Stock Investment Tip Scam

Beware the offer of free money, insider tips, and can’t miss moneymaking deals!

Who Is It Targeting: Email recipients

What Is It: Phishing scam that acts like an investment scam

What Are They After: Those crazy “get rich” emails are practically a cultural joke by now—work from home scams, Nigerian princes with millions of dollars to share, and more—but this one contained a couple of surprises.

First, it reads as an investment scam, and a quick web search found no less than fifteen variations on the exact same email, offering the exact same stock opportunity. Interestingly, some simple research showed the stocks they’re offering ARE real, but it appears that someone bought a lot of the stocks with the very simple intention of making it look like it’s on the rise.

However, the code within the email shows that it’s being sent around the internet thanks to the Necurs botnet, a robot that is spoofing email addresses and sending this spam announcement to countless numbers of internet users.

FINAL NOTE: When the Identity Theft Resource Center received this email directly from a scammer, attempts to share it with the team resulted in the virus filter kicking it out, as the attachment contained “Sanesecurity.Junk.55876 virus.” Even if the scammer doesn’t get you to fall for the investment scam and hand over your money, there’s an excellent chance opening the attachment will install a virus on your computer.

Here is the scam email the ITRC received:

How Can You Avoid It:

• First, even if you received a genuine email like this one and acted on it, that could raise some red flags for insider trading.
• Never open an attachment or click a link in an email you were not expecting.
• NO ONE is ever going to offer you untold wealth if they don’t even know you.

If you think you may be a victim of identity theft, contact the Identity Theft Resource Center for toll-free, no-cost assistance at (888) 400-5530. Find more information about current scams and alerts here.