Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Canada Revenue Agency Tax Return - Phishing Email

Subject: [notifications]-ID-123456769


Tax time and spammer's are hitting early. If you receive this crafty email similar to below, then it beware it's probably a phishing email attempt that is recently going around. What to do?  Report them now,

Action > Report the Phishing URL to Google Plex now, click this link
  1. https://www.google.com/safebrowsing/report_phish/?hl=en&url=ofertaslaverdad.mx

How to tell this is a Phishing email ?

  1. Canada Tax Revenue agency does not use email to engage CDN citizens that their tax return is due.
  2. Reply to this email is sent to <no_reply@bell.ca>; this is Bell and not CRA. If it were CRA it would be something like <no_reply@cra-arc.gc.ca>.
  3. Email is From: Canada Revenue Agency but don't let that fool you the address is from <supportinternet7791498888@bell.ca> and cleverly crafted but not the CRA.
  4. Reading email in Outlook generated pop-up "Click to follow link"
  5. Hover over action url, For tax refund click here >> and you see it's to http://ofertaslaverdad.mx the phishing link

  6. The best way is to look at message source, see below.


How to examine Email source?


Email consists of a message header and body. 
Briefly, the message body is basically everything you see below the subject line. 
To view the source message header, which includes details such as To:, Cc:, Bcc:, Reply To: and Subject, do the following in your email system;


  1. Outlook.com->Actions->View Message Source 
  2. Gmail.com->More (down arrow to top right)->Show original
  3. Yahoo.com->More (at Bottom of Message)->View Full Header
  4. Outlook Program - see http://bit.ly/outlookviewheadersource  

For this phony email, we have the message source in a code source reader.

At line 9 you have Received: from 127.0.0.1 (HELO mail13.shop-pro.jp) (210.154.147.74). 210.154.147.74 is located in Japan but originally from Korea, not Canada.

Find out geo location of the IP address on map, click link below;
http://www.infosniper.net/index.php?ip_address=210.154.147.74

Report Phishing Email (not as Spam)
  1. Outlook.com->Junk (at Top)->Phishing Scam
  2. Gmail.com->More (downarrow to top right)->Report Phishing
  3. Yahoo.ca->Spam->Report a Phishing Scam


Also Report Phishing domain at Google Plex now!!! 

If you have recievied this email take further action now by click these links

  1. https://www.google.com/safebrowsing/report_phish/?hl=en&url=ofertaslaverdad.mx


Also Report phishing email at Microsoft and government agencies

  1. http://www.microsoft.com/security/online-privacy/phishing-faq.aspx

Learn how Office 365 prevents spam and malware free course 

Saturday, January 10, 2015

Encrypted Email made easy with Office 365


No excuse not to send encrypted email for business, Office 365 has made this easy.


Encryption in Office 365




Phishing Email - Apple Sent You an iTunes Gift


Subject: 
Apple Sent You an iTunes Gift  You can redeem this gift on your iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, or on your computer using iTunes. Once you redeem your gift and verify your Apple ID, you will be credited with $25 and can purchase the latest music, apps, and more


If you receive this crafty email similar to below, then it beware it's probably a phishing email attempt that is recently going around. What to do?  Report them now,


Action > Report the Phishing URL to Google now, click this link
  1. https://www.google.com/safebrowsing/report_phish/?hl=en&url=monolithi.com

How to tell this is a Phishing email?

  1. Is email being from you to you, then it's phishing.
  2. Hover over all links in email, if it's not from the original domain, apple.com  then forget it.

    Reading email in Outlook generated pop-up "Click to follow link"

    In above example, the Redeem Now button, which links to spam site monolithi.com.

  3. The best way is to look at message source, see below.

Phishing Link

http://monolithi.com

How to examine Email Message Source?

Now let's look at message source
  1. Outlook.com->Actions->View Message Source. 
  2. Gmail.com->More (down arrow to top right)->Show original.

For this phony email, well look at the top 25 lines of the message, known formally as the "message header".





Invalid return-path:

At
 line 23 you have Return-Path: hosting.windows@aruba.it
and is suspect because domain was registered in Italy (
.it) and nothing to do with Apple.

Aruba.it is being investigate for a Paypal phishing and has reported links to Italian Mafia.


These are valid return-paths for Apple 

  • Return-Path: do_not_reply@apple.com 
  • Return-Path: bounces@insideicloud.icloud.com 

Why look at "Return-Path"? When the e-mail is put in the recipient's mailbox, a new mail header is created with the name "Return-Path:" containing the address on the MAIL FROM command. So, it's a quick hit to determine authenticity.


Report Phishing Email (not as Spam)

  1. Outlook.com->Junk (at Top)->Phishing Scam
  2. Gmail.com->More (downarrow to top right)->Report Phishing 

Report Phishing URLs at Google now 

If you have received this email, take further action now by, click these links

  1. https://www.google.com/safebrowsing/report_phish/?hl=en&url=monolithi.com

Report phishing at Microsoft and government agencies

  1. http://www.microsoft.com/security/online-privacy/phishing-faq.aspx