infy LIFE LESSONS: phishing scams

“In computing, phishing is a criminal activity where phishers attempt to fraudulently acquire sensitive information, such as usernames, passwords and credit card details, by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. eBay and PayPal are two of the most targeted companies, and online banks are also common targets.” — wikipedia

The rest must be read aloud in your best grizzled Michale Caine:

Every great scam has three parts or acts.

The first part is called “The Pledge”. The scammer shows you something ordinary: a deck of cards, a bird or a man. He shows you this object. Perhaps he asks you to inspect it to see if it is indeed real, unaltered, normal. But of course… it probably isn’t.

as you can see my pledge involved a no-reply yahoo account helping me with my banking…seems real enough.

The second act is called “The Turn”. The scammer takes the ordinary something and makes it do something extraordinary.

this link from an ordinary yahoo email has extraordinarily taken me to the Wachovia login page…or at least something that looks like it…who’s IP address is that?

Now you’re looking for the secret… but you won’t find it, because of course you’re not really looking. You don’t really want to know. You want to be fooled.

But you wouldn’t clap yet. Because making something disappear isn’t enough; you have to bring it back. That’s why every scam has a third act, the hardest part, the part we call “The Prestige;” this is the part with the twists and turns, where lives hang in the balance, and you see something shocking you’ve never seen before.

why would a PO box in the Netherlands ask me for my banking info? How does Wachovia send out banking notices via yahoo? Why am I getting this considering I’ve never held accounts at Wachovia?

Stop this. Stop this right now. It’s not a trick. Damnit Alfred! It’s no trick; IT’S REAL!