It seems when the holiday season arrives every year, the usual trickle of spam email starts rising until it reaches a flood stage around Christmas. Perhaps the spammers are playing on the “do good” feelings that come with the season, perhaps they’re just trying to earn a little extra illicit cash to buy things for their own little spammer boys and girls. Whatever the reason, it’s always wise to be extra suspicious of any phishing-type emails you might start to receive.
Not that this one is all that tricky, but I though I’d share an email that I just received a few minutes ago, to show you an example (if a rather obvious one) of a phishing attempt. And one that gives us web-folk a bad name, as well, as you’ll see:
Subject line: RE: (Wow, that’s imaginative.)
From name: web upgrading (Umm, who?)
From email: web@parliament.gov.bd (That darn parliament of ours, always spamming!)
Return path email: webmailupgradingservice@mail.com (In other words, could be anybody.)
Message text:
We are pleased to inform you that Our web admin Center is closing all
unused accounts because of the congestion in our mail server. To confirm
your account active, you are required to complete your details below and
send it to us. This information would be required to verify your account
to avoid being closed.
First Name: ________________________
Last Name: __________________________
E-mail Username: _____________________
E-mail Password: ____________________
>>> Warning!!!
E-mail owner that refuses to comply with this mail his or her Email ID
within 26 days of receiving this warning will lose his or her E-mail
permanently.
Thank you for your understanding.
Copyright ©web Admin 2013 All Rights
Okay, not even particularly well-thought out, and full of the usual phishing give-aways: bad grammar, bad capitalization, etc. Just a straightforward scare tactic. Hopefully all of our usual readers are spam-savvy enough to recognize this for what it is, but it’s a good idea to remind others (the young and the elderly, particularly) to never send personal information (of any kind!) to someone over the Internet, unless you’re absolutely sure you know where you’re sending it. As a good rule of thumb, banks and other financial institutions NEVER ask for personal information via email.
This concludes our good samaritan post for today!