FBI: Surveillance E-mail Is Really a Scam

Rob Updegrove 22 Nov, 2005 at 9:10am ET Article published in Tech

The FBI issued an alert stating that an e-mail, supposedly from the FBI, telling internet users that they are being monitored, is false and should not be acted upon.

The users are told they have visited illegal Web sites and are instructed to open an attachment to answer questions.

The FBI did not send these e-mails and does not send any other unsolicited e-mails to the public, an agency statement said. As many harmful computer viruses are located in e-mail attachments, the FBI said it strongly encourages computer users not to open attachments from unknown recipients.

The FBI is investigating the scam. Recipients of these e-mails are asked to report them by visiting the Internet Crime Complaint Center at http://www.ic3.gov.

Submitted by: profdlp

Source: Fox News

Comments

22 Nov 2005 ~ 3:12pm Freemymelody I haven't recieve any of those emails, and if I did, I would delete them if it has an unknown name or an unfamiliar name as a subject. damn scammers...
22 Nov 2005 ~ 7:05pm Straight_Man MessageLabs has determined this attachment is a new Sober virus-- See my thread in SVT forum area with thier message if you want details.
22 Nov 2005 ~ 10:59pm GHoosdum John's Thread: http://www.short-media.com/forum/showthread.php?t=39670

Thanks John!
22 Nov 2005 ~ 11:52pm Nosferatu I received one. I just laughed.
23 Nov 2005 ~ 12:07am sfleuriet I get about 100 spam a day, but I let the Yahoo server just put it right in the Bulk mail folder so Thunderbird doesn't pick any of it up. Occasionally Yahoo will miss one, but its not often.
23 Nov 2005 ~ 5:33am dragonV8 Sally got one yesterday. What a joke. "30 illegal sites"????

And from the FBI who has no jurisdiction in Oz. Smelled a rat straight away.

Just deleted the stupid thing, suspect attachment and all.
23 Nov 2005 ~ 12:56pm Nosferatu KHGALHGH!!!! You Mean I Wasn't Supposed To Open It!?!?
26 Nov 2005 ~ 12:46pm Aranyic Heh my entire domain at work is caught in the loop right now. Everyone's computers are clean in house. I am recieving about 700 emails a day and everyone else 200-300 (I'm lucky enough to be the catch-all). Time to invest in some spam filtering I think :/.
28 Nov 2005 ~ 12:55pm drasnor What's an illegal webpage?

-drasnor
28 Nov 2005 ~ 4:34pm profdlp

drasnor wrote:

What's an illegal webpage?

-drasnor

When I am king:

Worse and worser...

I am joking.

Sort of.
28 Nov 2005 ~ 4:56pm drasnor Seriously though, there isn't such a thing in a free country. There are high-risk or red-flag websites that probably are under government surveillance but I'm pretty sure the Constitution specifically forbids government censorship of non-classified information.

-drasnor
28 Nov 2005 ~ 5:13pm profdlp

drasnor wrote:

Seriously though, there isn't such a thing in a free country...

If they sat down and thought about it, most people would probably figure out on their own that this was bogus. These clowns are preying on:

A) The skeptics, who say "Yeah, right..." and click the link out of curiosity.
-or-
B) The panickers, who click the link before thinking.

As for the censorship issue, until a law is broken you are correct. I would not like my chances were I to download some of the material we all know is available on the Internet, then stake my defense on a claim of "censorship".
28 Nov 2005 ~ 5:42pm drasnor If you're referring to *ahem* copyrighted material, I believe that's in a different category than visiting a web page. However, if the page is like a (insert generic social outcast category here) page and you're studying the proper tactics for sweeping and securing a building single-handedly then you're doing something fairly suspicious but simply reading about it isn't illegal (though needless to say the acts described are).

-drasnor
28 Nov 2005 ~ 6:31pm profdlp

drasnor wrote:

If you're referring to *ahem* copyrighted material, I believe that's in a different category than visiting a web page. However, if the page is like a (insert generic social outcast category here) page and you're studying the proper tactics for sweeping and securing a building single-handedly then you're doing something fairly suspicious but simply reading about it isn't illegal (though needless to say the acts described are).

-drasnor

I was thinking more along the lines of offering and/or downloading visual materials designed to appeal to those who wish to harm children, (or already have), not your garden variety anarchist who is preparing for a rainy day.

One might bear watching; the other needs to be locked up. Either way, I don't see the FBI using email as a notification method. A hearty rap at the door would seem more appropriate.