The scammers must be getting more and more desperate to get their claws on our money.
Their criminal business model is messed up somewhat by anti-spam filters blocking their fraudulent messages from reaching potential victims.
What’s a bad guy to do?
Well, they could do what this scammer has done – wrap their scam email up into a format that anti-spam software might not look at so closely.
Subject: Please quote your !
From: Arsenal <notification@hqsportslottery.com>
Attached file: Arsenal.pptMessage body:
Please find attachement
The scammer doesn’t give away much information in the email itself, but only the attachment (a PowerPoint file) and you’ll read that Arsenal Football Club have awarded you a £2,350,000 prize in their lottery.
All you have to do is contact their representative in China, a Dr Cheng Dingxiang, with your personal information (presumably he will request your bank information soon and an administration fee) and before you know it riches will be yours!
Clearly the scammers are getting desperate.
Hopefully no-one IT-savvy would fall for such a scam – and be instantly suspicious that the communication arrived not only via email, but within a PowerPoint file as well.
But always remember that there may be vulnerable people out there who *do* fall for scams like this, and are at risk of ending up out of pocket as a result. Always be on the lookout to help vulnerable friends and family avoid scams like this – however ridiculous they may appear to you.
You might want recommend to your friends and family that they grab a copy of the Sophos Threatsaurus, where we explain the facts about threats to your computers and to your data in simple, easy-to-follow language.
Here’a one-minute video that tells you more:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AotI_WfCxt0&rel=0&w=500&h=311]
