Thread: AIM Phishing Scam

I seem to get lots of scam e-mails. This is the latest one claiming to be from AOL. I did a mouse-over on the link that was included with the e-mail (but did not click it) and noticed it doesn't even go to AOL's site. If you see this e-mail, it's fake:

Dear AOL Instant Messenger user,

Your AIM account is flagged as inactive. Within the following 72 hours it’ll be deleted from the system.

If you plan to use this account in the future, you have to download and launch the latest update for the AIM. This update is critical.

In order to install the update use the <following link>. This link is generated exclusively for your account and is available within a certain period of time. As soon as this link is not available anymore you will get another letter.

Thank you,

AIM Service Team

This e-mail has been sent from an e-mail address that is not monitored. Please do not reply to this message. We are unable to respond to any replies.

did you flag the e-mail source to spamhaus? this will kill some innocent hosts as well, but at least they can start getting protection sooner. as for the spammer, well... nothing seems to be making their lives impossible these days :-(

I will report the e-mail to a few places. Spamhaus and Spamcops in particular.

Yes report to spamcop. As said before.. im sorry for the hosting companies.. but they must monitor their websites !

Im 90% sure that if they trace the email, comes from a Ecatel server !

Originally Posted by hostexec

im sorry for the hosting companies.. but they must monitor their websites

Hosting companies should always limit the number of e-mails per hour that one account can send. It cuts back on spam/scam bulk e-mails. They should also be responsible when they receive abuse complaints.

AOL/AIM has been known for this. Just don't use it.

It's unbelievable that people are STILL doing this. This has been going on for so long with AOL\AIM - I remember people doing this back in the mid to late 90's. I don't really get what the point of it is as who cares if you have someone else's AIM account. I'm not sure if people do it for fun, or do it to contact the people on the friends list, but it doesn't seem much worth it to me.

Originally Posted by melovemoney

I don't really get what the point of it is as who cares if you have someone else's AIM account.

In the case that I posted, they seem to want to trick people into downloading a fake update file. It's a way to trick people into downloading a virus. I'm not quite sure what this virus does.

In other cases, phishing is used to steal passwords. If someone wants to wreak havoc in some way, they might want to do it from someone else's account instead of their own.