Our friend Larry Abrams who runs the bleepingcomputer site had something highly entertaining: "We regularly write about phishing emails at BleepingComputer.com in order to warn our readers about ongoing threats. Many scam emails are well crafted and their associated phishing sites are spot on, but sometimes you see ones that are so ridiculous that you have no choice but to laugh.
Such is the case with a phishing email that states it's from "officialfbidirector@usa.com", has a subject of "Attension: Beneficiary", and pretends to be from "FBI Director Christopher Wray". This phishing email is not new, but someone must have restarted its campaign recently as it is starting to pop up again.
In the phishing email, shown below, the "Director" states that the FBI is helping to coordinate the transmission of $10.7 million dollars to you through Bank of America. In order to move forward with this transmission, you must contact the assigned Special Agent via email. Here is a screenshot:
Let's break down this phishing email
Let's face it, while some phishing emails are written extremely well and highly researched such as recent tax phishing emails, many are not. This one takes the cake and just begs to have some of its finer points broken down, which we have done below.
1. Do we really think FBI Directory Wray is going to be emailing us personally in order to arrange a transfer of $10.7 million dollars?
2. The "FBI SEEKING TO WIRETAP INTERNET". That is one BIG wiretap.
3. The phishing email actually tells you that the previous banking scam email was you received legal! WTH.
"We the Federal Bureau of investigation (FBI) through our intelligence-monitoring network have discovered that the transaction that the bank contacted you previously for was legal."
4. There are a lot of "scam" on the Internet. Thx for the warning.
"Because of so much scam going on Internet."
5. That check your receiving will be in a "2.1 kg" parcel. That's approximately 4.6 pounds and pretty heavy for a check.
6. You have been assigned a FBI Special Agent named Mr. Richard Bowen and his email address is agentrichardbrown@yahoo.com. Who still uses yahoo.com emails?
It should go without saying that the FBI will never be contacting you via email to coordinate the transfer of funds. If you get one of these emails, just give it a read for a chuckle and then delete it."
Here is the technical background at Bleepingcomputer
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