AN EMAIL scam targeting cwgsy.net users has highlighted a common and potentially serious threat to businesses. The spoof – known as ‘phishing’ – masqueraded as an official communication and demanded personal details.
Cable & Wireless blocked the email address from sending any more messages to cwgsy.net mailboxes on Friday morning.
Richard Lowe, director of Channel Islands IT firm iConsult, said it was a growing crime.
‘It’s pretty widespread and it’s getting more common because email is a free tool for scammers to use. Getting hold of someone’s personal information like their date of birth allows the “phishermen” to assume a person’s identity. With just two or three pieces of information, it’s relatively easy to become plausible online.’
There are some 60,000 cwgsy.net users, but it is unclear how many had received the email or been fooled into giving their personal information.
The email, sent from ‘customer.care83@live.com’, identified itself as coming from the cwgsy.net messaging centre.
It claimed to be deleting unused mailboxes to create space for new accounts and told customers to enter personal details to stop theirs being closed.
The email threatened users that if they did not enter their username, password, date of birth and country within seven days, their account would be permanently closed.
It is still unclear how the scammers had got hold of the cwgsy.net addresses, but Mr Lowe said they were getting increasingly sophisticated.
‘It’s the scammers’ business to take things one step ahead and the problem is that security measures are reactive.
‘Phishing has moved on from asking for bank or credit card details to making threats. Be wary of anyone asking you things they should already know.
‘Another thing to look out for is poor spelling and grammar, as English is not usually the first language of scammers. The best course of action is simply to delete the email.’
C&W has posted information about the scam on its email log-in page and directed anyone with enquiries to an advice page.
C&W Sure head of PR Steve Smith (pictured) said anyone who had responded to the email needs to change their password and should call the 24-hour contact centre on freephone 700700.
‘Phishing scams are targeted at email addresses every day through automated guessing. It is very unlikely that cwgsy.net addresses were the only ones targeted. Email users receive such spam regularly and usually just delete it without replying.
‘This email was a little bit more sophisticated in that it asked for the account name and password. Because of that, we immediately advised users on our website and through the local media.
‘We do not routinely monitor content received by email users as it is not the place of the email provider to also act as a policeman.
‘That would infringe on the civil liberties and right to privacy of email users.’
Article posted on 31st July, 2008 - 2.30pm
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