British police force hit by spammers

net1

Cambridgeshire police in Great Britain have been targeted by a spam campaign that tries to tie up the force's phone system, ZDNet UK reports.

The spammers threaten recipients of emails to charge their credit cards unless they call a 'customer service' number. The email claims to come from a non-existent company called "Huntingdon Mail Order" with the subject line "transaction receipt". It says the recipient's credit card is about to be billed for £399.95 for a 40GB iPod MP3 player.

But the "customer service" number listed at the end of the email, with the quite deliberate aim that concerned recipients will call it, is the phone number of Cambridgeshire Constabulary.

The Cambridgeshire police confirmed they had been inundated with calls about a credit card transaction

Channel Hopper

Clever, the spammer

Not so clever, press release, detailing how anyone with the most basic of computer skill (not even speaka or typa da English wiv keyboard), on the most effective method to date of buggering up the home guard.

There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness"