The Computer Buzz

January 22nd, 2009

Nome and Paul Van Middlesworth - owners - The Computer Factory
 

Phishing

Surely by now everyone has received "the Nigerian Letter" at least once. The E-mailer claims to be an official or the relative of an official from Nigeria or some African or mid-east nation. The story varies but the problem is always the same.

Unfortunate circumstances have "trapped" a large some of money (25 to 50 million dollars) in a foreign bank. The writer needs your help to get the money out. For your assistance the writer will reward you with up to half the money. All you need to do is provide your banking information so the money can be transferred to your account. Once the scammers have all your banking info they simply empty your account.

The Nigerian Letter type of scam has been around the Internet for so long that it seems incredible that anyone would actually fall for it, yet they do. There are 200 million potential adult victims in America. All it takes is for one out of a million to take the bait and the scammer has 200 fish on the line.

Many "phishing" scams rely on low percentage responses. You get an e-mail request from "Barclay Bank" citing a problem with your account and requesting verification of your passwords and access codes. You don't have an account with Barclay Bank so you ignore it. Perhaps only one addressee in a thousand actually has an account with Barclay Bank, but if the scammer sends out a million inquiries he will get a thousand hits.

When a Barclay Bank account holder gets this E-mail he will be inclined to believe it is legit. After all, he would reason, who but Barclay Bank would know that he even has an account? If he responds to the E-mail and sends his information he will be wiped out. I received E-mail last week that said. "You have added jamessoul899@yahoo.com as a new email address for your PayPal account. If you did not authorize this change or if you need assistance with your account, please contact PayPal customer service.”

The response E-mail address was www.paypal.com/us/wf/f=ap_email.

When I clicked this site, it asked for my e-mail address and password. While the address looked like pay pal, it wasn't. This was an attempt to gather some of my personal information.

The criminals responsible for identity theft are clever and patient. It may take years for them to gather all the information needed to steal your identity. They use many ploys and tactics besides E-mail. Regular mail, phone inquiries and dumpster diving are all common sources of information to be assembled in criminal "botnets" to be sold or used to steal your assets.

What would you do if your E-mail server suddenly popped up asking you to enter your user name and password? If you complied, some criminal will be reading all your E-mail within minutes. Your real e-mail server will not communicate with you until you access his URL.

Next week: How to ID a "phish."