Beware. The top five spam scams have been identified by the National Cyber-Forensics & Training Alliance (NCFTA). But there are no surprises.
The top five are:
*Phishing—the use of spoofed e-mails and fake Web sites to deceive recipients into revealing information or to place a Trojan/virus into their computers.
*Tsunami scams—Most of these pretend to be from charities, and offer to find victims or a fee or request that money be deposited in overseas accounts. Some fraudulent tsunami e-mails have viruses attached to them.
*Nigerian scams—This scam, which first appeared in postal mail pieces, takes several forms. In most, the recipient is advised that he is due a large sum of money, or is asked for assistance with some form of money laundering. However, first he must provide processing fees and/or personal financial information.
Spyware-Trojans and Malicious Code—Software that performs attacks on particpants’ computers, without their consent. May include collecting personal information about the user, or infecting the computer with a Trojan or malicious code.
*Bogus online auctions—People are inveigled into bidding for items that don’t exist or that they will never receive, revealing credit card information along the way.
The NCFTA is a nonprofit organization that deals with cyber crime issues. It also operates the Direct Marketing Association’s Operation Slam Spam in affiliation with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
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