FBI Warns Public of Email Scams

The FBI sent out a press announcement yesterday, warning the public about three scams. The three scams are:
-e-cards containing malware
-fraudulent emails misrepresenting the FBI using pictures of the FBI Director, seal, letter head, and/or banners
-email claiming to be from an official of the U.S. military sent on behalf of American soldiers stationed overseas

We have seen lots of the e-cards over the past several months, mostly containing variants of the so-called Storm Worm. Not sure why the FBI felt it was important to warn about them now, but I suppose, why not?

On the other two scams, these are fraudsters taking another crack at finding what works. Someone had the idea to exploit people’s soft spot for soldiers overseas (sick, isn’t it? soldiers are dying and some scammer is trying to make money off of it). Using the seal of the FBI or pictures of the FBI director - both of which are readily available on the web, just do a quick search on google images - is no different than phishers who freely make use of the logos of eBay, Citibank, Bank of America, and lots of others. In this case, the FBI is a victim, and felt the need to warn people, just like most financial institutions have fraud warnings on their web sites.

So, is it news? Well, sort of. Big news? Not really.