14 DAY TRIAL // Google calendars are widely used to send memos and invites to friends and acquaintances and because these invites are fairly trusted, spammers were discovered launching social engineering maneuvers hidden within them.
A 419 scam was discovered the by Sunbeltblog masqueraded in such an invitation and for the unlucky people who receive this and use Outlook, the request is automatically accepted and a pop-up window will appear as an alert.
The message read “I Mrs. Jamilah Ali from U.S.A. I have been married to Mohd Bin Ali, an engineer from Saudi Arabia. We were officially married on October 10, 2004. At that time he was working as contract employees in a company engaged in drilling and oil pipelines, gas and fuel, based in Singapore. His lease expires in 2006. We then moved in their home country Saudi Arabia together with our daughter.”
It then explains that her husband, who had died, left a few millions in a bank account and she wants to transfer the sum to you in order to get it out of the country.
After a little digging I discovered that the scheme is not new and neither is the text, but I wanted to highlight the fact that even if something comes in the form of a Google product, that doesn't mean you have to trust it.
As we've seen lately, scam artist will take advantage of any piece of new technology or story to earn your trust.
The alarming thing is that probably thousands of these emails are sent and the fact that they keep coming is a clear indication that there are still people who give into these shams.
I trust that Softpedia readers will not fall for the tricks we've seen, but make sure you alert all your acquaintance. I say this because recently, some members of my family have fallen for social engineering scams due to the fact that they were not well informed about these things.
Spread the word! Make sure everyone you care for is protected.