A nice day for phishing!!

[Rufus T. Firefly]

I received an e-mail from (allegedly) HMRC (the tax people in the U.K. for those who may not know) advising me I was due a substantial tax rebate!!

I'd expect better grammar from HMRC than was contained in this e-mail and I certainly wouldn't expect them to date it in the American fashion.

I was going to say that I wonder if anyone falls for these when I remembered about the woman who sent about $4,000 to her "friend" who was supposedly stuck in England.

I despair sometimes.

[NightwishFan]

Indeed sir. I was once subject to the African prince who was in exile and needed my bank account to store his money for him, with a cut in it for me. Not to mention winning the UK Lottery Syndicate.

I am a hermit, not only do I have no one entering me into the lottery, I would not even have that happen by chance.

[-grubby]

Earlier today I got reduced price car insurance from some nice people that emailed me!

[Irihapeti]

I don't know why it is, but these emails always seem to have issues with spelling and grammar.

Oh well, there's one payoff for having stayed awake in English classes.

[Ozor Mox]

I received an e-mail from (allegedly) HMRC (the tax people in the U.K. for those who may not know) advising me I was due a substantial tax rebate!!

I'd expect better grammar from HMRC than was contained in this e-mail and I certainly wouldn't expect them to date it in the American fashion.

I was going to say that I wonder if anyone falls for these when I remembered about the woman who sent about $4,000 to her "friend" who was supposedly stuck in England.

I despair sometimes.

I felt quite bad for her to be fair, since she got the message through Facebook thinking her friend was stranded and needed to borrow the money, when actually their profile had been hijacked. Unlike those that send money in order to release their £12 million "inheritence", she was just trying to do a favour for her friend.

Still, it's an important lesson: never trust what you see on the internet. And also, don't send your friend money through a bloody wire transfer that can't be traced!

[aaaantoine]

I felt quite bad for her to be fair, since she got the message through Facebook thinking her friend was stranded and needed to borrow the money, when actually their profile had been hijacked. Unlike those that send money in order to release their £12 million "inheritence", she was just trying to do a favour for her friend.

Still, it's an important lesson: never trust what you see on the internet. And also, don't send your friend money through a bloody wire transfer that can't be traced!

If the wire were bloody, couldn't they get DNA samples from it?

*ducks*

[baseface]

tell otis and baby i said hi.

[jabbathehinds]

I know what you mean--check out this awesome email I received. I'm going to be rich! haha



Good Day?

I have been waiting for you since to contact me for your Confirmable Bank Draft of $500,000,00 United States Dollars, but I did not hear from you since for a couple of weeks now. Then I went to the bank to confirm if the draft has expired or getting near to expire and Dr.Wilson the Director United Bank for Africa told me that before the draft will get to your hand that it will expire. So I told him to cash the $ 500,000,00 USD to cash payment to avoid losing this fund under expiration as I will be out of the country for a 6 Months Course.

What you have to do now is to contact FEDEX DELIVERY COURIER SERVICES as soon as possible to know when they will deliver your Consignment to you because of the expiring date. For your information, I have paid for the delivering Charge, Insurance premium.

The only money you will send to the FEDEX DELIVERY COURIER SERVICES to deliver your Consignment direct to your postal Address in your country is($55.00USD) only being Security Keeping Fee of the Courier Company so far. Again, don't be deceived by anybody to pay any other money except $55.00 US Dollars for the Security Keeping Fee. I would have paid that but they said no because they don't know when you will contact them and in case of demurrage.


You have to contact FEDEX DELIVERY COURIER SERVICES now for the delivery of your BOX with this information bellow;


CONTROLLER: Mr.Olalekan Thompson
COMPANY’S NAME: FEDEX DELIVERY COURIER SERVICES
EMAIL ADRESS: ( o_thompson112@yahoo.com.hk)
Tel:- +234 808-655-0013


Finally, make sure that you reconfirm your Postal address and Direct telephone number to them again to avoid any mistake on the Delivery and ask them to give you the tracking number to enable you track your package over there and know when it will get to your address. Let me repeat again, try to contact them as soon as you receive this mail to avoid any further delay and remember to pay them their Security Keeping fee of ($55 US Dollars for their immediate action.

Note:This is the only money required of you to pay them as i have payed for every other thing,inform me as soon as you get your box.

