Hotmail Phishing Scam

Not just hotmail Woo-got one about my bt account a week ago, and in this last fortnight I have had 3 different attempts to get into my egg card account via email links ...................."due to 2 unsuccessful attempts to log on to your account we require you to vist..............link insert...................... and verify password or we will have to stop your card"

I would advise never use a link you aren`t 100% sure about.

 

Getting them on AOL as well. I would never click on a link in an email even if I was 100% sure about it - copy and paste - it's the only safe way.

 

Kate, why does Copy and paste make it safer? I don`t understand-but I`ll do that in future.

 

I get at least one phishing mail a day, from Abbey or TSB or Halifax. I just delete them without opening.

 

never had a phishing scam on gmail! It's got the best spam filter around

 

A geek friend of mine recently posted this on his forum. You might find it of interest


Every now and again, I get these messages sent to me which claim to be VERY important, and suggest that the world might stop spinning on its axis if I don't stop everything I'm doing and forward it on to every person I've ever met.

So now, I'd like to offer, as a public service to you, my guide on how to spot a hoax using one such message as an example. I just received this message just a few minutes ago.
________________________________

I M P O R T A N T W A R N I NG ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! PLEASE READ!
Pass this on to your email buddies.
Heed the warning. It sounds awful!!!
Anyone using Internet mail such as Yahoo, Hotmail, AOL and so on.
This information arrived this morning, Direct from both Microsoft and
Norton.
Please send it to everybody you know who has access to the Internet.
You may receive an apparently harmless e-mail with a Power Point
presentation ' Life is Beautiful '
If you receive it DO NOT OPEN THE FILE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, and
delete it immediately.
If you open this file, a message will appear on your screen saying:
'It is too late now, your life is no longer beautiful. '
Subsequently you will LOSE EVERYTHING IN YOUR PC, And the person who
sent it to you will gain access to your name, e-mail and password.
This is a new virus which started to ci rculate on Saturday afternoon.
AOL has already confirmed the severity, and the anti virus software's
are not capable of destroying it.
The virus has b een created by a hacker who calls himself 'life owner'.
PLEASE SEND A COPY OF THIS E-MAIL TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS, And ask them to
PASS IT ON IMMEDIATELY!
THIS HAS BEEN CONFIRMED BY SNOPES
http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/mailserver.asp
_________________________________________

Let's break it down, one piece at a time;

This is your first clue. Capital letters, and multiple explanation points SCREAM hoax. Urgency. Fear. Shut your brain off and just forward the message!!!!!!

This is so dangerous! It's awful! Send it to everyone! Hoaxes and rumors will always prompt you to send the message to everyone you know.

This is, perhaps, the greatest reason that these hoaxes and rumors live on for so long. Hoaxes are incredibly vague on the details, and instead use a relative time table (i.e. this morning, last night, next week). Hoaxes and rumors will rarely ever contain specific information, such as dates.

The next thing hoaxes and rumors try to do is to lend credence to their claims by citing some big name that everyone recognizes. Norton, Microsoft, AOL, McAfee... These are all big names that most people, even if they've never touched a computer, recognize. This makes the message seem more official. However, a cursory search of any of those sites will turn up nary a word related to any of this...

At this point in the message, the author has already made an appeal to US to heed the "awful" thing, and is already making a SECOND appeal to have us forward this to everyone under the sun, and we STILL don't know why!

This is usually the part of the message where the "awful" thing is described. Usually, it will include such scary scenarios as EVERYTHING in your PC being erased, the person who sent it to you will somehow magically acquire all of your passwords, names, addresses, past due bills, and favorite colors.... in short, the goal is to make you PANIC!

Sure, there are things out there that COULD wipe out your entire PC, or potentially gain access to your usernames or passwords, but you probably have a better chance of being struck by lightning on your way home from claiming the billion dollar jackpot in your state lottery than you do of becoming the victim of such an insidious virus.

You should NEVER open email attachments from people you don't recognize, and you should even be leery of attachments from people you DO recognize, but none of the horrendous things listed in these hoaxes is likely to happen to you.

And now, we're back to ambiguity. Saturday afternoon? When? Conveniently, Saturday occurs every 7 days... Note the absence of a specific date, once again.

And once again, here is a big name dropped. AOL.

It usually takes anti-virus software makers mere HOURS to respond to a new legitimate virus threat, and usually, they've had a cure long before you'd ever get a potential infection. To my knowledge, there is not a single virus that can't be cleaned. And I've worked with some HORRIBLY infected computers in my business. I've yet to meet a computer that I can't clean.

This is now the third appeal to send it on! Hurry! Time's running out! Danger! Quick! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!?!?!?!??!!!

Urgency, panic and fear are the name of the game.

Now here's a new twist. Include a link to Snopes! Remember the second point, using big names to lend credence to the hoax? Most people online know Snopes as the place to check these types of things out. So it's good to throw that in, and even include a link! The problem is, probably 9 out of 10 people see that, and ASSUME it must be true without even clicking the link, since Snopes confirmed it. But if you actually follow the link, you'll find that Snopes has an entire article on this.

The REAL Snopes link about this message is found here; http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/life.asp

...which describes this message for what is; A giant hoax.


So to summarize, a hoax or rumor will contain the following;

* Ambiguity. Absence of any hard dates.
* Importance. SEND IT RIGHT NOW! TO EVERYONE!
* Confirmation. Confirmed by Microsoft/Norton/CNN/FoxNews/etc.
* Fear. It will delete every file on your PC. Religious broadcasting will be made illegal. etc.


So there you have it. I hope this helps you understand the tactics used in these messages, so that you'll be able to spot them easier. Do your own homework. With Google, it only takes a few minutes to verify whether something is legitimate or not. Get hard facts and dates. And for the love of all that is pure and holy, don't send the message on!

 

Well done Daisees - you've covered all the bases there.:gnthb::gnthb: It's amazing how gullible folk can be if they don't know about these things and of course most folk who receive one of these hoax messages will want to pass it on to friends in order to prevent them from harm to their PCs.
It's always worth a 'Google around' and/or a visit to Snopes or one of the other virus/hoax recording sites, before deciding how to act.

There's quite an interesting and informative article here -

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7732971.stm

 

never read em ...delete delete delete...shiney stop it:hehe::hehe::lollol:

 

Shiney no wonder you can afford all these exhotic trips half way round the world with all these fees you are charging...don't you know there is a resession on:rotfl::hehe::lollol::wink:

 

I believe a lot of these emails warning of the "biggest virus ever to hit us" etc, etc, etc are actually designed to slow down email and internet networks, as everyone forwards them on to everyone they know. As has been said already, don't open attachments if you don't recognise the sender and best to just hit delete.

I get the hoax emails from various banks in my hotmail account all the time, usually going straight to my spam folder. For a while i was "reporting as spam" and the amount I received started increasing. However hotmail deal with spam, it must alert these spammers that an account is valid. Since then I have just hit delete and the amount I recieve daily has shown a marked decline.

Amazing how I seem to have accounts at so many banks though