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Fake Yahoo Games Site Phishes For Users
By David Utter
Expert Author
Article Date: 2005-08-31
Someone apparently set up a site on Yahoo's GeoCities hosting to try and scam people into entering login information.
ZDNet Australia reported the existence of a fake Yahoo site, where users are invited to login and get free games. Instead, the unwary get to have their Yahoo identities stolen by the criminals behind the site.
Links to the site had been spreading over IM via Yahoo's Messenger client. The enticing message appears to come from someone in the user's list of friends. That makes the lure more believable.
The report cited a Trend Micro engineer in Australia, Adam Biviano, as assessing the site as a "honeypot," a destination that looks appealing but is really just there for information gathering. The possibility that the spread of the spam messages via a worm or virus has not yet been discounted.
"This is really showing that identity theft is where the next big threats are heading. The only reason for this site to exist - it is not stealing credit cards or taking any money off you in any way - it is just after personal details," Mr. Biviano said in the article.
Instant message client attacks have been increasing in recent weeks. A fake iTunes executable sent around via IM contained spyware, while an insidious language-changing worm bounced around Microsoft's MSN Messenger for some time.
About the Author:
David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. Email him here.
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