Another phishing / email scam

Recently, some users have contacted us regarding suspicious emails they have received. These emails appear to be a notification of an account change and ask you to click on a link to update your settings. These messages are NOT genuine. As LetsHost do not provide MS outlook online these emails can be ignored. However, clicking the links contained in these messages may you to a webpage that will install malware or virus software onto your computer.

According to posts from MXLab [1] and Symantec [2], this type of phishing email has been doing the rounds for last few months and has tricked thousands of people into installing malicious software onto their computers.

Possible subjects are:
A new settings file for the user@****.ie mailbox
The settings for the user@****.ie mailbox

The body of the email:
Dear user of the ****.ie mailing service!

We are informing you that because of the security upgrade of the mailing service your mailbox (user@b****.ie) settings were changed. In order to apply the new set of settings click on the following link:
hxxp://b****.ie/owa/service_directory/settings.php?email=andre@b****.ie=b****.ie=andre

Best regards, *****.ie Technical Support

Messages such as these are phishing emails sent out at random by a large global network of infected computers and servers called a botnet. The people who control these botnets send out huge volumes of spam and phishing emails in the hope that enough people will respond to make their efforts worthwhile.

Phishing emails will try to trick you into believing that they are from a trustworthy source and can be very convincing. Please be extremely suspicious of any unsolicited email you receive that asks you for sensitive information (such as your username and password) or asks you to download something onto your computer.

If you ever have any doubt whether an email you have received is genuinely from LetsHost, please email support@letshost.ie or call our technical support team at 01 653 5032 for confirmation.

You can prevent spam from being delivered to your account by enabling SpamAssassin in your CPanel. We also offer a dedicated Anti-Spam Service. This provides a comprehensive solution to email threats on the market today, at an extremely cost effective rate.

Resources:

• [1] http://blog.mxlab.eu/2009/10/14/zbot-variant-masked-as-settings-file-for-ms-outlook/
• [2] http://www.symantec.com/connect/blogs/personalized-patchupdate-spam-delivering-malware