Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Virus alert: I received a message from your bank

This morning I receive twenty spam or potentially dangerous emails and I used OzEfilter to delete nineteen of those at the mail server so I never receive them into my computer. However I decided to accept one which had the subject "I received a message from your bank". This email was repeated a number of times which is often an indication others will start receiving a similar email.

I scanned the attachment BANK_DETAILS.zip and my anti-virus software reported no problem, but this attachment has the form typical of malware. The file contained in the zip file is named BANK_DETAILS.exe and being an executable file there is without doubt this email contains malicious content. I would suggest that you don't check out the content of the zip file as you are only steps away from potentially infecting your computer.

The email starts with the message:

Yesterday I received a message from your bank with your account statement.
I dont need problems with the police because of your banks error!!!
Please contact your bank and ask them to not mistakenly send me your personal data to me.


It is a bit sad the aggressive tone of this email may trick some people into thinking their bank has made a mistake. It never ceases to amaze me the psychological tactics used by malicious software writers. A moment of weakness, a moment of vagueness is all it takes for the malware writer to achieve their objective.

Take care

- Kelvin Eldridge

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