Thursday Aug 2 10:40 AEST
Victoria's (Australia) consumer watchdog advises anyone receiving an unnamed e-greeting card in their email inbox to delete it immediately.
Consumer Affairs Victoria detected a scam this week during its routine scanning of the internet.
Consumer Affairs Minister Daniel Andrews said the fake greeting card emails were the latest version of a phishing scam favoured by online fraudsters.
Phishing scams are criminal attempts to steal bank or credit card account details or other personal information from consumers," Mr Andrews said.
"This particular version of the phishing scam is an email that claims the recipient has been sent an e-greeting card by an unnamed friend or family member," he said. The email comes with a subject line that says "you have received a greeting card" or "you have received a postcard from a family member".
The recipient is then instructed to view the e-greeting card by clicking on a link. "By clicking on that link, computer users may be allowing a spyware program into their computer which can track and count their keystrokes while they type," Mr Andrews said.
"The information collected from the spyware can be used by others to commit credit card and/or identity fraud.
"If you receive this email, or any that seem dubious, delete it immediately without opening it."
©AAP 2007
3 comments:
i've received ecards like that many times. thank god, i didn't open any of them, as i thought it was odd that the name of the sender was not there - just a common name, like friend, partner, mother, etc.
thanks for the info.
Thanks for warning us. We really have to be extra careful in opening not only e-cards but also e-mails as they use the name of our friends and relatives taken in our listed e-mail addresses. I also received not only once.
I did receive them too, but suspected they were of dubious origin so I just deleted them.
It is a timely reminder!
Thanks!
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