University of Alabama research in computer forensics Director Gary Warner on Friday said the e-mail spam that pose as an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) collection scheme has now become the world’s biggest e-mail virus problem.
In a statement, Warner said that the spam e-mails used by cybercriminals have now entered its third week and shows no sign of slowing down. The director, citing the report of anti-spam vendor Cloudmark, also pointed that the virus sending campaign has accounted for more than 10 percent of the spam e-mails that they have tracked in the past several days.
“Right now, the IRS spam e-mail virus is the most prominent campaign sent by cybercriminals to install malicious software into the computers of unsuspecting users,” Warner said.
“The e-mail utilizes the fear of people from being chased by tax collectors of the IRS, which will eventually lead them into giving away their personal information to hackers and other criminals. These spam e-mails may also contain malwares that can embed itself deep into the users’ PCs,” the official added.
Based on Cloudmark’s records, some 11 million spam messages have already been sent to more than two million computers since it was first spotted on September 9.
Cloudmark Abuse Operations Manager Jamie Tomasello said that messages, which is titled: Notice of Underreported Income, has a very high security threat in terms of its volume.
“Usually, spam messages like the IRS virus would encourage unsuspecting victims to views that tax statement and install the attachments that contain Trojan virus. Some even posed as a web link of bogus websites, which also contain malicious software,” Tomasello added.
For their part, the IRS reminded that taxpayers should avoid from clicking links from the said e-mails in order for them to have future problems in their computers. The tax collection agency also informed its members that they did not send such messages and that they should refrain from opening it.
The Zeus Trojan virus contained in the e-mail is hard to detect even with the help of top-of-the-line anti-virus software.
Once the hackers are able to acquire the information of the users, they can now conduct a worldwide financial fraud scheme. The report said that since the start of the infection, criminals were able to empty around $1 million worth of bank accounts each day.
Related posts:
there are so many scams running on the internete so watch out.,`