Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Don't be conned into giving away your account information

I got this message in my Gmail INBOX today. You would think that Gmail would catch this phishing attack, but it did not! The link I was invited to click looks completely legit: http://www.gmail.com/account. As I clicked, I was invited to log in my Google acount. I submitted my username/password into this normal looking Gmail login screen, knowing that my username and password was being harvested. In two seconds, I tried to access this google account; but I could not, because the account's password had been changed. It took about ten seconds to reset the account password to reclaim the ownership of this account.

How did I know this was a phishing attack? Because the link address (URL) behind (don't click) http://www.gmail.com/account is http://gmail.serveuser.com:8080/accounts/google/accounts/ServiceLoging/service=mail/3A2F2F3Dhtml/gmail.php

So when I click the link, I am not viewing a google page, but a page from an outfit called serveuser.com.

If you already fell for this, immediately change your password to reclaim your account. Otherwise, the consequence can be serious.
Subject: Urgent Notice: Your Gmail account will be blocked
From: Gmail Group

Dear User
Your account due to unusual account activity will be blocked, which may
be caused by the following

1.In the short period of time receiving, deleting, or downloading large
amounts of mail (via POP).

2.sending a large number of undeliverable messages (returned mail).

3.You used third-party software that automatically log in to your account.

4.Browser-related issues. You may need to clear your browser's Cookie.

To not affect your normal use, please log on the following link to activate account

http://www.gmail.com/account