While the traditional proverb reads "Entre bueyes no hay cornadas" or "There is honor among thieves" I think most of us are more familiar with the more contemporary "There is no honor among thieves" and that apparently is as true among the highwaymen of the Internet.
I ran across an interesting post on The Register that reported that some wanabee hackers, also known as script kiddies, have become victims of "professional" hackers from Morocco calling themselves Mr. Brain. According to the post, the amateurs were attempting to run a scam using a free phishing kit with "a hidden backdoor that siphons off stolen credentials from the fraudsters who use the technology".
Netcraft provided a detailed report of this discovery; how the backdoor functions and delivers e-mail back to Mr. Brain. While in some cases I might be happy that some Karma was in action, this just means some more successful hoodlums now have access to innocent consumers stolen credit card numbers. Yet one more reason to be wary of e-mail requesting financial or personal information, no matter how legitimate it may seem, because this information may be delivered to an even wider audience.
I've received some pretty convincing e-mail in the past that was most definitely someone on a "phishing" trip and reported it the appropriate authorities, but have never heard if they were able to catch and prosecute the offender. Have you ever been the victim of a phishing scam? Have you ever reported an incident to the proper authorities and seen some results?
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