Security > Social EngineeringEssentials

In a reprise of a summer tactic, hackers are trying to trick people into infecting their PCs with malware by sending them e-mail that poses as bogus airline ticket invoices and boarding passes, a security company said Monday.

Nearly 100 domains related to Hurricane Gustav were registered over the weekend, security experts said, some of which may be used by bogus charity and relief scams after the storm strikes the US Gulf Coast.

A Romanian man pleaded guilty earlier this week to charges related to possession of stolen credit card information obtained from fraudulent Web sites.

A telephone phishing scam, which purports to come from the NSW Police Force, has surfaced in NSW over the past 24 hours.

Security researchers in the US last week disagreed over how to educate Web users to prevent phishing attacks, but agreed on one thing: most current methods of user education are inadequate.

A new kind of identity theft scam, with thieves using easy-to-obtain VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) telephone numbers to trick Internet or telephone users, is beginning to pop up, said a cybersecurity vendor.

The best phishing e-mail I've seen recently purported to come from none other than the head of the FBI. "Robert Mueller" was offering to ensure the safety of a money transfer from a confidential third party, if only the recipient would provide her or his bank information in an official-looking form.