14 DAY TRIAL // Man, these spammers are smart! Security company Sophos discovered a new method used by a group of spammers in order to earn money from consumers' donations. According to the reports, the spammers targeted Bobbear, a British website which fights against malicious websites used by the attackers from all around the world to lure naive consumers and steal their credentials. What the spammers are trying to do is to take advantage of the users' gratitude who see a website fighting for the protection and encouraging them to donate money for the service. Obviously, the bank accounts provided by the spammers are not belonging to the website.
"MAKE DONATION TODAY! Donate for website which fights with money laundry and child porno please!! bobbear is working for your calm!" the spam message sent to numerous users stated. However, the Bobbear representatives assured they will never encourage visitors to donate money and the service will never turn to spam in order to do that.
"I'm grateful to Sophos for their support in this incident. The website Bobbear.co.uk exists to publicise criminal fraud on the internet, to fight criminal fraud on the internet, to offer victim support and to offer a one-stop website for evidential data on the major frauds as an aid to abuse reporting. It also offers information on zombie botnet construction and abuse reporting techniques. The whole ethos of the site is that it is purely voluntary and does not accept donations," said Bob Harrison, administrator of Bobbear. "The fact that criminals have chosen to attack the site shows we must be doing something right."
Just like usual, you're advised to avoid reading unknown and untrusted messages as well as refuse opening the emails coming from unauthorized sources.
"Clearly the good people at Bobbear have upset the bad guys. The criminals have retaliated by trying to smear the website by sending spam in Bobbear's name and asking for donations. Innocent people might be tempted into contributing in the fight against internet child abuse and money laundering, but the only pockets they would be filling belong to the criminals themselves," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos.