By Zeus! Crazy email asks for help building a Trojan horse

Boy oh boy, I receive some weird emails from time to time.

Here’s the latest. It comes from “Emmanuel Church”, who has a religious-themed Yahoo email address. (No jokes please about having to have faith to cling onto a Yahoo Mail account).

Just going by the email address, I expected it to be a bog-standard 419 scam. But it was something rather different.

Greetings from afar,

I am sorry to bother you, but I was wondering if therre is any possibility for you to get or build the zeus trojan for me. I am open to your terms and negotoations if that will be alright by you. I am a young man and interested in learning how to use the zeus trojan.

Thanks in anticipationof your favorable response. Nevertheless, always stay cool and calm.

Attached to the email is a password-protected .RAR archive file. Of course, I don’t know the password – so I have no idea what may be inside it.

How on earth am I supposed to respond to that?

Is this a practical joke, or is someone seriously asking for help building Zeus – one of the world’s most notorious Trojan horses?

I suspect this is the work of a crazy person. A nutter.

Which leads me to one obvious question: Is there a doctor in the horse? (groan…)

Found this article interesting? Follow Graham Cluley on Twitter, Mastodon, or Threads to read more of the exclusive content we post.

Graham Cluley •   @gcluley

Graham Cluley is an award-winning keynote speaker who has given presentations around the world about cybersecurity, hackers, and online privacy. A veteran of the computer security industry since the early 1990s, he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows, makes regular media appearances, and is the co-host of the popular "Smashing Security" podcast. Follow him on Twitter, Mastodon, Threads, Bluesky, or drop him an email.