Spyware from the fake Federal Reserve Bank

Webroot has detected a phishing scam exploiting the names of the Federal Reserve Bank and other federal entities to fool consumers into clicking Web links that infect their PCs with spyware.

A phony e-mail from the Federal Reserve Bank warns of a “large-scale phishing attack” on banks and credit unions that took place January 21. A link to “more detailed information about affected banks and U.S. Treasury restrictions” leads to a fake Web site that infects victims’ computers with malware designed to harvest their Web site and POP3 e-mail account usernames and passwords.

Webroot has identified the malware as Trojan-Backdoor-Graypigeon deploying malware via drive-by download. The cyber criminals behind the scam have recycled the e-mail message a number of times; the FDIC reported a previous version of the e-mail January 20. But the domains linked in the message continually change and suggest the message’s origin may be legitimate. All point to one PC on China Railcom’s IP address space that was hijacked to carry out the phishing attacks.

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