A million dollars, the Internet Crime Complaint Center and Naked Security – the ingredients for a scam

An email scam is using a Naked Security news story about the arrest of a gang of suspected credit card fraudsters, in an attempt to scam innocent internet users.

The scam emails have the subject line “We have mandated your payment, kindly view below attachment”, and claim to come from the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3).

Attached to the emails is a file (DETAILS.doc) which presents itself as an official communication from the IC3, explaining that criminal proceeds have been confiscated from scammers, and as the recipient’s name and email address was found in the criminals’ possession one million dollars in compensation is available…

Read more in my article on the Naked Security website.

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Graham Cluley •   @gcluley

Graham Cluley is a veteran of the cybersecurity industry, having worked for a number of security companies since the early 1990s when he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows. Now an independent analyst, he regularly makes media appearances and is an international public speaker on the topic of cybersecurity, hackers, and online privacy. Follow him on Twitter, Mastodon, Bluesky, or drop him an email.