With Friends Like That
Spammers are not above exploiting people's deep insecurities -- particularly when it comes to knowing who has shut them out of their IM buddy lists. In this attack, spammers offer users the opportunity to scan through their messenger buddy list and highlight who they would like removed from it. The attack invites the user to click on a URL in order to find out who has blocked their name on their instant messenger buddy lists.
Before this can be accomplished, the spam asks the poor "blacklisted" users to provide their username and password -- a not so discreet attempt to acquire login credentials. Once this information is obtained, attackers bank on the fact that they can often use these same passwords to gain entry into banking and other financial accounts as most users use the same password for multiple applications.
