Impact
Site Admin Joined: 01 May 2004 Posts: 3257 Location: Pinecrest, FL	Posted: Tue Apr 12, 2005 3:15 pm    Post subject: Phishing Scams   I've been seeing quite a few phishing scams floating around recently (got a few in my mailbox yesterday), and thought I'd give you guys a run-down on what phishing scams are, and how to protect yourself a little better. I have a great example of a _bad_ phishing scam here, one I received yesterday. Now, the following link is a SCAM, you can follow the link to look at it, but PLEASE don't fill in ANY real information. http://environmentalengineerjobs.com/images/index.html Ok, now for how to tell its a scam. Tip 1: The "From" name was: "Ebay Representative: Francis Hairston" However, the return email address was: "Norris.Lancaster@ebay.com" (note the different name) And at the bottom of the email, it was signed: "Caleb Early" Would an Ebay representative send out an email with 3 different names in different places? Probably not! Tip 2: The email follows: ------------- While doing our account maintenance and verification procedures, we have detected a minor error in your account information This might be due to either of the following reasons: 1.) A recent change in your personal information ( i.e. change of address) 2.) Submitting invalid information during the initial sign up process 3.) An inability to accurately verify your selected option of payment due to an internal error within our processors update and verify your information by clicking the link below: Click Here If your account information is not updated within 48 hours then your ability to sell or bid on eBay will become restricted. Sincerely, eBay Safe Harbor Dept. Caleb Early ----------- I bolded a few key pieces. Someone from a major company (such as Ebay), would make sure to proof read an email being sent out. Tip 3: The funniest part of this email to me is the link. It just says "Click Here". And if you do click on it, it takes you to a domain that’s not even close to Ebay. It takes you to "environmentalengineeringjobs.com". Give me a break, if you run a phishing scam, at least get a domain _close_ to the one you are scamming. Tip 4: The site looks almost nothing like Ebay. As was pointed out to me, if you don't use ebay much, you might not notice the difference, but I encourage you to go to ebay.com, and back to the spoof page to see the difference. Tip 5: Look at the amount of information they ask for. They don't ask you to log in first, they just want a _ton_ of information. Credit Card number? Yeah, that’s needed for some Ebay transactions I guess, but Social Security Number? Drivers License number? Bank info? Mothers Maiden Name? Give me a break. This is _all_ of your personal information. If you fell for something like this, the scammers would have enough information to steal your identity with ease. Now onto the way phising works: Someone designs a site that mimics the actions of a reputable (widely used) company (such as Ebay, or Paypal). And then send out thousands of emails to people, saying they need to update their information. If this person isn't careful, they enter their personal information (in this case, all of it), and it gets sent back to the phisher. This person now has the ability to either use this person's information (and open new bank accounts, take out loans, etc), or sell it off to another phisher to use. This was just a sort of Public Service Announcement. Please be careful of your personal information. If a site tells you that it needs your information confirmed, don't click through the link if you think it might be fake. Just type the address of the site (www.ebay.com in this example), log in as usual, and update it through Ebay. No need to go about risking it.
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