419 scammers using Dilbert.com

[Brian Warkoczeski]

419 scammers using Dilbert.com

Posted by Dancho Danchev

July 28 2009

www.zdnet.com

Scammers too, know Dilbert.

On their way to search for clean IPs through which to send out yet 
another scam email, 419 con-artists (Mrs Sharon Goetz Massey) have 
recently started using Dilbert.com’s recommendation feature in an 
attempt to bypass anti-spam filters — and it works. The use of 
Dilbert.com’s clean IP reputation comes a month after 419 scammers used 
the same tactic on NYTimes.com ‘email this’ feature.

Isolated incidents or an indication of a trend? 419 scammers are like 
spammers circa 1997, technically unsophisticated but fully capable of 
maintaining a fraudulent infrastructure by using legitimate services only.

Case in point - automatically registered email accounts next to 
compromised ones already represent the source of a close to 20% of the 
overall spam volume, and these levels remain steady. A logical question 
arises, why hasn’t 419 advance-fee fraud reached the efficiency levels 
of phishing or spam in general, taking into consideration the fact that 
spam is already outsourced as a process? It’s because South Africa-based 
scammers lack the networking skills necessary to approach international 
cybercrime groups which would not only manage the entire scamming 
process for them, but would help them improve the quality of the campaigns.

Data detailing the magnitude of advance-fee fraud varies. According to 
the U.S Internet Crime Complaint Center, Nigerian letter fraud 
represented a 5.2% of the total loss reported in their annual 2008 
report, with non-delivery scams topping the chart. Internationally, the 
number of advance-fee fraud cases and the number of victims is higher:

In the last two years, the Electronic and Financial Crimes Commission 
(EFCC) of Nigeria has been putting scammers in jail. The commission has 
invited journalists on a successful high-profile operation to apprehend 
a scamming ring and has helped foil Nigerian-led groups that ran 
multimillion-dollar fraud schemes. In a 2007 report, the EFCC said it 
handled more than 18,000 advanced-fee fraud cases, a six-fold increase 
in just four years.

From a technical perspective, advanced-fee fraud is still in its 
infancy, however the results of its tactics are pretty evident in the 
face of the thousands of scammed people across the globe. Don’t be one 
of them, spot the scam, take a minute and report it.