Scam e-mails warn of FBI monitoring, agency says
E-mails purporting to come from FBI are phony !
Washington , D.C. – The FBI today warned the public to avoid falling victim to an on-going mass e-mail scheme wherein computer users received unsolicited e-mails purportedly sent by the FBI. These scam e-mails tell the recipients that their Internet use has been monitored by the FBI and that they have accessed illegal web sites. The e-mails then direct recipients to open an attachment and answer questions.
The e-mail appears to be sent from the e-mail addresses of mail @ fbi.gov and admin @ fbi.gov. There may be other similarly styled addresses. The recipient is enticed to open the zip attachment which contains a w32/sober.jen @ mm worm. The attachment does not open and its goal is to utilize the recipient’s computer to garner information. Secondly, the virus allows the e-mail to be forwarded to all those listed in the recipient’s address book.
The text of the email is as follows:
Dear Sir/Madam,
We have logged your IP-address on more than 30 illegal Websites.
Important: Please answer our questions! The list of questions are attached.
Yours faithfully,
Steven Allison
Federal Bureau of Investigation-FBI-
935 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW , Room 3220
Washington , DC 20535
Phone: (202) 324-30000
These e-mails did not come from the FBI. Recipients of this or similar solicitations should know that the FBI does not engage in the practice of sending unsolicited e-mails to the public in this manner.
Opening e-mail attachments from an unknown sender is a risky and dangerous endeavor as such attachments frequently contain viruses that can infect the recipient’s computer. The FBI strongly encourages computer users not to open such attachments.
For more info see this page from the FBI
See also this page from Symantec on more info about this worm.
Interesting thing is that I just got one of those fake mails myself, I do never open unknown attachments so no harm done here. I also just google the first line of such mails and normaly find fast what the scam is about.