WebUser
August 15, 2005
Veronique De Freitas
A new phishing scam that pretends to be an email from a wheelchair-bound old lady who is having difficulty using the eBay auction website is on the loose.
The message, which looks like it came via eBay, claims to be from 87-year-old woman, called Greta, who placed a bid for a wheelchair, but cannot find it anymore on the site.
Experts at SophosLabs urge internet users, if they receive a similar message, to not click the "Respond now" button to answer the old lady's question, otherwise they will enter a fake eBay website where their login names and passwords will be stolen.
The email scam looks as follows: ?Hello, I recently placed a bid on item#5600846099 being a wheelchair for me that i really need do to my age(87 years old) and it seems that i can not find the auction anymore... May i please know if you are the seller of the item above? Regards,Greta.?
According to Sophos, the phishers are appealing to the better nature of their potential victims, in the hope that it will increase their chances of success.
http://www.webuser.co.uk/news/67218.htmlIf you think you have received a phishing email, submit it to the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) at Antiphishing.org.
Topic: Phishers pose as old lady (Read 630 times)