Posts tagged internet

With the amount of scam emails that pepper our inboxes every so often, you’d have thought most people would be able to identify them. Sadly, they are getting harder to pick out with a casual glance and there are quite a few people – judging by the users I support – that still can’t identify them.

In order to help remedy this, I decided to give a quick dissection of an email I got today.

Exhibit A

At first glance, it might seem legit – it is in the style of some older emails – but a quick look at the first port of call brings up the first doubts. Who is it from?

Would they use an obscure address like that? If an email is coming from a company they’re unlikely to use addresses like "squiffymonkey269" or, in this case "edr_nick". It’s just unprofessional.

*bzzzt* Strike one.

Bad grammar tends to be the hallmark of scam emails, look out for Over Capitalising Words They Want To Emphasise and missed capital letters not to mention sentences that make zero sense! If it reads like a perfect example of Engrish then chances are it’s fake.

If they show a grasp of the English language then read what it is telling you.

Here it’s informing us that they have too many accounts and need to clear them away, but hang on a second the first line states "we’re sending it to everyone" then the end of the sentence claims to be singling out me.. So they’re deleting every account then? Are they trying to drive up Gmail users?

*bzzzzt* Strike two!

And on it continues…

Stunted English and a sudden call for personal details, why not throw in a request for your mothers maiden name (I still can’t believe some web services continue to ask for this!) and your inside leg measurement while you’re at it?!

So you can detect unused accounts? Why the general mailshot then? Also, why isn’t this an automated webpage on the net instead of using an unreliable system like SMTP?

If the scammer is a little smarter than this turd and supplies a web link to enter your details, hover over the link for a few seconds and check out the address it is really sending you to. If it’s an obscure address or ends with an obscure domain tag (.ir instead of .com for example) you can bet it’s either going to be a fake site that will post your details to the scammer or infested with spyware that will attempt to spunk itself all over your system.

Try it out on this example: http://www.hotmail.com/confirm

If it doesn’t provide a little popup telling you the address, check out the bottom of your browser window as it should tell you I’m really sending you to http://all.your.bank.details.are.all.ours .

*bzzzzzzzzzzt* Strike 3, you’re out!

Just remember the following steps:

• Be skeptical of these emails
• Check out who it’s from
• What do they want
• Does any of it makes logical and grammatical sense.
• Keep an eye out for dodgy links

If it smells like BS, it prolly is!