Welcome back!
While I don't approve of spam in the least, I have to admit that I consider it kinda ironic that a scam email is faking an email address at the Federal Trade Commission.
When you get the email it has a faked "From:" line 'frauddep(at)ftc.gov' and says that a claim has been filed with the FTC against you. This email has an attachment along with it which is where the real purpose of it is.
The attachment is a virus that will install a program that can steal passwords and account numbers. Of course, the best defense is to not open ANY attachment, even if it looks like it's from a legitimate source unless you expect it and first take time to scan it for malware. NEVER just open any old attachment because the email claims to be from a friend or some official source. That from line can be set to anything somebody wants.. easily.
The only REAL way to be certain of the source of an email is if it is digitally signed (like with PGP or GnuPG/GPG) and you take time to verify the signature.
Technorati Tags: email+fraud, ftc, irony, fake+ftc, virus, attachment
