28 August 2010

Public Service Announcement: this is what phishing looks like


I just received this e-mail from this address: verifyscecescs@gmail.com

This was the body of the message:
Due to anonymous registration of our email service, We have come to realize that your account information on our database system are out of date, as a result of that we require you to verify your Information. Failure to verify your information will result in account suspension.

Full name:
Password:
Date Of Birth:
Country:

Your account will not be interrupted after following the instructions and your service will continue as normal.We apologize for any inconveniences.

Thank you for using Gmail.

The Gmail Team

No Google logo, no legitimate return address. Just as an FYI, people at Google have google.com addresses, not gmail.com addresses.

Stay vigilant people and suspect everything. Except what you read here of course.

5 comments:

  1. I work as the registry manager for the British Columbia Lobbyists Registry. The application that the lobbyists use to register sends me an email whenever a registration is submitted. The email account does not have a real person's name attached to it: it starts with noreply@. And yet there's hardly a day goes by that I don't get some sort of email like the one you got. An urgent request to update my bank account information, an email telling me I may have a long-lost relative in Europe who wants to leave me his fortune (yeah, right), etc. Sheesh!

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  2. I get 'em constantly too. This one's return address was particularly laughable though. I included it here in case anybody wants to get creative with it.

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  3. The grammatical errors are pretty much a give-away too...

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  4. The subject/ verb agreement problem in the second sentence was the dead give away.

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  5. In the past have received them on occasion and generally they were about Banking. As the Banks themselves appeared to be very unconcerned, I finally registered myself with the R.C.M.P. Fraud Unit (you know, 'the guys/gals who always get their man') and forwarded such emails to them. Come to think of it, its been about two years now that I haven't received any. Guess they are doing their job. :)
    -Brenda-

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Talk to me!