The Government has issued a warning for a computer virus
known as Zeus malware that is capable of finding your banking information. The
virus is being sent through email under the name “Gameover”, which is a
phishing scheme that appears as some of the government financial institutions
such as, the National Automated Clearing House Association (NACHA), the
Federal Reserve Bank or the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).
Gameover steals usernames and passwords from PC and desktops.
The FBI has described the email and the way the virus finds banking information,
“you receive an unsolicited e-mail from NACHA, the Federal Reserve, or the FDIC
telling you that there's a problem with your bank account or a recent ACH
transaction. (ACH stands for Automated Clearing House, a network for a wide
variety of financial transactions in the U.S.) The sender has included a link
in the e-mail for you that will supposedly help you resolve whatever the issue
is. Unfortunately, the link goes to a phony website, and once you're there, you
inadvertently download the Gameover malware, which promptly infects your
computer and steals your banking information.
"After the perpetrators access your account, they
conduct what's called a distributed denial of service, or DDoS, attack using a
botnet, which involves multiple computers flooding the financial
institution's server with
traffic in an effort to deny legitimate users access to the site -- probably in
an attempt to deflect attention from what the bad guys are doing."
The
criminals behind the scheme use the stolen money and purchase expensive,
precious diamonds and watches from high-end jewelry stores. The operation works,
in this fashion; after the criminals steal the money from the account, they
make a purchase of merchandise and tell the jewelry stores that they will
transfer the money to their account the very next day. Once the store receives
the criminals stolen money the criminals send what is called a “mule” to pick
up the merchandise. The mule delivers the jewelry to the schemers and they turn
it over for cash.
