Cyber Criminals Use fear, Greed and Lust!
29 Jun, 2007, 5:00 pm IST | by
Priyanka Pradhan
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According to a study by Web security firm, McAfee, cyber criminals use fear, greed and lust to methodically steal personal and proprietary financial information. The study details the psychological games and other tactics cyber criminals use in social engineering scams through junk email. The study titled 'Mind Games', reveals that an important key to the crooks' success is familiarity. One example is phishing scams which fraudulently acquire sensitive information, such as usernames, passwords, and financial data, by masquerading as a familiar or nationally recognized bank, Credit Card Company or even an online auction site. Recently, McAfee Avert Labs found that the number of phishing Web sites increased by 784 percent in the first half of 2007. McAfee says popular sites are also increasingly victimized. In December of 2006, cyber criminals targeted MySpace and used a worm to convert legitimate links to those that lured consumers to a phishing site designed specifically to obtain personal information. The primary author, Dr. James Blascovich, Professor of Psychology at the University of California, reports on a category of scam emails that target consumers who are promotion focused (want to 'get ahead') and/or capitalize on consumers' greed. These messages have such subject lines as 'You Won' to entice consumers into thinking they may have won a lottery or sweepstakes, "90 per cent discounts to trick consumers into thinking they are getting great promotional pricing, or "You Are Approved" to target consumers who need a loan or have money woes. David Marcus, security research and communications manager, McAfee Avert Labs said, "Along with the alarming increase in phishing emails, we are also seeing more sophisticated messages that can fool all but the most highly trained surfer. While earlier phishing emails often included typos, awkward language and minor graphical mistakes, newer scams appear to be more legitimate, with slicker graphics and copy that closely mirrors the language used by respected institutions." |
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