509'ers Up The Authentication Stakes

["Les Bell" <lesbell () lesbell com au>]

An interesting piece of spam got by Spamassassin this morning. It was a
variant on the usual advance fee fraud script, purporting to be from a US
Army captain in Iraq - you've doubtless seen the kind of thing. What
grabbed my attention this time was the following paragraph:

"I attached my picture and the picture of the Money for your confirmation
as you
requested. It wasn't easy for me to do that but I had to because you
requested
for it and to make assurance double sure."

And sure enough, there's a couple of JPEG's attached - one entitled "My
Personal Picture.jpg" showing "the sender" in front of a bombed-out house
(doubtless in Iraq) and even better: "The picture of the money.jpg", which
shows two large trunks full of - you guessed it - money. THE money!

The rest of the email had all the usual signs - bad grammar, use of a
Google email account, directions to reply to a different email address,
etc. - but I'm sold. This just *has* to be the real deal.

(Groan!)

Best,

--- Les Bell
[http://www.lesbell.com.au]
Tel: +61 2 9451 1144


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