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Security - Best (Worst) Link Scam I've Seen
Yet
Try one of these links:
If you're running under Mozilla (Firefox and Opera too) you're probably wondering what the fuss is about. But if
you're running Internet Explorer, the results are quite
astonishing.
I found this one in a phishing message that came in today.
Usually when I examine a fake email it's pretty easy to spot the
fake. But in this one the link in the status bar looked
legitimate. The difference in behavior of this link to a standard
one was so small I didn't notice it. Even the sample code was so subtle that it took me a
while to notice what they were doing.
The trick is done by placing a form inside of a hyperlink:
<a href= "http://www.google.com">
<form method="get"
action="http://www.danappleman.com">
<INPUT style="text-align:
left ; BORDER-RIGHT: 0pt; BORDER-TOP: 0pt; FONT-SIZE: 10pt;
BORDER-LEFT: 0pt; CURSOR: hand; COLOR: blue; BORDER-BOTTOM:
0pt;
BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; TEXT-DECORATION: underline"
type=submit
value= http://www.google.com></form></a>
The <INPUT> tag is a button for a form. But instead of
appearing like a button, the styles are set to turn it into a
standard looking link (standard, meaning it will match the default
color scheme on most browsers). The text of the button is
www.google.com, and because the entire form is inside of a link,
the browser picks up on www.google.com as the target link. But
when you click on the fake link, it actually uses the action
attribute of the form, sending you to a different site.
The lesson: NEVER NEVER NEVER click on a link in an
email. Always type in the URL in the address bar of your browser.
Even that's no guarantee if your system is already infected, but
if you're system is clean, you'll be in good shape.
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