• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • About Darknet
  • Hacking Tools
  • Popular Posts
  • Darknet Archives
  • Contact Darknet
    • Advertise
    • Submit a Tool
Darknet – Hacking Tools, Hacker News & Cyber Security

Darknet - Hacking Tools, Hacker News & Cyber Security

Darknet is your best source for the latest hacking tools, hacker news, cyber security best practices, ethical hacking & pen-testing.

E-mail Scammers Target Microsoft Users

October 16, 2008

Views: 5,338

Microsoft users are being targeted again by malware via e-mail, scammers/spammers never give up and for once the e-mail looks fairly legitimate.

Usually this kind of ‘baitware’ is riddled with terrible grammar and horrible spellings, do make sure you brief the less security aware friends you have about this though just in case.

Email scams are a common way to spread malware and/or steal personal information. Some great guidelines to help you protect yourself from such scams are outlined here.

We have recently found out about the latest in an ongoing string of email scams that target Microsoft customers. This particular scam contains the Backdoor:Win32/Haxdoor trojan as an attachment. We have seen a few emails targeting Microsoft customers that look like the email below:

It’s not the first time we’ve seen this attack vector used in this way, but most AV software with a recent signature file should catch this e-mail as it comes in.

It shouldn’t be a big problem for corporates.

The email is as follows:

Dear Microsoft Customer,

Please notice that Microsoft company has recently issued a Security Update
for OS Microsoft Windows. The update applies to the following OS versions:
Microsoft Windows 98, Microsoft Windows 2000, Microsoft Windows Millenium,
Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft Windows Vista.

Please notice, that present update applies to high-priority updates
category. In order to help protect your computer against security
threats and performance problems, we strongly recommend you to
install this update.

Since public distribution of this Update through the official website
http://www.microsoft.com would have result in efficient creation of a
malicious software, we made a decision to issue an experimental private
version of an updatefor all Microsoft Windows OS users.

As your computer is set to receive notifications when new updates are
available, you have received this notice.

In order to start the update, please follow the step-by-step instruction:
1. Run the file, that you have received along with this message.
2. Carefully follow all the instructions you see on the screen.

If nothing changes after you have run the file, probably in the settings
of your OS you have an indication to run all the updates at a background
routine. In that case, at this point the upgrade of your OS will be finished.

We apologize for any inconvenience this back order may be causing you.

Thank you,

Steve Lipner
Director of Security Assurance
Microsoft Corp.

Once again be aware, perhaps stick a rule in your IDS at the mail gateway so you know if this one comes in.

And do tell people about it!

Source: Microsoft Technet (Thanks Navin)

Share
Tweet
Share
Buffer
WhatsApp
Email
0 Shares

Filed Under: Malware, Spammers & Scammers Tagged With: email-hacking, hacking microsoft, hacking-email, malware, microsoft, scammers, Social Engineering, spammers, trojan



Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. navin says

    October 16, 2008 at 3:03 pm

    As always
    cheers :)

  2. Morgan Storey says

    October 17, 2008 at 1:25 am

    it is mindblowing that people still fall for these scams.

  3. navin says

    October 17, 2008 at 1:23 pm

    cmon, today people trust Facebook with their most intimate details, and tht’s a site tht’s not even a decade old!! Most consider Microsoft a demigod company….so an email from them is accepted with Zero logic!!

  4. Cor-Paul says

    October 20, 2008 at 7:48 am

    @navin I think most current computer users have zero logic anyways :)

  5. Gul says

    October 20, 2008 at 11:57 am

    Hi guys…

    I think that majority of people just doesn’t realized, that’s just a big ‘joke’. Remind you of the first years of internet, we were like child (some of us were, actually) with stars in the eyes, and a certain taste to discover what lies in the all new world. But we didn’t really knew what shall be founded. know we’ve grown up and a more prepared to face this hostile lands. But for a lot of people, it’s just like what it was for us decades ago… Plus the new bad guys, and not everyone really understand what their up to. “And, you know, when my computer is broken, I only need to reinstall windows”… Yeah, they just are like us decades ago… But they didn’t realize that threats are bigger, and are not just about breaking you windows, forcing you to reinstall…

    I think we really need to make them grow up a little bit. After all, now we are the veterans ;)

  6. navin says

    October 20, 2008 at 6:28 pm

    duh!! but meh

    who cares bout them dopes anyways?? U can take a horse to a watering hole but u can’t force it to drink water…..similarly, u can tell dopes to secure themselves a million times, but u can’t force them to act logically!!

  7. Gul says

    October 21, 2008 at 8:31 am

    We just have to ‘educate’ them. Could be fun, you just take the ‘big mouths’/hierarchic superiors/etc in a group, show them how it’s funny all the informations you can gather from their social networks and with forged emails and them make them become just a bit paranoid… Then, you just have to look how the information flows ;)

    Social engineering can be used for that too ;)

  8. goodpeople says

    October 27, 2008 at 8:20 am

    I agree with Gul. Education is the only solution. Plus that we have to whatever we can at a technical level to protect our sheep.

    But I fear that there will always be a market for this kind of threat.

