I’ve seen a sudden upsurge in a particular kind of spam over the past day or so. All of them come with a (Windows) executable attachment.
Several of the messages read as follows:
From: Admin@cia.gov Subject: Your IP was logged Date: 21 November 2005 22:07:31 CST To: [my e-mail address] Dear Sir/Madam, we have logged your IP-address on more than 30 illegal Websites. Important: Please answer our questions! The list of questions are attached. Yours faithfully, Steven Allison ++++ Central Intelligence Agency -CIA- ++++ Office of Public Affairs ++++ Washington, D.C. 20505 ++++ phone: (703) 482-0623 ++++ 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., US Eastern time
Call me crazy, but it seems like a really, really bad idea to use the CIA—the same organization known to torture prisoners—as the Joe in your little joe-job phishing expedition.