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Latest News: 9/30/04
Identified Email Scam Target
SunTrust - SunTrust
is a legitimate banking organization located in Richmond, VA. Their
organization serves communities in AL, GA, FL, MD,
TN, VA and the District of Columbia (DC) at over 1100 locations. As you
might have guessed their customers have been targeted by Phishing Email
Scams. Most of those scams simulate a "legitimate" looking email that
asks the viewer to visit the "SunTrust" web site and "update" their
account.
Activity
Reported
On 9/29/04 the Sales Unit
of Hostpuppies.com discovered what appeared to be a suspicious account
that had been activated on its web hosting server, wherein a "customer"
visited the web site, signed up for a web hosting account, and paid for
the transaction via
PayPal. With further investigation they were convinced that the
information provided in the application was fraudulent and immediately
forwarded this matter to corporate security for review as possible
fraud.
Action
Taken
Investigation revealed that
the account had been set up in a fictitious manner. Further inspection
of the account revealed that the account contained a mail.php , bulk
email program, and a suspicious text document. After opening the text
document investigators found a template email letter containing "insert
name" script language, with the SunTrust logo, and a very convincing
email asking the reader to re-visit the SunTrust web site to change
their personal information.
Investigators opened the
link in the email to reveal a out-of-country url as the true destination
where the scammers wanted the user to click. Upon entering that url they
discovered a highly sophisticated web page. Centered in the middle of
the page where text boxes for the user to enter their personal
information, and buttons to click to continue the "verification"
process. Surrounding those buttons where buttons that took the
investigators to the
legitimate SunTrust web site.
The SunTrust company was
then contacted immediately with the results of those findings. SunTrust
advised that they would investigate this incident and add it to the ever
growing list of scams that they become aware of. They also referred our
investigator to their web site where we could find more information
about the latest scams.
The fraudulent account was
then suspended pending a further investigation.
Activity
Reported
SunTrust
Phishing Continues
On 9/29/04 the Sales Unit
of Hostpuppies.com discovered what appeared to be a suspicious account
that had been activated on its web hosting server, wherein a "customer"
visited the web site, signed up for a web hosting account, and paid for
the transaction via PayPal. With further investigation they were
convinced that the information provided in the application was
fraudulent and immediately forwarded this matter to corporate security
for review as possible fraud.
Investigators viewing the
server determined that the same previous IP address was used to create
multiple web hosting accounts in an effort to send fraud email to
SunTrust customers. Unfortunately the accounts were discovered after
100's of emails had already been sent. It was also learned that the
accounts were obtained with fraudulent PayPal accounts. PayPal has been
advised of this activity and aggressively guards their accounts. Our
congratulations to PayPal for excellence in online security. In this
case PayPal was able stop the activity on their side before any of their
customers money was lost. All fraudulent orders placed on our system
were frozen by PayPal. An no monies were transferred by Hostpuppies.com
The web hosting accounts in this case were immediately terminated. Over
30,000 emails were found in the outgoing mail of the server, and were
destroyed by investigators.
Our
Policy
Hostpupies.com will
aggressively attempt to locate and prosecute criminals who use our web
hosting servers as a mechanism for criminal activity, including spam,
and phising. All fraudulent accounts are immediately sent to our
corporate security for review, verification, and legal proceedings where
possible. We do not allow the use of our servers for adult material,
email spam, or any criminal activity. We investigate all accounts for
fraud.
For
SunTrust Customers and Fraud Email Recipients
For those email recipients
and SunTrust customers who would like to learn more about this scam
please visit the link below. The links will take you to the official
secured SunTrust web site.
SunTrust Email Scams And Information On How To Protect Yourself
To learn more about email scams and what you can do
to protect yourself online, the FTC has detailed information on its Web
site at
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2004/03/phishing.htm.*
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