Make a Date With Fraud

Rambo Tribble (1273454) writes "Netcraft is reporting that criminals are mounting massive phishing attacks through online dating sites. The scams are numerous and target multiple sites. Actual methods range from blackmail to 419-style scams. Characteristically, fraudsters hijack an existing account on one of the services, then use that as a portal to deliver a PHP script to compromise the site. 'The latest attacks make use of a phishing kit which contains hundreds of PHP scripts, configured to send stolen credentials to more than 300 distinct email addresses.' The BBC offers additional insights ."

Parasite Entry?

[LifesABeach]

Looking at the code provided by NetCraft, and RTFA, it looks like a bogus php $_post transaction is sent to a php web service? So if the web service doesn't verify the inputs, then that would be an entry point where a script vectors in? I guess the real question is, "How to prevent a PHP script being executed when it is being read in as an $_post element? Another question is, "What command sequence causes this?"

Re:Scammers always looking for a target

[nukenerd]

Anyway in the process of using dating sites for 3 years, I would only get about a 1/70 ratio of people I message.

Is that 1 in 70 reply, 1 in 70 you meet, or 1 in 70 you get to do whatever? I was in a dating club (pre-internet - it was letter based). Got about 25% replies, met about 5%, further dates with about 2%, went steady (as it was called, not the same as a LTR) with 1%, married 0.2%.

Someone said you should have been more selective in who to contact. I started that way, looking for certain personalities, but got very few replies; then I just wrote to all that were in a 5 year age bracket and not taller than me (there were no photos in that club). Suprisingly, I got on very well with girls who were quite opposite to me - dimmer and more outgoing, including an ex- Bunny Girl (not as exciting as you might think). FWIW I was mentally stable, not nerdy, quite well off, and not all that bad looking - which is assumed to be what girls look for, but it cetainly isn't, not these days anyway.

one of the reasons for me stopping to use dating sites is that if God has someone for me, he'll hook me up

I never met any girl outside of dating clubs, and by "met" I mean to have a social conversation > 10 seconds. It remains a mystery to me how people meet each other any other way.