Email security firm Barracuda Networks says a webpage hosted in China is latest the destination for Internet users who fall prey to phishers' activities.
Barracuda says spam emails designed to look like Google AdWords Alert emails contain what appears to be a legitimate link to the Google AdWords account webpage at adwords.google.com. However, when clicked, the recipient is redirected to a website hosted in China that is designed to look like the Google AdWords account home page.
Once on the fake Google AdWords account website, Barracuda says users are directed to provide their Google username and password, as well as prompted to update their account information including credit card number in order to avoid having their account suspended. Unsuspecting users who provide this information run the risk of fraudulent charges to their credit card as well as possibly to their legitimate Google account.
Barracuda says the campaign appears to be increasing in magnitude, potentially sucking more naive Internet users into its lair. The best defense immediate defense against the campaign is to not open suspect emails or not provide confidential data to suspect websites.
According to Spamhaus, the world's largest organization whose mission is to track the Internet's spam operations, China atill ranks as one of the top places where phishing activities originate. According to Spamhaus' SBL, a realtime database of IP addresses of verified spam sources and spam operations, China ranks second behind the United States with the number of active spam operations.