RSSOnline Scams Exploit Katrina Disaster
By Ed Oswald | Published September 1, 2005, 3:57 PM
In the wake of hurricane Katrina, several online scams have begun to circulate the Internet, according to several security firms. Sophos warned users on Thursday not to open a malware-Infected e-mail posing as news on the disaster.
Possible subject lines of the e-mail could be "Re: g8 Tropical storm flooded New Orleans", "Re: g7 80 percent of our city underwater", and "Re: q1 Katrina killed as many as 80 people". The group said there could be additional variants.
BetaNews on Thursday morning had received a variant of the above e-mails, however it appeared that the variance is the letter and number combination following the "Re:" prefix.
In the body of the message, clicking on the "Read More.." link will take the user to a malicious Web site that poses as a news story. In reality, the site uses code to exploit vulnerabilities within Internet Explorer to install malware including the Troj/Cgab-A Trojan horse.
From there, the attacker could remotely access the user's computer.
"Receiving or reading the emails themselves does not mean you are infected," Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos said.
The SANS Institute is reporting that there are several e-mails soliciting donations through a Paypal link. According to SANS, it may be difficult to tell whether the e-mail is from a legitimate organization.
"The hurricane is a dreadful natural disaster, and it's sickening to think that hackers are prepared to exploit the horrendous situation in an attempt to break into computers for the purposes of spamming, extortion and theft," added Cluley.
After discovery of the sites yesterday, several have been removed. "There are now about 230 .com domains that contain the strings 'katrina' and 'hurricane'. We will make a list of more domains like this public soon to ask for your help to review them," SANS said on its Web site.
Hi, Im wondering about an online scam. I have a lot of clothing to donate and would like to donate directly so that I know its going where it's needed. I posted something on a Katrina Volunteer site and have gotten some replies, how can you tell who is actually a Katrina survivor and who just wants free stuff?
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This always happens, i don't know why people act so shocked:
"The hurricane is a dreadful natural disaster, and it's sickening to think that hackers are prepared to exploit the horrendous situation in an attempt to break into computers for the purposes of spamming, extortion and theft"
We know this already,I believe it is right to be aware of the situation, but i don't know why we waste our breath on the hackers.
We should say, be aware of these ****er's, watch your inbox, the end.
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Read a little Konrad, Golding or Georges Simenon. There is no point beyond which evil will not go. These despicable acts may be more noticible in a crisis, but they occur every day. We are, by and large, an ignorant and evil people. If we started shooting all the evil people, we wouldn't have enough left to populate Peoria, Illinois.
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Man, there are SO many things wrong with this article. First of all the individuals sending these e-mails are not "hackers". They are crackers and spammers. Let's use the right terminology. None of the hacking community would lay claim to taking advantage of this terrible catastrophe. The people doing this are worthless individuals just like to looters that are running around New Orleans stealing Jewelry and electronics (in a city with no electricity, no phone, and no internet.) People are living on their roofs because their houses are flooded or are living in homes with no running water, little to no food, and in many cases dead family members and friends in the house or on the sidewalk outside the house...... Crackers, spammers and looters need to be shot...
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The hurricane is a dreadful natural disaster, and it's sickening to think that hackers are prepared to exploit the horrendous situation in an attempt to break into computers for the purposes of spamming, extortion and theft," added Cluley.
hackers are just a part of the scum of the earth ready to misuse others misery to their benefit. it is a pity our socalled "civilized" society has no other way to confront this evil then by trying to deal with it in a "civilized" way...even the death penalty would be too much honour...lets see if with the same speed and cunning, they caught the presumed authors of zotob, they could apprehend some of this filth....
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Crackers, not hackers.
Hackers = People who hack forums to make them work better for their site
Hackers = People who hack graphics card drivers to make them faster
Crackers = People who break into something usually for personal gain at the expense of others.
Idiots who keep quoting 'hackers' when referring to crackers = People who *seriously* need to sort their terminology out before opening their mouths.
On your point though, yes *cr*ackers and scammers should have a little section of the internet all to themselves, and they can scam the crap out of each other.
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Tragedies will bring out the best in most and, regretably, the worst in a few scum buckets.
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Edit: oops misread the article. Anyway this always happens remember 911. Some people have no shame.
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Some people will do anything for the Almighty Dollar, or to stoke their own sense of power and accomplishment.
I'm actually glad the media, at least around here, is focusing more on the relief efforts than the scamemr, looter, and others looking to make profit/personal gain from this tragedy.
Let them deal with the greedy once the emergency has subsided.
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People can be real a$$holes.
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I hope they catch at least one of these scmamers. Freeze all of their assets and put them all into the relief eforts.
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Or, even better, house them with the 15,000 or so refugees in a sports stadium, with "Hurricane Scammer" written on their T-shirts.
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There's enough violence and pain in that dome right now as it is. No need to add to it.
Simply donate their finances to the relief effort. Then deport their asses to another country and let them deal with 'em.
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"Then deport their asses to another country and let them deal with 'em."
what?
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I should be more specific. The scammers, not the victims. :P
(It was a joke...you'd have to be up on your Irish history to get it though...sorry)
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