Symantec Intelligence

The Symantec Intelligence Blog published by Symantec.cloud serves as a conduit for communicating Intelligence data, trends and statistics based on analysis of cyber security threats, trends and insights from the Symantec Intelligence team comprised of many world-renowned malware and spam experts. Sitting on the front lines of defense, they have a global view of threats across multiple communication protocols drawn from the billions of web pages, email and IM messages they monitor each day.

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  Created: Paul Wood 24 Feb 2011

  419 Spammers Taking Advantage of Libyan Unrest

  Posted on behalf of Nick Johnston, Senior Software Engineer, Symantec.cloud   As 419 or advance fee fraud scammers have demonstrated in recent days and weeks, they are particularly adept at using current events to their advantage. We've covered how scammers have also used Egypt's recent revolution to try to get money from their victims. I recently identified a 419 scam message trying to take advantage of the unrest in Libya. It seems that as countries around the world scramble to evacuate their citizens from the deteriorating situation in the country, 419 scammers are also rushing to send out messages to capitalise on the unrest and publicity. The scam message claims to be written by someone connected to Libya's Senussi crown (overthrown by Muammar al-Gaddafi in his 1969 coup d'état). The scam follows a fairly...
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  Updated: Paul Wood 21 Feb 2011

  Welsh Language 419 Scam - No Language Is Safe!

  Posted on behalf of Sean Butler, Senior Malware Operations Engineer, Symantec.cloud   I recently saw a typical 419 scam mail which was different in one aspect, in that the email was written in Welsh.  Whilst we have seen 419 scam mails constructed in many different languages such as German and French, for example, this was the first time we have come across one of these scam mails written in Welsh. 419 scam mails or advance-fee fraud scam mails usually promise large amounts of money, but demand upfront fees or payments first.  This can leave any potential victims passing over money to the scammers believing this is for the fees, but they will never get the promised large amount of money. The content of the mail is typical of a 419 scam mail.  In it the scammer posing as a widow of a Kuwaiti ambassador for the Ivory Coast has $2.5 million in a trust fund.  They then want their potential victim to...