Phishing Scam Example

A Phishing scam is... well, I'll just let the webopedia define it because I'm too lazy to write a definition myself. Phishing is "the act of sending an e-mail to a user falsely claiming to be an established legitimate enterprise in an attempt to scam the user into surrendering private information that will be used for identity theft. The e-mail directs the user to visit a Web site where they are asked to update personal information, such as passwords and credit card, social security, and bank account numbers, that the legitimate organization already has. The Web site, however, is bogus and set up only to steal the user’s information." Here's a very good example of a phishing scam that David Mitchell received in his email and put up on his site. It looks pretty convincing. I could see how people would be fooled by it.

Email Hoaxes

Posted on Fri Jun 04, 2004



Comments

I think the real giveaway on these is the link they give to update information. Every other link on the page goes to http://www.amazon.com but the update link is http://www.supportamazon.com. Why would amazon need a separate site to handle customer information?
Posted by Michael  on  Fri Jun 04, 2004  at  08:55 AM
Another hint is given by the incorrect use of modals in the scam:

If your update will not be completed in 5 days, your account will be removed.

Almost all of these "phishing" scams have bad grammar. It's a real diagnostic for this kind of hoax.
Posted by Leo Caesius  on  Wed Jun 09, 2004  at  09:02 AM
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