Note this. The FEDEX DELIVERY COURIER SERVICES don't know the contents of the Box.

I registered it as a BOX of Africa cloths. They did not know the content was money. This is to avoid them delaying with the BOX. Don’t let them know that box contents money ok.

I am waiting for your urgent response.
Best Regadrs,
Miss.Amanda Rose

[SuperSonic4]

I received an e-mail from (allegedly) HMRC (the tax people in the U.K. for those who may not know) advising me I was due a substantial tax rebate!!

I'd expect better grammar from HMRC than was contained in this e-mail and I certainly wouldn't expect them to date it in the American fashion.

I was going to say that I wonder if anyone falls for these when I remembered about the woman who sent about $4,000 to her "friend" who was supposedly stuck in England.

I despair sometimes.

Good call - it's a well known fact HMRC will do anything and everything to avoid giving out rebates xD

[days_of_ruin]

If the wire were bloody, couldn't they get DNA samples from it?

*ducks*

The dumb jokes thread is that way (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1257627).

[aaaantoine]

The dumb jokes thread is that way (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1257627).

Ah, thanks. I knew I should have taken that left turn.

[ericmc783]

I recently got an email from someone claiming to be with Blizzard Entertainment, stating that my WoW account is under investigation for rule violations.


lol.... I haven't played WoW in months.

The email itself seemed professionally written at first glance, but it was clearly from a spoofed email address. Also.... the message asks you to reply with your account password, among other information. When logging into WoW, one of the messages that often displays is "A Blizzard Admin will NEVER ask you for your password".

Obvious phishing attempt from someone trying to hack/steal wow accounts.

[Ozor Mox]

If the wire were bloody, couldn't they get DNA samples from it?

*ducks*

Haha! #-o

[t0p]

I sometimes get emails purporting to be from PayPal, informing me that my PayPal account has been compromised. The email tells me to log into my account, and provides a link to a login page.

I don't have a PayPal account.

It's a cunning trick. The link appears to take me to a legitimate PayPal site. I understand that there are ways to make it look like you've been taken to one site when in fact you're somewhere else. But if I had a PayPal account, I might have fallen for this trick (the first time). No one asks for my password, which would obviously be suspicious. But the phisher would get it from the login page. And then I would be in trouble.

If you get an apparently legitimate email saying you're account has been compromised and telling you to log into the PayPal (or eBay, etc) site, don't use the link in the email to go to the login page. Type in the real url, or use a bookmark or something that you know takes you to the legitimate site. Phishing attacks aren't always clumsy and obvious. They can be very sophisticated. So be aware.

[Ozor Mox]

I sometimes get emails purporting to be from PayPal, informing me that my PayPal account has been compromised. The email tells me to log into my account, and provides a link to a login page.

I don't have a PayPal account.

It's a cunning trick. The link appears to take me to a legitimate PayPal site. I understand that there are ways to make it look like you've been taken to one site when in fact you're somewhere else. But if I had a PayPal account, I might have fallen for this trick (the first time). No one asks for my password, which would obviously be suspicious. But the phisher would get it from the login page. And then I would be in trouble.

If you get an apparently legitimate email saying you're account has been compromised and telling you to log into the PayPal (or eBay, etc) site, don't use the link in the email to go to the login page. Type in the real url, or use a bookmark or something that you know takes you to the legitimate site. Phishing attacks aren't always clumsy and obvious. They can be very sophisticated. So be aware.

This is one that can very easily catch out the more novice computer users. All the spammer has to do is make the link to PayPal say PayPal (http://www.paypal.com.users.phish.au/app/login/v1/login.php), or http://www.paypal.com (http://www.paypal.com.users.phish.au/app/login/v1/login.php), whereas hovering over it shows the true destination of the browser when clicking on it.

Then they just mimic the PayPal login page exactly and Bob's their uncle.

I get tons of these from all kinds of banks, including the Bank of America despite me living in England :)

[ugm6hr]

Despite the OP example being ridiculous, I would suggest all phishing emails relating to financial institutions be forwarded to the relevant institution.

For example, HMRC have many, listed here: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/security/examples.htm

Forward any others to: phishing@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk

Every bank has a similar email address which records any fraudulent scams to ensure all customers are aware of security issues. I'm sure PayPal does too.

As advised, never click on any links in an email. Type in the url yourself.