MSNBC email takes over the CNN email spam

In a rather quick turnaround of spammers, the CNN spam I wrote about last week has evolved into a similar scam from MSNBC. This one purports to be from "MSNBC Breaking News" and has the subject line "msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS:" and then some headline. I didn't bother clicking on it, but it should jump out to anyone who thinks two seconds about it as being a spam/scam.

Several other sites have also written about this less than clever scam. It will lead you to some malware website, so again, use your head. The only reason these clowns still operate is that people still fall for it. Here's a thought: If it sounds too good to be true, it is. Would it really make sense that you won some lottery in a foreign country or have some dead millionaire cousin who you never heard of and left you and nobody else (other than thousands of other fools) money? Of course not.

Take a look at Security Watch (providing great detail on the scam), Can Talk Tech, MX Logic IT Security Blog for more information about it. A couple of other bloggers have also reported on it: CyberCrime and Doing Time and Panda Security (with a screenshot of the email). Again, just use your head and delete the email and these dummies will get the hint eventually. And update your virus software.

Tags: msnbc scam email, msnbc breaking news spam, msnbc breaking news email

IRS scam phishing alert

Various spammers and hacks are once again suspecting to fool the general public into thinking the IRS sends emails that purport to calculate your taxes for you. An example of these emails have the subject "Tax Refund Notification" and are from the Internal Revenue Service." These are fake and are designed to steal your money. Use your head and common sense and delete them. The IRS is aware of this particular scam as well as the others. As Snopes points out, this particular scam is not new.

The fake IRS emails to me have said something to the effect of:

"After the last annual calculations of your fiscal activity we have determined that you are eligible to receive a tax refund of [some amount of money; e.g., $9950.55]. Please submit the tax refund request and allow us 2-3 days in order to process it.

A refund can be delayed for a variety of reasons. For example submitting invalid records or applying after the deadline. To access the form for your tax refund, please click here [taking you to a fake website].

Note: For security reasons, we will record your ip-address, the date and time. Deliberate wrong inputs are criminally pursued and indicated.

Regards Internal Revenue Service."

Use your common sense and realize that the IRS isn't going to calculate your money for you. I would go as far as to say that if you're stupid enough to fall for this you deserve to get taken to the cleaners, but nobody should be taken advantage of like this. Don't be another statistic.

If you understand headers and your email settings, you can trace their IP address. The IRS emails to me came from 82.128.5.211 (Lagos, Nigeria) through a routing server in 195.4.92.23 (Kiel, Germany). Because it will be years before this type of scam is fully addressed by the Nigerian government, your best bet in the meantime is to rely on an accountant to do your taxes and not use some fishy email offer.

Tags: irs email scam, phishing emails