Amazon Marketplace Listing Canceled...

How many of you out there use Amazon's Marketplace to sell items?

Well, if you do then this posting should be of some interest and I'd also be interested in how many of you have received similar emails to the one shown in the screenshot below:



Looks like a typical notification from Amazon that your item listed on Amazon Marketplace has been canceled; for those that use this Amazon service this usually happens when your item listing has expired, and is quite normal.

So, let me see where I end up when I click on the link contained in the e-mail; screenshot below:

 

Is this Amazon.co.uk? Looks genuine doesn't it? would you sign-in via this page, or not?

For the moment, let us assume [quite rightly] that I'm suspicious of this page, let me have a look at the source HTML for the page above; I'm especially interested in the FORM section (the bit that deals with the login credentials; your e-mail address and Amazon.co.uk password). Here's a screenshot of the related part of the HTML source for that function:




Hmmm.....notice anything odd?

Surely the real Amazon.co.uk doesn't use a generic mailto CGI script [in this case a PERL script] to handle login routines, does it?

No, of course it doesn't, the code in the screenshot above sends your now stolen Amazon.co.uk login details to the bad guys and girls via e-mail using the mailto.pl script hosted on http://www-cgi.paonline. It then goes onto send you to the real Amazon.co.uk page, sneaky huh?

So, this is another phishing scam, in this case they want to steal you Amazon login credentials, so that they can steal any personal details, including and stored credit-card data, or maybe they just want to buy things using your account, and have them sent to a drop-box to then be turned into cash. Such as ordering themselves a new MP3 player, phone, some CD's or DVD's or whatever, leaving you to pick up the bill and deal with the resulting mess.

Of course this type of attack is not just limited to Amazon, it would in theory work with any e-commerce site, so be careful out there especially where you have sites that store you credit-card details, as in most cases this is what the bad-guys and girls are after. If they can't get that then they will just buy things from the site using your stored card data instead.

yet again, as with other recent examples I've blogged about it shows that phishers are not just interested in getting you bank details, they are just as happy to get e-commerce site credentials, game login credentials (such as WoW) or webmail account details (how many of you store e-mails which contain personal or financial  details?), amongst many others. Furthermore, do you you the same password for more than a single site? If you do then you are making it easier for the bad guys and girls to compromise your other accounts wherever they may be.

Walmart Survey Worth $150 US Dollars...

I received an e-mail yesterday asking me to take part in a survey that Walmart were apparently carrying out to gauge customer satisfaction. A screenshot of the e-mail I received appears below:



So, even though I am not and never have been a Walmart customer, let me see where we go if I click on the link provided, as if I were a Walmart customer. This is where I ended up:



Looks like a very typical web based survey, so what happens when I fill in the details and then click on the proceed button at the foot of the survey page? This is where I ended up next:



OK, so they want some more personal details now, they already have my phone number and e-mail address. Now they want my credit card number, expiry date for it and.......my CVV and ATM pin.....hmmmmm; can anyone smell something 'phishy' yet? ;-)

Yes, this is a phishing scam, squarely targetted at Walmart customers that will be fooled into believing that they will recive 150 US Dollars for filling out the survey and supplying their credit card details. In a few days they will get a surprise, but not the pleasent one they were expecting. Instead of having money credited to their account, they will have lost money through bogus purchases. It may even be worse, their account could be cleared out via ATM withdrawals, or even overdrawn, leaving them with a large bill to pay [unless their bank covers phishing scams and related things] . In the worst case scenario the personal details they gave could be used for identity theft so that loans or mortgages could be set up using the stolen details, leaving the victim with the bills and the resulting damage to their credit rating.