"If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen."
-Samuel Adams

the Misanthropic Humanist:

constantinemagildahyde2@yahoo.com

18 April 2009

Phishing

Luckily for us, not everybody who goes phishing for your personal information is very good at it. This elegant example arrived in my in-box just today:


we wishes to inform you that your E-mail id have won you a lump sum pay
out of Eight hundred and ninty-one thousand,nine hundred and thirty-four
Great Britain pounds £891,934.00 pounds sterlings)you are to contact our
agent.

Mr Phil Herald.
Email:cgnl_claimsagent@gala.net
TEL: +447031907814
+447031925941

He will brief you on steps to be taken for due processing and remittance
of your prize money.

PLEASE FILL OUT THE VERIFICATION AND FUNDS RELEASE
============================================
1. FULL NAMES OF BENEFICIARY:
2. RESIDENTIAL ADDRESS:
3. DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH:
4. PHONE/FAX NUMBERS:
5. NAME AND ADDRESS OF NEXT OF KIN:
6. SEX:
7. OCCUPATION:
8. MARITAL STATUS:
9. NATIONALITY:
10. REF NUMBER AND BATCH NUMBER:
11. AMOUNT WON:

Sincerely,
Mrs. Dianne Thompson
Online Coordinator,
CAMELOT GROUP,Operators of The National Lottery.


My email address, by nature of being so danged long, used to be nearly spam-proof. Starting a blog and publishing it seems to have weakened its resistance. Lesson? If you're going to start a blog, make sure you create a NEW email address for it. I should have thought of that before hand, but this site started as sort of a test... I didn't realize that I'd keep it or enjoy writing so much!

-The Misanthrope

2 comments:

  1. Most phishing efforts are not so blatantly scams. I received a request for information that appeared to be from one of my creditors. It looked right, except for one misspelled word, and mimicked the bank's website, but I called them to verify, and the request had not originated with them. Perhaps the study of English could be promoted as a security measure!

    ReplyDelete
  2. A great idea, if it weren't for actual banks and creditors misspelling things almost as often. I even feel like reading newspapers with a red pen these days!

    ReplyDelete