"Hackers Target Aspiring Internet Scammers: A new phishing kit puts wannabe scammers against seasoned fraudsters" By Jeremy Kirk, IDG News Service - January 23, 2008

InfoWorld reporter Jeremy Kirk recently published an article describing a growing and innovative internet scam. This new scam is targeting other, less experienced hackers. A skilled group of hackers, calling themselves “Mr. Brain,” has developed a series of easy-to-use software packages which permit its users to replicate the websites of well-known brands. The purpose of these mock-websites is to deceive the internet users who find them into giving out their personal information such as bank account numbers, credit card details and social security numbers. In the article, this type of deception is referred to as “phishing.” Some of the major brands that have been targeted and replicated within the software are Bank of America, eBay, PayPal, and HSBC.

In addition, Mr. Brain is distributing this software completely free of charge. Researchers soon discovered the motive for this suspicious “charity.” Paul Mutton is the internet services developer at Netcraft, and during an interview with Kirk revealed that further research conducted by Netcraft, which is a security company in Bath, England, revealed that Mr. Brain has programmed the software to automatically forward the collected private information directly to an email account controlled by Mr. Brain. The “special email function” is hidden in a “blend of PHP scripts. Essentially, the hackers who use the software distributed by Mr. Brain are doing all the leg work for the more experienced group of hackers. Although it is uncertain how many of these phishing kits are actually being used, Netcraft has posted screenshots on its website. Links to Netcraft’s website are provided in Kirk’s article.

I think its astonishing the lengths that people are willing to go to in order to steal what rightfully belongs to someone else. These Mr. Brain hackers have obviously spent a lot of time, thought, energy, and probably someone else's money into figuring out how to develop this software, advertise it, give it away, and then use it for their own gain. It's also amazing that there are so many people who are readily putting this software to use.

http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/01/23/Hackers-target-aspiring-Internet-scammers_1.html