ICO exploited on the distribution of phony e-mails

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» IT Security NEWS

» 29 May 2010

ICO exploited on the distribution of phony e-mails

Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the known regulator of data protection, sent out caution to the many online users regarding phony e-mails that have been spreading in the web. This e-mail claims that it is distributed by the said agency and it requests the individuals to reply with their confidential data.

No such person exists in the agency

According to the news reports, the scammers use the name of the Information Commissioner Christopher Graham as the sender of the e-mail. Also, the sender states in the letter that he is a representative of the European Law Enforcement Agency.

A spokesman from the Information Commissioner’s Office clarified that the said Christopher Graham was never part of the European Law Enforcement Agency. Also, the organization never sent e-mails that require the users or associations to pay a certain amount of cash.

Never believe easily on something that appears authentic

One should always be critical especially when getting an e-mail and it is a must that the users take time in mulling over its essence. Hence, if the message received was a fake one, then it would be wise to just remove the mail from the list.

A user can easily recognize a phony e-mail because it has been observed that this kind of message is rarely written well. The sender of the letter also appears in such a way that it asks for a user’s response in which a “fund origin certificate” is being asked for.

Requirement of the scammers are revealed

As said in the e-mail, the sender tells a user that the group will deposit the fund into his or her bank account only if a fund origin document is presented. This is to confirm that the money that the individual will receive is not coming from criminal or terrorism activities.

In addition, when the individual is unable to show a fund origin certificate, then the European Law Enforcement Agency can hand out one for him or her. However, the person is required to release a definitely large amount of cash.

The fake e-mail indicates that the payment for the fund origin certificate will be according to the amount of money that will be added into ones bank account in Hungary and it will be just about EUR 18,700.

Based on the reports, ICO confirmed that there is just one person who received this kind of e-mail but it is certain that many were affected with this kind of scamming tactic.

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