Primary Sidebar

Search Darknet

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Advertise on Darknet

Latest Posts

AI-Powered Malware - The Next Evolution in Cyber Threats

AI-Powered Malware – The Next Evolution in Cyber Threats

Views: 255

Introduction Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reshaping cybersecurity on both sides of the … ...More about AI-Powered Malware – The Next Evolution in Cyber Threats

Falco - Real-Time Threat Detection for Linux and Containers

Falco – Real-Time Threat Detection for Linux and Containers

Views: 372

Security visibility inside containers, Kubernetes, and cloud workloads remains among the hardest … ...More about Falco – Real-Time Threat Detection for Linux and Containers

Wazuh – Open Source Security Platform for Threat Detection, Visibility & Compliance

Wazuh – Open Source Security Platform for Threat Detection, Visibility & Compliance

Views: 680

As threat surfaces grow and attack sophistication increases, many security teams face the same … ...More about Wazuh – Open Source Security Platform for Threat Detection, Visibility & Compliance

Best Open Source HIDS Tools for Linux in 2025 (Compared & Ranked)

Views: 599

With more businesses running Linux in production—whether in bare metal, VMs, or containers—the need … ...More about Best Open Source HIDS Tools for Linux in 2025 (Compared & Ranked)

SUDO_KILLER - Auditing Sudo Configurations for Privilege Escalation Paths

SUDO_KILLER – Auditing Sudo Configurations for Privilege Escalation Paths

Views: 639

sudo is a powerful utility in Unix-like systems that allows permitted users to execute commands with … ...More about SUDO_KILLER – Auditing Sudo Configurations for Privilege Escalation Paths

Bantam - Advanced PHP Backdoor Management Tool For Post Exploitation

Bantam – Advanced PHP Backdoor Management Tool For Post Exploitation

Views: 485

Bantam is a lightweight post-exploitation utility written in C# that includes advanced payload … ...More about Bantam – Advanced PHP Backdoor Management Tool For Post Exploitation

Topics

  • Advertorial (28)
  • Apple (46)
  • Countermeasures (228)
  • Cryptography (82)
  • Database Hacking (89)
  • Events/Cons (7)
  • Exploits/Vulnerabilities (431)
  • Forensics (65)
  • GenAI (3)
  • Hacker Culture (8)
  • Hacking News (230)
  • Hacking Tools (684)
  • Hardware Hacking (82)
  • Legal Issues (179)
  • Linux Hacking (74)
  • Malware (238)
  • Networking Hacking Tools (352)
  • Password Cracking Tools (104)
  • Phishing (41)
  • Privacy (219)
  • Secure Coding (118)
  • Security Software (235)
  • Site News (51)
    • Authors (6)
  • Social Engineering (37)
  • Spammers & Scammers (76)
  • Stupid E-mails (6)
  • Telecomms Hacking (6)
  • UNIX Hacking (6)
  • Virology (6)
  • Web Hacking (384)
  • Windows Hacking (169)
  • Wireless Hacking (45)

Security Blogs

  • Dancho Danchev
  • F-Secure Weblog
  • Google Online Security
  • Graham Cluley
  • Internet Storm Center
  • Krebs on Security
  • Schneier on Security
  • TaoSecurity
  • Troy Hunt

Security Links

  • Exploits Database
  • Linux Security
  • Register – Security
  • SANS
  • Sec Lists
  • US CERT

Footer

Most Viewed Posts

  • Brutus Password Cracker – Download brutus-aet2.zip AET2 (2,299,450)
  • Darknet – Hacking Tools, Hacker News & Cyber Security (2,173,112)
  • Top 15 Security Utilities & Download Hacking Tools (2,096,648)
  • 10 Best Security Live CD Distros (Pen-Test, Forensics & Recovery) (1,199,694)
  • Password List Download Best Word List – Most Common Passwords (933,536)
  • wwwhack 1.9 – wwwhack19.zip Web Hacking Software Free Download (776,178)
  • Hack Tools/Exploits (673,304)
  • Wep0ff – Wireless WEP Key Cracker Tool (530,196)

Search

Recent Posts

  • AI-Powered Malware – The Next Evolution in Cyber Threats May 21, 2025
  • Falco – Real-Time Threat Detection for Linux and Containers May 19, 2025
  • Wazuh – Open Source Security Platform for Threat Detection, Visibility & Compliance May 16, 2025
  • Best Open Source HIDS Tools for Linux in 2025 (Compared & Ranked) May 14, 2025
  • SUDO_KILLER – Auditing Sudo Configurations for Privilege Escalation Paths May 12, 2025
  • Bantam – Advanced PHP Backdoor Management Tool For Post Exploitation May 9, 2025

Tags

apple botnets computer-security darknet Database Hacking ddos dos exploits fuzzing google hacking-networks hacking-websites hacking-windows hacking tool Information-Security information gathering Legal Issues malware microsoft network-security Network Hacking Password Cracking pen-testing penetration-testing Phishing Privacy Python scammers Security Security Software spam spammers sql-injection trojan trojans virus viruses vulnerabilities web-application-security web-security windows windows-security Windows Hacking worms XSS

Copyright © 1999–2025 Darknet All Rights Reserved · Privacy Policy