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New phishing trick: Base10 encoding

New phishing trick: Base10 encoding

Robert Vamosi Former Editor
As CNET's former resident security expert, Robert Vamosi has been interviewed on the BBC, CNN, MSNBC, and other outlets to share his knowledge about the latest online threats and to offer advice on personal and corporate security.
Robert Vamosi
Antispam vendor Mailfrontier reports they have seen a new phishing trick designed to mask a fraudulent URL's true IP address. Using Base10 encoding, phishers are masking their true IP addresses with a string of numbers that recipients might not realize are fraudulent. Mailfrontier offers an example: if you view the source for an HTML e-mail with a supposed link to eBay, you might see http: //1122103063/~webmail/:/signin.ebay.com/cgi-bin/login/index.htm, however, the real non-Base10 encoded IP Address is 66.225.239.23 and has nothing to do with the online auction giant.