NBK Scam Phising - Investigated

MY K, from MY K Blog wrote about a National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) Phishing scam.

The scam works by sending you an email telling you to go to a seemingly valid banking site and update your account number and PIN code. That site would be a fraudulent site and what it does is send to the fraudsters your personal information that you just entered. Later they will log on to your account and try to transfer money out of it.

I did a little investigation and read the source code of the NBK fraudulent site. I found some clues such as the signature niarB, which is Brain in reverse. Searching around I found some more information about this elusive Brain. It turns out that Brain is a group of Morrocan fraudsters calling themselves Mr. Brain. They offer phishing/scam kits on the Internet that allow you to set up a fraudulent site that looks like a popular bank's page. When the poor victim enters his information, that information is sent to the fraudsters who used Mr. Brain's tools. A copy is also sent to the Morrocan Mr. Brain team. More information about this scheme can be found at Trend Micro's Site and also at Netcraft's Site.

In addition to the Mr. Brain's signature found in the source code, there is also a coded string that represents the email address. The string is "245616c647881696e30384067617761622e636f6d". It probably is the email address of the fraudster.

I did not bother to decode it, but if NBK wants to, they can always catch the Mr. Brain team and they can explain everything to them.

Um Ali's predictions for 2008

I just read this article about Um Ali's predictions for 2008 which I found in the side margin of Jewaira's blog. It seems she is notoriously famous, although I never heard of her before.

Here are Um Ali's predictions with my comments:

Political/Social
* Condolezza Rice will get married

Of course she will, after leaving the white house, she will write a book, go on a tour, be much richer, and find herself a toy boy and get married.

* Most of the parliament's members will be new faces

Come on Um Ali, even our Indian driver could have predicted that.

* An increase in the number of females in the government

Go to the ministries complex, its filled with women, there are no boys there.

* Instability in Kuwait's security, in the city and on the borders with Iraq

Is that new news? There is a war just a few kilometers away, what do you expect?
* Terrorist attempts in Kuwait, ending peacefully

There are crazies everywhere, but there is nowhere to run in Kuwait, so they will quickly get caught.

* The spread of a contagious disease in Kuwait in the coming few days

Summer is here, dust is here, air conditioners are on full blast. People are going to catch something.


* An earthquake will hit Kuwait

Already happened, sorry Um Ali, your prediction is backdated.

* A blackout in Kuwait

That's obvious, now what would impress me is if you gave us a date and time.

* Disputes between Iraq and Kuwait

Obvious also.

* Deputy Prime Minister of a GCC country will not last in office

Power positions always change.


* Two GCC ministers (Interior and Foreign) will not stay in office

That's not a prediction, that's a rumor going around.

* Unusual instability in Saudi Arabia's security

Something new?

* A severe earthquake will hit Egypt causing the collapse of several buildings and a high death toll

Egypt does not need an earthquake for buildings to collapse, just someone sneezing indoors With the multitude of unauthorized floors being built on top of building there, they are bound to collapse.

* Next US President will not be better than the previous one and will hold the worst for the world

Obviously.

* A terrorist attack on the US

Obviously again.

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Um Ali lists out more obvious statements. What would impress me is if she gave details like the date, time, place and the name of a person with a specific prediction. No charlatan managed to do that, not even Nostradamus.

Quacks and Charlatans

Watch this and you will stop believing quacks and charlatans that want to fool us into believing magic tricks as real, supernatural or divine.



James Randi exposes Uri Geller and Peter Popoff