Hackers Targeting Stoners?
The F-Secure web blog highlights today an amusing phishing scam in which phishers blast out spam emails touting the best “herbal” remedies. Actually, the spam emails claim that they are the world’s source for “legal” marijuana. If you visit the site they link to you can see several tarry buds for sale and it provides an online shopping experience.
Stoners beware: Pot makes you stupid enough to fall for online fraud.
You can read the rest of the analysis of this scam at F-Secure here. The gist is that it is likely a phishing botnet that is both sending the emails and hosting the fake online pot store.
As such, you can bet that any credit number provided for a shipment of these illegal goods will certainly get swiped.
But I wonder why hackers don’t target someone with more motivation? Most stoners wouldn’t have good jobs that would afford them the necessary credit history to get a credit card in the first place. Or if they do, are the hackers counting on the fact that pot makes you stupid enough to hand over the credit card number on a fake website? Or maybe they are hoping that this type of fraud will take longer to be reported. Who would tell the cops they were ripped off by trying to buy pot online?
Or are the hackers fantasizing about what they are going to buy with their ill-gotten gains?
It’s so clearly NOT cannabis. The world is awash with “legal buds” that look like real marijuana, but are either flowers from another plant or a carefully crafted piece of plant/flower products from other plants. The site in question undoubtedly actually sells these buds. I would imagine that most customers end up being very disappointed.
Actually, the site in question is quite fake. FSecure proved that the DNS for the site originates from a botnet. Any customers will never receive any purchased product and will likely have their credit card compromised.