Friday, 29 June 2007

Spammers Using Mind Games to Woo Victims: McAfee

Spammers have become not just smart but now that use mind games to lure victims into parting with their information, a new result by McAfee says.

Spammers have become not just smart but now that use mind games to lure victims into parting with their information, a new result by McAfee says.

The study called as “Mind Games” tells how spammers are using psychological games and other tactics in social engineering scams done junk email.

Dr. James Blascovich, Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara analysed several common scam emails and also provided insights into how cyber criminals use fear, greed and lust to methodically steal personal and proprietary financial information.

Dr. Blascovich said, “Scam spam works best by proving recipients with a sense of familiarity and legitimacy, either by creating the illusion that the email is from a friend or colleague, or providing plausible warnings from a respected institution.”

“Once the victim opens the email, criminals use two basic motivational processes, approach and avoidance, or a combination of the two, to persuade victims to click on dangerous links, provide personal information, or download risky files,” he added.