A Case Of An Infected Phish

Posted by Ken

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Recently, I was alerted to an email making the rounds. It poses itself as coming from the Better Business Bureau and asks for immediate action. All I had to do was download its attachment and follow the necessary steps.

The message read as follows:

From: Better Business Bureaus [mailto:operations@bbb.org]
Sent: Monday, June 04, 2007 7:07 PM
Subject: Complaint Case Number 918724369

Dear Mr./Mrs. [name removed]

You have received a complaint in regards to your business services. The complaint was filled by Mr. Robert Martinez on 6/2/2007

Complaint Case Number: 918724369
Complaint Made by Consumer Mr. Robert Martinez
Complaint Registered Against: [company removed]
Date: 6/2/2007
Instructions on how to resolve this complaint as well as a copy of the original complaint are attached to this email.

Disputes involving consumer products and/or services may be arbitrated. Unless they directly relate to the contract that is the basis of this dispute, the following claims will be considered for arbitration only if all parties agree in writing that the arbitrator may consider them:
- Claims based on product liability;
- Claims for personal injuries;
- Claims that have been resolved by a previous court action, arbitration, or written agreement between the parties.
The decision as to whether your dispute or any part of it can be arbitrated rests solely with the BBB.

The BBB offers its members a binding arbitration service for disputes involving marketplace transactions. Arbitration is a convenient, civilized way to settle disputes quickly and fairly, without the costs associated with other legal options.

Â© 2003 Council of Better Business Bureaus, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

So what are some of the clues?

To begin with, I’m not registered with the BBB. Maybe I don’t have to be, but it’s certainly out of left field that this message comes to me.

Now about that document. It presented itself as a PDF, but in actuality it was an executable — a file that runs on a computer like an application. All one has to do is open it up to release its payload and who knows what will happen after that: loss of data, spyware installed, computer rendered useless, etc.

And did you notice that “Mr./Mrs.” part? Don’t you think they’d know who they’re dealing with if the message were legitimate?

And the overall “official-ness” of the message may cause one to think that somehow there must be a connection, thus making it more likely to open the document attached.

If you receive something like this and feel there’s some validity to it, then give your local BBB a call to verify the case number. And just as important, be sure you have a antivirus software package installed and up-to-date with virus information.

[tags]scams,phish,virus,computers[/tags]