Bogus Email Containing Virus Generating Hundreds of Calls to Sun Country, Other Airlines: E-Mail Tells Recipients That Their Credit Cards Have Been Charged
By Tim Harlow, Star Tribune, Minneapolis
Jul. 25–Reservationists at Sun Country Airlines this morning have been fielding hundreds of calls from people throughout the United States who received a widely circulated e-mail informing them that they have been charged for an airline ticket.
The barrage of calls started coming in to the Mendota Heights-based airline shortly after the e-mails telling recipients that they had been charged $403.03 landed in their in-boxes after 7 a.m. today.
In the letter that is signed “Audrey Gaston, Sun Country Airlines,” recipients are directed to open an attachment that includes the purchase invoice and their flight ticket. The attachment contains a virus, said Wendy Williams Blackshaw, the airlines’ vice president of Marketing.
Similar letters that appear to have come from Continental Airlines and US Airways landed in e-mail boxes today. A spokeswoman from Northwest Airlines was unaware of anybody receiving letters that indicate affiliation with that carrier.
The e-mail thanks customers for using a new service called “Buy Airplane Ticket Online” and informs them their credit cards have been charged. The letter tells recipients that an account complete with logon and password has been created for them. Recipients are directed to open an attachment that includes the purchase invoice and their flight ticket. The letter includes instructions on how to use the ticket, and contains a misspelling of the word printer.
“To use your ticket, simply print it on a color printed, and you are set to take off for the journey!” the letter said.
When recipients click on the attachment, the virus that goes by the name Trojan.Zbot-1715 infects their computers.
Deb Smith, of Bloomington, thought the e-mail was suspicious and called Sun Country to inquire about the letter before clicking on the attachment. “I know I didn’t order tickets and I checked with my bank and nothing had been charged,” she said. “I thought, what is Sun Country up to?”
Smith was one of hundreds of people from as far away as Utah and Maine who called the airline this morning. Williams Blackshaw said she thinks that a blogger somewhere captured e-mail addresses and sent the bogus letters.
In Patti McDonald’s case, that was to her work e-mail. A letter that appeared to have come from Continental Airlines arrived there this morning.
“Everything I get here is junk, so I never open that stuff,” said McDonald, city clerk in Lake Shore, Minn. “I never get personal stuff here, so I was suspicious.”
John Fredrickson, general counsel at Sun Country, confirmed that the airline does not have called “Buy Airplane Ticket Online” and that nobody’s credit card has been charged. He also said that to his knowledge nobody by the name of Audrey Gaston works for the airline, or at least nobody with that name works in marketing and promotions.
“Nothing from Sun Country was used to originate these e-mails, and we have reported these e-mails to Yahoo, Hotmail, and the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team,” the company said on its web site.
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