Google, Yahoo targeted by "phishing" scam

Published: 12:17PM Wednesday October 07, 2009 Source: ONE News

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Google and Yahoo's email service users have also been duped by hackers into betraying names and passwords to accounts.

They join a number of web-based email service providers, which includes AOL and Microsoft Hotmail, that have been targeted as part of an "industry-wide phishing scheme".

Phishing involves using fake websites to lure people into revealing data such as bank account details and login names or downloading malicious software onto computers.

Phishing tactics include sending people tainted email attachments that promise enticing content such as sexy photos of celebrities and luring people to bogus log-in pages that are convincing replicas of legitimate websites.

The phishing scam was originally thought to target just Hotmail users.

It was brought to light when 10,000 Hotmail addresses were posted online at Pastebin, a website commonly used by developers to share code. The list was then reported by technology blog Neowin.

However, a second list of 20,000 names has since emerged containing e-mail addresses and passwords from Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL, Gmail and other service providers.

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