishing in recent times is the rise of Man-in the-Middle Attacks which enable an online criminal to sit live between the spoof site and the original, and manipulate the stolen data to his advantage in real time. It means a few seconds after the criminal gets the data from the Phishing site, he loots the victims account. With customizable kits available in the online grey market, even a not-so tech savvy guy can run such an attack," explains Sunil.

MicroWorld Technologies provides highly advanced protection for their users from Phishing mails and other spam mails by employing a multi-layered email filtering mechanism. Its eScan and MailScan range of products are used by over a million customers worldwide in safeguarding their computers.

*Phishing: Identity Theft using spoofed emails

MicroWorld

MicroWorld Technologies is the developer of the world's most advanced AntiVirus, Content Security and Firewall software eScan, MailScan, and eConceal. MicroWorld Winsock Layer (MWL) is the revolutionary technology that powers most of MicroWorld products enabling them to achieve several certifications and awards by some of the most prestigious testing bodies, notable among them being Virus Bulletin, Checkmark, TUCOWS, Red Hat Ready and Novell Ready.