Security news18 February 2008
Ten Nigerians arrested in Spain for email lottery scam Police say gang stole neighbour's internet access to spam out bogus messages
Scam emails can claim that recipients have won a fortune in a lottery.
IT security and control firm Sophos has reminded computer users about the danger of internet scams following the arrest of ten people in Spain alleged to have defrauded victims via an email lottery scam.
The ten people, all Nigerian nationals, are suspected of making more than 19,000 Euros ($28,000) in three months by demanding payments from innocent internet users who believed they had won a lottery.
Police report that the emails sent by the suspects were sent from the Teatinos area of Malaga in Spain, by piggybacking on a neighbour's wi-fi internet connection without permission. Seven arrests were made in Malaga, and three more in Huelva province.
"If an email sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Emails scams like this arrive in the inboxes of many every day of the week, all around the world - and clearly some people are falling for them," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. "It sounds like the authorities were able to shut down this scam quite quickly before too many people were affected - but there are plenty more cybercriminals looking for ways to steal people's identities and rob their bank accounts."
Sophos experts note that Malaga is no stranger to Nigerian-run email scams. In 2005, 310 people were arrested in Malaga in what was said to be the biggest ever bust of a lottery scam gang. The arrests followed an investigation by the FBI and Spanish police into a scam run by Nigerian gangs.
Sophos believes that the police claims that the gang used an innocent party's internet connection to send their bogus lottery emails, underlines the importance of properly securing wireless access points at home.
"If you haven't properly secured your wi-fi connection at home you are effectively leaving the front door open for anybody close by to take advantage of it," continued Cluley. "Everyone running a wireless access point needs to learn how to stop unsavory characters from using it to spew out their spam messages, download illegal content, or steal information."
Sophos experts recommend that computer users be wary of all unsolicited emails, and protect their email gateways with a consolidated product to defend against spam, phishing, viruses and spyware.
Sophos beta program
- Endpoint Security and Control 9.5
- PureMessage for Microsoft Exchange 3.1
About Sophos
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.
See also:
- Tips for securing your wireless connection
- Over 300 arrested in huge 419 scam investigation
- $10 million lottery scammer arrested in Cyprus
- UK 070 numbers exploited by email lottery scammers
- Sophos products - protecting your email servers and gateways against spam, spyware and viruses
- Best practice advice for minimizing exposure to spam
- White papers about spam and other threats
