Gone Phishing

p>As I was preparing to write this article, I heard the sound of a new message arriving in my inbox. I checked it and, lo and behold, it was an example for this article. I have removed an e-mail address from the body of the message so that if the person who supposedly sent this is a victim of a computer virus or a spam list we won’t perpetuate the issue from this site. Here is the e-mail that I received.

RE: CONGRATULATIONS, YOUR E-MAIL ADDRESS WON!!!
THE NATIONAL LOTTERY
E-MAIL LOTTERY DEPARTMENT
UNITED – KINGDOM

INTERNATIONAL PROMOTION/IPRIEC
REFERENCE NUMBER: FLI-OP/2811-FM10431/0253
BATCH NUMBER: HPYW/71/731/UJNL

Attention Winner

We are pleased to notify you that your email address linked with ticket
No.: 51366221663-48031 with serial No.: 991-504-431 Draw No.: 7-34-61-55-9484
won in the 3rd batch of our lottery program held on the 18th of January 2009,
so you have been Accepted for lump sum pay out of GBP£1Million Pounds
(One Million, Great British Pounds sterling) which will be paid to you as one
of the lucky winners, All Partakers of this program were selected via computer
ballot system by The National Lottery here in United Kingdom which your email
address was among the lucky winners.

You are required to contact our claims Agent immediately so that your file
will be processed and your won prize released to you on or before 25th February
2009, as every unclaimed sum/prize after this date will be returned to our
Treasury as unclaimed prize, so you have to contact the claims agent
immediately to avoid your prize being returned to our Treasury.

To file for your claim, contact our claims agent with below information:
Mr. William Davidson
Of THE NATIONAL LOTTERY
Tel: 44-7924-039052

Note: This is not a Joke don’t Delay so that you will not lose your prize, you
have to contact our claims agent with your full names, your direct contact
phone numbers, your fax and you house address for further clarifications and
instruction on how your prize will be claimed, remember always include your
reference and batch numbers in every correspondence for Identification
purposes, this is your REFERENCE NUMBER: FLI-OP/2811-FM10431/0253 and your
BATCH NUMBERS: HPYW/71/731/UJNL keep the numbers with you as it will be
required any time by the claims agent.

Congratulations once again!

Sincerely yours
Mr. James Hackett
Notification Agent
E-mail Lottery Department
The National Lottery

“Congratulations! You have been selected to win the English Lottery…” Have you received an e-mail with a subject or body with something similar to this? Did you stop and think, “Did I even play the English Lottery?” Odds are you didn’t play, and even more that you didn’t win. Yet many people every year fall victim to this scheme. Why? This is because the person hopes that they can be the exception, not the rule. Also, because the sender will do everything in their power to make the page look authentic, they will give you confirmation numbers, serial numbers, they’ll even appear to present the logo and website of the company they are pretending to be. Truth is, if you believe that it is at all a hoax don’t respond. If you do, you provide validation that your e-mail address is in fact quite real which will allow them to send more SPAM.

Perhaps you received an e-mail asking for you to click a link and verify your password or account information. Maybe you received an e-mail stating that your account has been suspended and it won’t be activated unless you click the link. I have even seen some e-mails threaten legal action if you do not click the link. Unless you are absolutely sure that the e-mail is legitimate do not click the link. In fact I would go as far as to contact the company in question by phone and verify that they truly sent an e-mail to you. They will know if they did.

These schemes are referred to as Phishing. They are attempts to get personal information from you such as passwords, e-mail addresses, account numbers. The schemers will then take your information and attempt to become you, which could lead to identity theft. This is a very serious problem and one that you shouldn’t take lightly.

Here’s another good example of an e-mail where you would think that it is legitimate. As you can see in this picture below, this e-mail appears to be from Fifth Third Bank.

They have a link that points to 53.com (highlighted in red), however when I put my mouse over the link, it’s actually not Fifth Third Bank but some other domain with what is called a subdomain that makes it look like it is Fifth Third Bank. (Highlighted in Yellow)

Again if you receive something and it just doesn’t seem right…it’s probably not. Any e-mail that asks you to verify your account information, social security number, checking account or other personal information over e-mail or instant message is most likely a scam. Take a step back and evaluate the situation. Again if you’re not sure, contact the company in question. Don’t reply to their e-mail. If you know their phone number, call it. If not, go to their website, find their information and call them.