Huntington Park Homicide Email Scam

Email scammers are always looking for new, inventive ways to lure readers into opening and executing malicious email attachments, and this latest method-operandi is the example to hit inboxes across the globe.

The email (example below) disguises itself as an alert from Critical Reach about a homicide suspect in Huntington Park, though later versions will likely alter that location. (UPDATE: later versions change location to London City) The email attempts to pique the curiosity of the reader or alarm them into opening the attachment which, according to the email contains more details.

 

 

Subject: ALERT@CriticalReach.Org

Bulletin Headline: HOMICIDE SUSPECT
Sending Agency: Huntington Park Police
Sending Location: CA - Los Angeles - Huntington Park
Bulletin DateTime: 2014-03-25 @ 14.32

The bulletin is a pdf attachment to this email.

The Adobe Reader (from Adobe.com) will display and print the bulletin best.
You can Not reply to the bulletin by clicking on the Reply button in your email software.

 

However the email contains a zipped application (.exe) file that harbours malware if it is executed.

Previous emails scams have claimed to come from funeral homes or even emails that claim the recipient may have cancer.

As usual, never open suspicious email attachments and always be wary of attachments in ZIP compressed files.

Think you executed a dangerous attachment? Then run your security software. Don’t have any? Click here for our recommendations.

Using Microsoft Word 2010? Be alert for rogue .RTF files.

If you're still using Microsoft Word 2010, be on the lookout for people asking you to open files with the .RTF extension, as an exploit can give hackers access to your computer.

What's an RTF file? It stands for Rich Text Format, and is a text format that can be opened in programs like MS Word. Legitimate RTF files simply contain text files.

But crafty scammers have found out a way to create malicious RTF files that they then try to send to potential victims across the Internet. (Primary conduit will almost certainly be sending malicious RTF files through email)

So if you're using MS Word 2010, just be on the watch-out for suspicious emails and other communications that implore you to open RTF files (files with a .rtf extension) - users with Word 2003 or 2007 can also be at risk as well.

Following your usual security advice of not opening unusual or suspicious files should be enough to protect yourself from this threat.

This exploit should soon be all patched up by Microsoft soon, so ensure that future Microsoft updates are installed in a timely manner!