Beware of Phishing

advice on avoiding online scams, with Renzie Baluyut.

Despite our best efforts to keep our mailboxes secure and spam-free, we still get the occasional phishing email that slips through the cracks once in a while.

According to the guys over at Google, phishing is a form of fraud in which a message sender pretends to be a representative of a legitimate organization in an attempt to trick the recipient into divulging important personal information like a password or bank account number.

Sometimes these fraudulent individuals don't ask for your passwords or bank account numbers or social security numbers right away; the usual tactic it would seem is to send out a mailblast (like the ones we provided below) in order to goad some seemingly harmless information about you.

But if you're gullible enough to fall for that crap, what's to stop them from, say, impersonating someone else and conning your passwords/account numbers from you?

Here are a couple of examples of phishing scams done via email:

Good Day,
I am contacting you for a business transaction involving GBP £17,000,000 (Seventeen Million Pounds Sterling) hoping that you will
contact me at your earliest convenience for a possible business deal.

I am presently the External Auditor of Bank Of Scotland Plc, with your sincere assistant and co-operation, I am determined to work this deal with you if you can do the business.

At the moment, I am constrained to issue more details about this business until your positive response is received. Please take a
moment of your time to read this and send your response. I assure you that this deal is worth taking and highly profitable.
Thank you for your time and attention.
Warmest regards,
Leith Fraser
External Auditor,
Bank Of Scotland Plc.

Here's another example of a phishing attack via email:

FROM: Mr. Gordon Russell
E-MAIL:gordonrussellll@gmail.com

Dear Partner,

I am Gordon J.L Russell, an attorney at law. A deceased client of mine that shares the same last name as yours, who here in after shall be referred to as my client, died as the result of a heart-related condition on the 1st October 2004. His heart condition was due to the death of all the members of his family in the Gulf Air Flight Crashes in Persian Gulf Near Bahrain Aired August 23, 2000 -2:50 p.m. ET as reported on: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0008/23/bn.08.html

I have contacted you to assist in distributing the money left behind by my client before it is confiscated or declared unserviceable by the Finance company where this deposit valued at Twenty Seven million Two hundred Thousand sterling British pounds (GBP£27.2 million pounds) is lodged. This Finance company has issued me a notice to contact the next of kin, or the account will be confiscated.

My proposition to you is to seek your consent to present you as the next-of-kin and beneficiary of my named client, since you have the same last name, so that the proceeds of this account can be paid to you. Then we can share the amount on a mutually agreed-upon Percentage. All legal documents to back up your claim as my client's next-of-kin will be provided. All I require is your honest cooperation to enable us see this transaction through.

This will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you from many breach of the law. If this business proposition offends your moral values, do accept my apology. I must use this opportunity to implore you to exercise the utmost indulgence to keep this matter extraordinary confidential, whatever your decision, while I await your prompt response.

I will like you to acknowledge the receipt of this e-mail: gordonrussellll@gmail.com as soon as possible and as well treat with absolute confidentiality and sincerity.

I await the pleasure of your response.

Best regards,
Mr. Gordon Russell.

If you think you've received a similar phishing email, the best thing you can do is report it as a phishing attack (Gmail has this feature), or marking it as spam or junk mail. Usually, alerting your mail server will make them watch out for similar messages, and so you help do your part in keeping everybody's mailbox a little more spam-free.

Remember that while you might be savvy about scams and online schemes, some of your friends and loved ones might not be as cautious or as tech-savvy as you are. So watch out for them too, as much you can.

Cheers, everyone.

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