A group of creative hackers have literally taken their cause to the streets. And they’ve done so by creating fake parking tickets designed to lure people to a malware-infected Web site.
The scam was discovered a few days ago in Grand Rapids, North Dakota.
Sans Institute security consultant Lenny Zeltser said individuals who received the phony tickets were told they were in violation of “standard parking regulations” and could view a picture of the violation on the Internet. A link to a Web site containing a searchable archive of “bad parking” was provided on the ticket.
Upon arriving at the site, the “parking violators” are instructed to download an executable toolbar and search for their car. Unsurprisingly, the .exe file contains a Trojan horse.
It sounds ridiculous, but hey, even the cybercriminal community needs to come up with new ways to make money during this recession.