Fergie's Tech Blog

Taking the Bait On a Phish Scam

Annys Shin writes in The Washington Post:

The Web site for the "world's fastest growing news organization" looked good enough to fool Katherine Brinton, an aspiring journalist in Philadelphia. After posting her résumé on Monster.com nine months ago, the 23-year old received an e-mail from USA Voice in November that said it was looking for reporters with "excellent writing skills" and an "innate ability to find the truth."

Brinton filled out an online application with her name, address and telephone number. But instead of job offers, she began receiving a stream of unsolicited e-mails hawking Viagra, payday loans and penny stocks.

"I felt like I was being scammed," she said.

Brinton fell victim to a sophisticated phishing scam, which, in recent months, targeted thousands of job seekers on such popular Web sites as Monster.com and CareerBuilder.com. Phishers send out seemingly legitimate e-mail in an attempt to get people to reply with personal information then used in a variety of scams.

posted by Fergie @ 2/10/2007 08:52:00 AM