Yahoo! Messenger scammer, hacker on the loose

Beware of scammers who use Yahoo! Messenger (YM) to lure victims to invest in a fake prepaid load business. If the potential victim decides not to join the “venture,” the scammer then attempts to hack that person’s Yahoo account.

Here’s how the modus operandi works.

Using a hacked Yahoo! account of someone who has you in his/her Friends list, the scammer contacts and chats with you via YM. The scammer tries to gain your trust by talking about your friend’s work and by mentioning people you both know. Apparently, the scammer has already learnt about these things by reading your friend’s emails.

He then proposes that you join him in a potentially lucrative prepaid loading business. One victim’s experience involved a scammer — who pretended to be the friend who works as a flight attendant — supposedly needing P10,000 (US$220) worth of load credits. The load, the scammer explains, is sold at almost 100% profit to other Filipinos abroad who need prepaid load.

If you agree, the scammer asks you to send load to a cellphone number. One number used for this scam was +639169244100, but other numbers are certainly in use. Once the load is sent, you will not hear from the scammer and you ultimately lose money.

If you decide not to send load, however, the scammer then attempts to hack your Yahoo! account by redirecting to a phishing site. (An example of how a Phishing site works is explained in this fake e-gold site article.) The scammer, still pretending to be your friend, invites you to view his pictures posted in a fake Flickr website. Once you log in, the scammer uses the information to hack your Yahoo! account.

Armed with a new hacked account, the scammer contacts the friends listed in your YM Address Book and attempts to dupe them using the same modus operandi.

Don’t be a victim! Don’t fall for this scam!

Discuss this new scam in the Filipino Hacker (YM Modus Operandi) thread.

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