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DOJ Spoofers Spamming The Web Again
David Utter
Staff Writer
2008-03-03
 Insider Reports RSS Feed
Email spam made to look like an official Department of Justice message carries a payload no computer user will find just or fair.
Government-themed scams tend to become popular at tax time, though others take place at different times of the year. Criminals hope to fool the unwary with something that looks official, all the while hoping for the chance to either reap personal data, or infect a machine to do that.
Security vendor MX Logic said a Department of Justice spam has been making the rounds, similar to government-themed ones that circulated during the Summer of 2007.
The message looks like some kind of complaint filed against a business. It's accompanied by a file called complaint.zip, which holds the malware.
MX Logic said part of this run of spam appears to originate from Italy, where the vendor wryly doubts the DoJ contracted with anyone there to handle the sending of complaint notices.
As with any unexpected email that slips through one's desktop defenses, those messages should be viewed with skepticism. That goes doubly so for ones with a government theme. If someone at the DoJ wants to talk to you, they are far more likely to send something by mail, or by FBI special agents if you've really done something wrong.
About the Author:
David Utter is a business and technology writer for SecurityProNews and WebProNews.
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