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July 08, 2011

Following up on my earlier post about so-called Credit Card Overdue Notices, my email addresses have been hit by a new blast with slight variations of Subject: and message body. The sentiment is the same, however: you're supposedly late for some financial payment, and you have two days to open the attached file to get the details and settle the score.

Here is one I saw this morning:

From: Important notification <helping@creditdepartment.com>
Subject: Your financial debt overdue

Dear Customer,

Your Credit Card is one week overdue.
Below your Card information

Customer 4838487517
Number XXXXXX
Card Limit XXXXXX
Pay Date 29 Jun 2011

The details are attached to this e-mail.
Please read the financial statement properly.

If you pay the debt within 2 days, there will be no extra-charges.
In 2 days $25 late fee and a finance charge will be imposed on your account.

Please do not reply to this email, it's automatic mail notification.
Thank you.

The attachment for this particular email was titled Financial_Statement#98165.zip. Inside that zipped archive is a real oddball: a .cpzg file. This is a compressed Unix-style archive, indicating that it may be targeting Mac OS X and Linux users, but I think WinZip can also open these things.

In any case, if you try to open this file and have a problem, that's a GOOD THING! You've saved yourself from installing a Trojan loader onto your computer. Delete the email message and get on with your life. If you're late with a payment, you'll learn via snail mail soon enough.