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Nearly caught by spam.. [or 'Saved by Thunderbird']
jaden:
No problem :)
parkint:
By the same token, whenever I receive a phone call from "your bank" or "the phone company" I simply ask for the person's name or department and tell them I will hang up now and call the published phone number for that company - asking for them.
I recommend a simply solution to Fight Phishing.
A funny story is an argument I had over the phone once - someone from "my bank" called and I wanted me to verify my identity. I immediately challenged them by asking for my account number. She could not provide it. I asked for the last four digits of my social security number. She said, "I do not have that information in front of me".
So, I asked, how can you confirm my identity over the phone when you don't have any of my personal information?
I think she was about to cry (apparently a college kid just hired by some fly-by-nigh company to make these phone calls and collect information).
J-Mac:
Your BANK will NEVER ask for you to confirm ANYTHING via e-mail, this is a scam that has been going around for a long time, if they require you to confirm anything they will call you and ask for you to come into the bank.
-Stephen66515 (February 09, 2010, 11:49 AM)
--- End quote ---
Uhh, wrong. Banks like to profess that they are the ultimate in security but most of the time they are anything but.
I received an email from Wachovia about 18 months ago asking me to click a link and login to my Online Banking page to change my login credentials - claimed they were converting to a more secure authentication system. I forwarded the email to their fraud division and got a call from them. I asked for a number and called back after verifying the number. Lady there told me that it wasn’t a phish email; that the login upgrade was indeed real. I blasted here for such a security lapse, which she didn't understand, and followed up with snail mail letters to their corporate office and their Fraud division.
My wife - who was an assistant manager for them at the time - told me later what a stink I made! Special training, etc. and a revamping of their "online presence".
Sorry, but banks are basically stupid, simple animals who will violate any security parameter for the sake of cutting spending and making money!
Jim
jaden:
My wife - who was an assistant manager for them at the time - told me later what a stink I made! Special training, etc. and a revamping of their "online presence".
--- End quote ---
That's awesome! Who knew you had such power? :)
Sorry, but banks are basically stupid, simple animals who will violate any security parameter for the sake of cutting spending and making money!
--- End quote ---
Truer words were never spoken. Banks often include links in the emails and can be very hard to distinguish from a phishing scam. Two days ago I received an email from Discover Bank informing me that external bank accounts had been added. I went to login (using my bookmark) and Firefox complained that while the page I was on was secure, the username and password were going to be transmitted in plain text. This didn't make any sense, and after a few times of trying different ways to login, I gave up, never logging in because I didn't trust the site.
Yesterday I received this email.
You may have received an email indicating that you have successfully enabled one or more of your bank accounts for funds transfer service. Please disregard this e-mail as it was sent in error as part of the upgrade to our new Account Center. Please note that the Account Center is currently unavailable as we upgrade and will be available beginning Sunday, February 14. We apologize for any confusion this may have caused.
--- End quote ---
Krishean:
you should also not click on spam links because if they use http://www.example.com/filename?id=something&whatever=numbersandletters the parameters after the ? can be a unique identifier that links the click to your email address in their database backend, clicking the link confirms your existence = more spam
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