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Fraudulent e-mail from the 'CIA'

Muskie

Muskie

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 1, 2003
322
0
Minneapolis
So this is an email I got this morning from Department[at]cia.gov:

Dear Sir/Madam,

we have logged your IP-address on more than 30 illegal Websites.

Important:
Please answer our questions!
The list of questions are attached.


Yours faithfully,
Steven Allison



++++ Central Intelligence Agency -CIA-
++++ Office of Public Affairs
++++ Washington, D.C. 20505

++++ phone: (703) 482-0623
++++ 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., US Eastern time
Click to expand...

There was also an attatchment called "list.zip" which of course I did not open.

Obviously this is a fake email, and I have emailed the CIA to let them know. I just wanted to pass the word on, and give anyone else a head's up. Don't want anyone to get stuck with something nasty. Not that I'm really worried about anything in that attatchment messing with OS X, but still.
 
Funny... over the past few days, I've been getting similar emails purported to be from my ISP service team saying that my account has been suspended or they need to me to confirm this or that so could you please open...


...this attached zip file thanks. :rolleyes:


I did unzip one out of curiousity and lo and behold, a file called something.doc.exe

Yeah. Right. Piss off.
 
Illegal websites get shut down by their ISPs. CIA doesn't go after the end user. Funny though. If I received such a letter I'd know it would be fake because I've visited way more than 30 illegal websites.

In case it's real (just hypothetical of course ;)), then I suggest http://www.cgi-proxy.net as your first foray into the joys of anonymous web surfing.
 
"Your internet account has been suspended. Except, of course, for the part that allows you to send and receive e-mails and/or visit our website to submit private information."

People who fall for that crap scare me.
 
emw said:
"Your internet account has been suspended. Except, of course, for the part that allows you to send and receive e-mails and/or visit our website to submit private information."

People who fall for that crap scare me.
Click to expand...

Yea, it's sad, and scary. And what's even more sad, is that if they do fall victim to one of these emails, it wont teach them anything, probably just make them hate computers more.
 
Lacero said:
Illegal websites get shut down by their ISPs. CIA doesn't go after the end user. Funny though. If I received such a letter I'd know it would be fake because I've visited way more than 30 illegal websites.

In case it's real (just hypothetical of course ;)), then I suggest http://www.cgi-proxy.net as your first foray into the joys of anonymous web surfing.
Click to expand...
Hell, the most important fact of all has been missed by all of you: The CIA is prohibited by LAW from performing ANY activities at all inside the US. Even if you surfed the official al-Qaida web site, the CIA couldn't do anything to you... they'd have to defer to the FBI.
 
Funnily enough...

...just got this back from my ISP a couple of minutes ago.

Dear Ms. Blue Velvet,

Thank you for contacting XXXX Customer Support.

Virus update

There is an outbreak of a new worm called the MyTob worm. To XXXX customers the email uses forged XXXX.co.uk email addresses to make the email look genuine. Genuine emails sent from XXXX do not contain attachments.

The forged emails typically appear to be sent from admin@XXXX.co.uk, info@XXXX.co.uk, support@XXXX.co.uk or similar and they contain an attachment that you are encouraged to click on. DO NOT click on any such attachment and resist the temptation to even open such suspicious mail if it contains an attachment.
Click to expand...


MyTob? Is this new? Do I even care? :D
 
Ive had three, one was the fbi.gov, one from someone claiming to be a friend, and one that if it wasnt for the other two i might of looked at for longer than five seconds saying an email sending had failed.
 
Everyone at my work is getting blasted with this thing. a few e-mails an hour!

Needless to say, this is REALLY backing up my proposal to switch us over to Macs :)
 
yojitani said:
What is an 'illegal website' anyway? Even if there was an al qaeda.net, what would be illegal about it??

YOJ
Click to expand...
The PayPal link asking for donations, the shopping section selling/trafficking weapons, and the forum that trains/indoctrinates/manages people. ;)
 
Yeah, know what you mean about a few an hour... though I seem to get concentrated bursts of about 65 landing in my junk folder all at once. (I've got a couple of my domains set up with one address as a catch-all).
 
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