Phishing attack against online dating websites

Mass identity theft attack launched against online dating websites

People who use online dating websites whether it will be dating sites for black people, Latinos, or Asians they all can be a proper target for fraudsters.

Members of eHarmony, Match.com , Christian Mingle, Zoosk and others had received some emails seeking to leak login details for the websites, said Netcraft.

The Internet monitoring firm said that other websites had sent the emails, hacked to hide the identity senders.

Stolen information can be used to friend other users in an attempt at them to trick into handing over cash, was said.

The phishing campaign against the dating websites marked a departure for tricksters, who generally opt for banks target, said a security analyst for Netcraft, Paul Mutton, who investigated these attacks.

The attacks were actually “massive”, he said, adding only that in the last week Netcraft had determined over 100 compromised websites targeting Match.com alone.

He also said that it wasn’t clear how websites were being compromised to host the scripts. Sites and servers are run by small businesses, individuals, telecom suppliers and construction firms had all become the phishing tools’ unwitting hosts, he added.

Mr. Mutton said that just one compromised website he had seen included approximately 800 scripts or short programs that targeted various dating sites. Each script was supposed to be generated by a “kit” that was probably bought online.

He said also that every person with a basic programming knowledge could take advantage of the kit usage.

Extract money

The scripts are utilized to craft the phishing emails that will be spammed out to possible victims.

These mails seek to cheat people to enter their login names of the dating websites.

When successful, the information is passed on to dating website’s legitimate login page and is also sent to, for example, one of 300 addresses used by the indemnity thefts.

Tricksters are keen to steal details for accounts thus they could avoid even paying some charges dating websites levied before members could texting with other users, said Mr. Mutton.

Using messages on the online dating sites the tricksters hope to friend others and after this try to extract money to help to aid fictitious relatives or pay for a non-existent medical condition.

Significant amounts of money could be stolen using this way, said Mr. Mutton, recalling to the case of Tracy and Karen Vasseur, from Colorado, who in 2013 were jailed for stealing over $1m (£590,000) tricking 374 people using online dating-site scams.