ISP Scam

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Posted: Sun Jun 20, 2010 10:50 pm

Hi All,
The following message has landed in my catcher acc.
Beware of it. I strongly believe it to be a scam.:

Quote:

DEAR INTERNET USER'S,

Internet Service Provider (ISP)

Due to the unusual number of invalid login attempts on you account, we had to believe that, there might be some security problems with your account as all internet users and our subsequent Notice of removal of all unused Accounts, Yahoo, AOL, hotmail, Gmail, etc would be shutting down all unused Accounts. ISPs may provide Internet e-mail accounts to users which allow them to communicate with one another by sending and receiving electronic messages through their ISP's servers. ISPs may protect services such as remotely storing data files on behalf of their customers, as well as other services unique to each particular ISP.

* See if your Internet connection settings are being detected. You can set Microsoft Windows to examine your network and automatically discover network connection settings (if your network administrator has enabled this setting).

Click the Tools menu, and then click Internet Options.

On the Connections tab, click LAN Settings.

Select Automatically detect settings, and then click OK.

* Some sites require 128-bit connection security. Click the Help menu and then click About Internet Explorer to determine what strength security you have installed.
* If you are trying to reach a secure site, make sure your Security settings can support it. Click the Tools menu, and then click Internet Options. On the Advanced tab, scroll to the Security section and check settings for SSL 2.0, SSL 3.0, TLS 1.0, PCT 1.0.

You will have to reconfirm your E-mail by filling out your Login Information below after clicking the reply bottom, or your account will be suspended within 24 hours for security reasons.

Username:……………………….

Password:……………………………..

Date of Birth:…………………….

Country or Territory………………..

After following the instructions in the sheet, your account will not be interrupted and will continue as normal. Thanks for your attention to this request. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Warning!!! Account owner that refuses to update his or her account before five working days of receiving this warning will lose his or her account permanently.

Internet Service Provider - (ISP)

**** ISP NOTICE ****
The information in this e-mail (including attachments, if any) is considered confidential and is intended only for the recipient(s) listed above. Any review, use, disclosure, distribution or copying of this e-mail is prohibited except by or on behalf of the intended recipient. If you have received this email in error, please notify me immediately by reply e-mail, delete this e-mail, and do not disclose its contents to anyone. Any opinions expressed in this e-mail are those of the individual and not necessarily Internet Service Provider (ISP). Thank you.
******************** DISCLAIMER END ***********************

It had me worried at first. IP places it from Lagos

Cheers

Posted: Sun Jun 20, 2010 10:55 pm

ofcourse its a scam......who gone ask this???

Quote:

Username:……………………….

Password:……………………………..

edit. didnt see he asked you to do this AFTER hit the reply button...anyway i am sure that a comp expert member will tell us whats the clue about this.I think he make you change your settings in a way your computer is an open book for them.If thats the thing then this is a damn dangerous scam alot of people could walk in to.

Master Baiter Joined: 06 Sep 2009 Posts: 192

Looks like a phishing one where they steal your email account and then try to con your address book into sending "you" money through WU.

Posted: Sun Jun 20, 2010 11:35 pm

Hi Mugu E & Arist*, Smile

It is a very dangerous scam. I have reported it to fastmail webmaster. We are doing some checks as well. It really needs to be shut down quickly.

I don't know what else can be done yet.

Cheers

Not quite a Newb Joined: 14 Jul 2005 Posts: 41

The only thing to be done with phishing is report it, as you have.

They aren't baitable.

Moving this to Misc.

Posted: Mon Jun 21, 2010 4:26 am

mugu_eater wrote:

i am sure that a comp expert member will tell us whats the clue about this.I think he make you change your settings in a way your computer is an open book for them.If thats the thing then this is a damn dangerous scam alot of people could walk in to.

It does absolutely nothing to make hacking easier, and that option is in fact usually enabled by default. Basically it asks your router or ISP for some settings (IP address, DNS server addresses, etc.) rather than making you remember what they are and enter them manually. It's completely harmless (but really shouldn't be messed with; if it's not set setting it may break your internet connection).

TLDR: It's only there to increase his credibility. The only real scam here is asking for the username/password.

Posted: Fri Jun 25, 2010 12:03 pm

Quote:

You will have to reconfirm your E-mail by filling out your Login Information below after clicking the reply bottom, or your account will be suspended within 24 hours for security reasons.

So they lock the account after 24 hours

Quote:

Warning!!! Account owner that refuses to update his or her account before five working days of receiving this warning will lose his or her account permanently.

If you don't respond using the locked email account it will be deleted. How are you going to respond if they've locked the account?????

This is just to get access to the account, send emails to contacts (like help i'm stuck in a city and need money sent to me). The instruction will have no effect on most users unless they use a script to configure (and even then it's unlikely to have any major effect).

Posted: Fri Jun 25, 2010 2:20 pm

The language and lack of professionalism of this phishing attempt place it squarely in Africa--if that's the case, the scammers either intend to send out the "help, I'm stranded" plea or they will use the boxes obtained for spamming their formats.

Interestingly, they did take it one step further with the date of birth question. With some email providers, DOB is the key info required to recover a password. This means that if the account owner realizes he has been scammed and changes the password, the scammer may be able to obtain the new password and regain access to the box.