Virus Warning – Email Subjects – IRS Notice – Important Information from the IRS
I’ve seen a couple of these emails today and wanted to give a post just to warn people that these are bogus and you should NOT follow the link suggested in the email. I HOPE no one reading this falls for it, but the “tax software update” that they are pushing is a virus. (SHOCK!) Only a little over half the antivirus vendors currently detect it.
Read on for details on the message body…
I ran it through virustotal and it’s a variant of mytob according to some antivirus vendors.
Here’s the body:
Dear Tax Payer,
As part of new requirements from the IRS, all U.S. Citizens are required by law to update their computers with new tax software.
To begin the update, please visit http://65.15951047 and click “Open” when asked how to begin the download.
After doing so, no further action is required on your part.
Thank you for your cooperation,
IRS.GOV Agent #7[3
=======================
The only variation in the text between messages seems to be the last line…
IRS.GOV Agent #0[3
is what I saw in another message.
Both messages seem to be from the same machine… here’s the initial received header.
Received: from Exploit ([92.48.88.145]) by domainremoved (8.13.1/8.13.1) with SMTP id m24LIbv9002684 for
Gee, looks like a cool uberhacker calling their machine “Exploit” —better look out for them….
Sender addresses seem to be quasi-random… name+2-3numbers@irs.org (I wonder why they didn’t just try to spoof irs.gov?)
The address should not be visited obviously without the biohazard suit…, it contains a file program.exe served up in an frameset which means that on visiting the page there is a file popup to download/run.
The http address resolves to a machine at ip address 65.243.100.199 – I can’t seem to get a reverse lookup on it – no ptr record?
As always, proceed with caution when dealing with links in emails or files attached to emails.