iPhone buyers, beware of fake UPS notices

In view of the fact that deliveries of the extremely popular iPhone 5 will start on Friday, Websense’s director of security research Patrik Runald has issued a warning about ongoing UPS/FedEx-themed spam campaigns.

“Apple sold more than 2 million of the new phone in less than 24 hours so clearly there’s a huge interest in getting the device. This means that many people are eagerly waiting for their shipping notifications, to learn when the phone will arrive,” he says, and points out that Apple will be shipping the devices via UPS.

The fake notifications don’t mention the iPhone, but could still trick many impatient users:

When opened, the attached HTML file shows a “Please wait a moment. You will be forwarded-¦” note.

The note is not lying – you will be forwarded, but to a Russian domain hosting the Blackhole exploit kit. If the exploit kit manages to do what it is created to do, you will be saddled with a banking Trojan.

“When I look at the emails monitored by our Cloud Email Security service, I can see that we’ve intercepted and blocked over 45,000 emails similar to this one,” shares Runald.

“UPS/FedEx lures are not new, but in times like this – when people are eagerly waiting for an email of this type – the risk is great that recipients will have their guards down and will run the attached file.”