Experts at SophosLabs™, Sophos's global
network of virus, spyware and spam analysis centers, have reminded
computer users of the dangers of identity theft as a 20-year-old
man is charged in relation to a phishing website which claimed to
collect money for victims of Hurricane Katrina.
Jovany Desir of Miami, Florida, has been accused by a federal
grand jury in in Western Pennsylvania of creating a bogus American
Red Cross website, as well as phony banking, auction and online
payment sites, in an attempt to steal names, addresses, credit card
numbers, bank account numbers, passwords, Personal Identification
Numbers and other information.
According to prosecutors, 20-year-old Desir packaged the
websites into phishing kits and sold them for approximately $150
each to other potential scammers. Bogus websites said to have been
created by Desir between July and October 2005 included ones
associated with Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, PNC Bank in
Pittsburgh, eBay, PayPal, and two Canadian financial organizations
- Banque Nationale and Desjardins Credit Union. Prosecutors claim
that the fake Banque Nationale website was visited 8500 times by
users apparently hunting for the real site.
In September 2005, Sophos reported
about a bogus website which posed as part of the American Red
Cross' Hurricane Katrina relief efforts.
"Internet scammers have no qualms on feeding on other people's
misery in their pursuit of money," said Graham Cluley, senior
technology consultant for Sophos. "It's claimed that 56 different
people downloaded Jovany Desir's Hurricane Katrina phishing kit,
presumably with the intention of conning good samaritans out of
money. Everyone needs to be on their guard against identity theft
and remain alert to the latest internet threats. This isn't the
first time that criminals have taken advantage of a natural
disaster, and sadly it won't be the last."
Sophos experts have revealed that Hurricane Katrina was not the
first disaster to have caught the eye of cybercriminals. Earlier
this year, the FBI warned that
scammers were preying on internet users touched by the mining
accident in Sago, West Virginia. In January 2005, the VBSun worm
was spread via email posing as a plea for money to help victims of
the Indian Ocean tsunami.
Sophos recommends companies protect themselves with a consolidated solution which can defend businesses
from the threats of spam, spyware and viruses.
More than 100 million users in 150 countries rely on Sophos as the best protection against complex threats and data loss. Sophos is committed to providing security and data protection solutions that are simple to manage, deploy and use and that deliver the industry's lowest total cost of ownership. Sophos offers award-winning encryption, endpoint security, web, email, and network access control solutions backed by SophosLabs - a global network of threat intelligence centers. With more than two decades of experience, Sophos is regarded as a leader in security and data protection by top analyst firms and has received many industry awards.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.