Some residents of the Philadelphia suburb Tredyffrin have reportedly been receiving emails notifying them of fictitious speeding tickets, and directing them to pay at a link that triggers a malware download.
So
far, ho-hum, in our crazy cyberpunk futureworld. But there’s a lot more
going on here, because, according to Tredyffrin police, the targeted
drivers were actually speeding at the places and times indicated in the emails they received.
Think about that for a second.
Investigators
suspect that the detail-oriented masterminds of this plot hacked a
GPS-enabled smartphone app to obtain the location data and find actual
speeders to target. So far, according to Philadelphia Magazine, only three local residents have reported receiving the emails.
This
raises all kinds of questions. Most email scamming is based on mass
volume and low success rates, but it’s hard to say how scaleable
something this precisely targeted could be. Maybe whoever’s behind this
is trying to invert the email scam paradigm, spooling exceptionally
convincing bait out to a relative handful of people.
There
may be one unanticipated roadblock to their plan, though–Tredyffrin
apparently doesn’t have speed cameras, and real cops issue all citations
in person. That could set off alarms for townies receiving the scam
emails.
Tredyffrin
police are also doing those targeted by the scam a big favor and not
issuing them real tickets, despite their apparent confessions.
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