The latest dirty tricks involve
sending emails saying you have cancer; threatening to spread rumours that
you are a pedophile. The timing of the email diagnosing cancer was just right.
Andrew Montlake, a 44-year-old mortgage broker from Hertfordshire, happened to
have had a blood test just a few weeks earlier. The email purported to be from
NICE, the National Institute of Clinical Excellence, and read: "We have
the results of your blood test and we have noticed that you have a low level of
white blood cells which could indicate that you have
cancer. Please contact us immediately with full details on the
attachment."
His mother died of cancer when she
was 50, he says, and his father is currently undergoing cancer treatment:
"I have certain paranoia about it." Upon opening the attachment, the
Necurs virus began downloading on to his computer, as well as GOZeuS (which
would give hackers open access to his computer) and Cryptolocker (which would
lock him out of his computer until he paid a ransom to the scammers).
"I never fall for stuff like this but it caught me at a
weak, tired and particularly busy moment at work, and knocked me for six,"
says Montlake. "I realise that no doctor would ever send an email like
that but when I opened it, that initial moment of stress was horrible – things
run through your head – and all the scammers need is a moment of doubt." His
response was, in fact, a textbook example of how scammers want us to react.
They tap straight into your worst fears, to push you into an instant fight or
flight response, says Tom Roberts, a scams expert for ethical hackers Pen Test
Partners: "When a piece of scareware lands directly in front of you and
makes you feel afraid, an animal part of your brain that doesn't think
logically takes control and you act instinctively, for self-preservation.
Usually, that means doing as you are told, because the message in front of you
is saying that if you do, then you stand the best chance of survival." Other forms of internet crimes through which
online hackers unleash terror on victims will be discussed in the subsequent
publication.
Culled from Guardian
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