Every day, thousands of people are fooled by email from criminals trying to steal their identities or infect and take over their computers (Harmful Email Subjects to Avoid). This article will help you avoid being a victim. The attacks listed here are the tip of the iceberg. Never open email attachments from people you don't know, and be very careful even if you do know the person; especially if you aren't expecting an attachment.  Also, don't click on links in emails unless you can guarantee the email came from someone who is not trying to fool you. It is usually our curiosity and impatience that assists new worms to propagate around the internet.  Again, programs like Panda Antivirus, Kaspersky Anti-Virus and  ZoneAlarm Pro 5.0 provide a very good level of protection against email worms (again, please make sure virus signatures are automatically updated as frequently as the program allows).

Harmful Email Subjects to Avoid

1. Emails from people trying to infect your system and steal your friends' email addresses for spam
1.1 Pictures of Osama Bin Laden hanging or Arnold Schwarzenegger's suicide note
1.2 Email that seems to come from your system administrator or other familiar sender that says your email could not be delivered, or some similar statement.
1.3 Email with subject "Against!" or "Revenge"
1.4 Email with subject Re_ and body with animals or foto or other subjects

2. Emails from people trying to steal your identity (and your money)
2.1 Update Your Billing Information (from eBay)
2.2 Your account at eBay has been suspended
2.3 Your account at Wells Fargo has been suspended
2.4 Notification of US Bank Internet Banking
2.5 Attn: Citibank Update
2.6 Confirm AOL Billing Info

3. Emails from people trying to fool you into hurting yourself or your friends and coworkers
3.1 Subject: "jdbg" Virus: how to detect and remove.

More Details About Each Attack

1. Emails from people trying to infect your system and steal your  Top

1.1 Pictures of Osama Bin Laden hanging or Arnold Schwarzenegger's  Top

The bait: An email or news article claiming to offer you copies of pictures of Osama Bin Laden being hanged. A second form claims to have a suicide note from Arnold Schwarzenegger.

How it infects your system: You click on a link that downloads a zip file. You execute the file thinking you will see the pictures.

What it does to you: Gives attackers remote control of your computer so they can use it in attacks on other people, or harvest email names for spam.

Where to find detailed information:
http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/backdoor.hacarmy.d.html

1.2 MyDoom-O  Top

The bait: An email that seems to come from your mail or system administrator or from another familiar sender, with an attachment and with any one of the following subjects: (1) say helo to my litl friend, (2) click me baby, (3) one more time, (4) hello, (5) error, (6) status, (7) test, (8) report, delivery failed, (9) Message could
not be delivered, (10) Mail System Error - Returned Mail, (11) Delivery reports about your e-mail, (12) Returned mail: see transcript for details, (13) Returned mail: Data format error.

How it infects your system: You download and open the attachment.

What it does to you: Steals all email addresses from you to be sold to Spammers; spreads to other sites from your machine. It also uses your system to send requests to search engines like Google to look for more email addresses.

Where to find more detailed information:
http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.mydoom.m@mm.
html

1.3 Name: Atak-C  Top

The bait: An email that arrives with the subject "Attack!" or "Revenge" and a zipped attachment.

How it infects your system: You download and open the attachment.

What it does to you: Steals all email addresses from you to be sold to spammers.

Where to find more detailed information:
http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/analyses/w32atakc.html

1.4 Name: Beagle   Top

The bait: An email with subject Re_ and body with animals or foto or other subjects, and an attachment.

How it infects your system: You download and open the attachment.

What it does to you: Disables antivirus and other important software, mass mails itself to others, steals email addresses from throughout your files, gives attacker remote control of your computer to use to attack other systems.

Where to find more detailed information:
http://www3.ca.com/securityadvisor/virusinfo/virus.aspx?id=39641

2. Emails from people trying to steal your identity (and your money)  Top

2.1 Update Your Billing Information (from eBay)  Top

The bait: An email that looks as if it comes from eBay saying the company has "detected a slight error in your billing information" and saying that you must fix it within 48 hours to continue to buy or sell on eBay.

What it tries to make you do: Click on a link and tell them your eBay and PayPal username and password, and your credit/debit card information.

Where you can see how it actually appears:
http://www.antiphishing.org/phishing_archive/07-27-04%20Ebay%20(Update%20Your%20Billing%20Informations).html

2.2 Your account at eBay has been suspended Top

The bait: An email that looks as if it comes from eBay saying your account has been suspended and "We had to block your eBay account".

What it tries to make you do: Click on a link and tell them your eBay and PayPal username and password, and your credit/debit card information.

Where you can see how it actually appears:
http://www.antiphishing.org/phishing_archive/07-26-04_Ebay_(your_account_at_ebay_has_been_suspended).html

2.3 Your account at Wells Fargo has been suspended  Top

The bait: An email that looks as if it comes from Wells Fargo saying your account has been suspended and "Your account has been compromised by outside parties." What it tries to make you do: Click on a link and tell them your username, password, and credit card information.

Where you can see how it actually appears:
http://www.antiphishing.org/phishing_archive/06-29-04_Wells_Fargo_(Your_account_at_Wells_Fargo_has_been_suspended).html

2.4 Notification of US Bank Internet Banking  Top

The bait: An email that looks as if it comes from US Bank saying, "as a preventative measure, we have temporarily limited access to some features."

What it tries to make you do: Click on a link and tell them username, password, credit card data or debit card data.

Where you can see how it actually appears:
http://www.antiphishing.org/phishing_archive/07-23-04_US_Bank_(Notification_of_US_Bank_Internet_Banking).html

2.5 Attn: Citibank Update  Top

The bait: "Click here" link in an email that seems to come from Citibank.

What it tries to make you do: Click on a link and tell them personal information and credit card or debit card data.

Where you can see how it actually appears:
http://www.fraudwatchinternational.com/fraud_alerts/040721_1046_citibank.htm
http://www.antiphishing.org/phishing_archive/07-21-04_Citibank_(Attn_Citibank_Update).html

2.6 Confirm AOL Billing Info  Top

The bait: An email that seems to come from AOL saying your billing information is out of date and asking you to "spend several minutes and update your billing records."

What it tries to make you do: Click on a link and tell them personal information and credit card or debit card data.

Where you can see how it actually appears:
http://www.antiphishing.org/phishing_archive/07-20-04_AOL_(Confirm_AOL_billing_info).html

3. Emails from people trying to fool you into hurting yourself or your friends and coworkers  Top

3.1 jdbg Hoax  Top

The bait: An email telling you about a virus and how to remove it.

Example: "Subject: "jdbg" Virus: how to detect and remove." May also talk about finding a teddy bear on the machine - because the file has a bear as a symbol.

What it is trying to make you do: Remove a file that is not harmful.

Where to find more information:
http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/jdbgmgr.exe.file.hoax.html

Information above was provided by the SANS Institute.

SANS extends its thanks to the 175 organizations that helped develop the format and content of this alert. Special thanks go to CipherTrust (http://www.ciphertrust.com) for providing lists of the most important threats.

Copyright 2004, The SANS Institute. http://www.sans.org Permission is granted to copy and redistribute this material to whomever it will help.