A certain type of bank transfer scam, referred to as a “Hey-it’s-me” scam, seems to be on the rise in Japan these days. According to the National Police Agency in Japan, more than 20,000 cases of this type of scam were recorded in 2008—up from 17,930 cases in 2007. The “Hey-it's-me” scam is a common type of fraud in Japan that often plays out as follows: A scammer makes a phone call to an elderly person and says, “Hi grandpa, it’s me! I’m in big trouble and need some money. Could you transfer funds into my bank account?” Sometimes the scammers even use a name from a selection of the victim’s relatives by obtaining a list of students or employees beforehand. Recently, police have increased their efforts to thwart this type of scam by taking measures such as posting warning signs and placing police officers at ATMs.While a scam carried out over the telephone receives greater local attention, people are now advised to be very cautious with online phishing attempts sent by email. Symantec has recently observed a Japanese-language email scam that appears to be an official notification from a trusted and well-known bank, claiming that there is an important message about his or her account that can be read by clicking a URL in the message. The link leads to a fraudulent site that mimics an online banking site, but is instead used to collect user IDs and passwords from victims. One noticeable characteristic about this message is that it is written in a very unusual style. More than likely, the spammer translated the message text using an online automated translator since the grammar style is not something you would see coming from a legitimate source. The text of these messages is in Japanese, except for the subject line, which is in English. In addition, the date format in these messages is rarely used in Japan.Among the various types of spam in Asia/Pacific and Japan, these scams account for only 2.5% of spam—compared to other spam types such as “health” spam, which accounts for approximately 31% of all spam messages. While scam spam is relatively rare, its impact can be far-reaching in the lives of the victims.
Translation:
Account: [Brand name removed]Date:19/02/2009You have a new message.We would like to inform you that we have 1 new message in your mail box. You can read the message by clicking the link and login.(This message contains an important detail about your account and online banking.)