Yahoo! Photos

Date:09.23.2005

Threat Type: Phishing Alert

Websense® Security Labs™ has observed a change in the technique used in phishing attacks, which target users of Yahoo!. Phishing attacks attempt to capture a user's Yahoo! ID and password by displaying a fake Yahoo! Sign In page, and have been around for some time. Recently, though, these phishing sites have begun using alternative Yahoo! Sign In pages, such as Yahoo! Photos.

In the Yahoo! Photos example, users receive an email or instant message that claims to be from a friend wanting to show off photos of a recent event, such as a vacation or a birthday party. The message contains a link to a phishing site, which records the user's Yahoo! ID and password, and then forwards the Yahoo! ID and password on to the real Yahoo! Photos site.

The majority of these phishing sites are hosted in the United States on the free web space provided by the Yahoo! Geocities service.

Phishing site screenshot sample: