The phishers almost had me - Beware!

The spammers and phishers are quite clever these days. I was almost caught when I received an email that looked like an itunes receipt. I am a regular on itunes, so it's very usual to receive these emails, but there were two things about this email that initially raised my suspicions:

1. I hadn't bought anything from itunes for a week

2. the email went into my spam folder.

Lots of other legitimate email had gone to my spam folder, so I initially assumed that this one had been caught up in that. On closer examination I discovered that the receipt was for "Kill Bill" box set that I had apparently purchased for $199. I knew that I hadn't and read on:

If this was you, then you can safely ignore this email. If this wasn't you, your account has been compromised. Please follow these steps:

Recover Account 

You will need to provide your billing information to verify you are the legitimate account holder.

This was the give away. I checked one of my other receipts from itunes and everything else was exactly like the legitimate versions, except for the bit I've pasted above. This was a trap to extract my personal details.

I checked my itunes account and saw no evidence of such a purchase. Then I noticed that the sender's email address was not from itunes.

It pays to be vigilant! I've changed my itunes password for good measure too.

Be careful out there.  

Have you ever been caught with this kind of con?

Ten questions for today.

1) Is advertising on hand dryers in public toilets effective?

2) Who ever uses a full bottle of nail polish?

3) Why does it rain whenever I have my hair blow waved?

4) Why can't people follow the instructions for recycling?

5) What is unclear about a sign that says "No Junk Mail"?

6) Why do people insist that you "need some sugar" when you tell them you don't eat sugar?

7) Why do businesses refuse to deliver to post office boxes?

8) Where do those text messages telling you you've won "a million pounds" come from?

9) Why, in the digital age, does it still take 3 business days for a cheque to clear?

10) What do visitors to Melbourne think when they can't top up their myki and they discover there are no toilets available at the station?

Answers to these questions are welcome.
What questions are you asking today?

Scam calling

My land line just rang.  Usually the only people who use the line are members of my family.  I have a land line so they can call me and so I can connect to the internet.  I don't make outgoing calls on the land line - that's what I use my mobile for.  The number on the land line is also silent.  Despite this, I found it necessary to list the number on the "Do not call" register.

So when the phone rang this morning, I answered.  After I said "hello" there was the telltale pause that told me this was a call from an outbound call centre somewhere in the world.

A man's voice (Indian accent?) finally said:  "May I please speak to the business owner?"

I responded: "Who is calling please?"

"I'm calling to speak to the business owner."

"Who am I speaking to?"

"My name is Adam."

"Where are you calling from Adam?"

"I'm from e line (I think this is what he said) and I'm calling to talk to the business owner about your online presence."

"How did you get this number?  This number is silent and listed on the "Do not call" register."

"I'm very sorry."  Click.

I just now that this was a scam call.  Perhaps they were going to seek permission to access my computer.  Perhaps they were going to seek a payment for some imaginary service.

I find the tactics interesting.  Asking to speak to a non-specified but important person might work on some people, but to me it's like receiving junk mail addressed to "the Householder".  It's still advertising.

As I pressed Adam to reveal where he was calling from, I could hear the hesitation in his voice.

I wished he hadn't hung up straight away.  I'd love to have had the opportunity to press him for more details about the company and exactly how they got my number.  I've done this before and ended up speaking to several team leaders up the chain, taking up hours of their time for no productive benefit.  I figure that that's what they're trying to do with me.

After doing some research I've discovered that algorithms to generate phone numbers exist.  The resulting lists are then used by people like this to just randomly call numbers.  I'm pretty sure that if I had accepted the call the next thing I would have been asked is to confirm my details.  This would have given them the opportunity to collect the details.  Who knows what they would use them for - perhaps to make a follow up call that sounds more specific and has a better chance of them not being hung up on.

Having worked in an outbound call centre for a bank, I have learned a lot about the preparedness of people to give out their personal details after a very non-specific introduction.  My suggestion is not to give out your details without being certain about who you're calling.  If they say they are from a bank, ask which department and then get the number off their website and call back.  The bankers will say that verification of details is necessary to protect privacy before the discussion commences, but I think this is rubbish.  Privacy is better protected by the bank proving that they are real.  Everything has been turned on its head.

I've got enough on my hands dealing with the spam from banks that I don't bank with.  The other day I received email purporting to be from a bank I do bank with and it was pretty good.  The thing that gave it away was the poor grammar.  I called the bank and they gave me an email address to forward it to.  They seemed grateful to be alerted.

You can also report spam to ACMA (in Australia).  The address is report@submit.spam.acma.gov.au
Don't click on any of the links in the email, just forward the whole thing to that address.  I wonder what happens then?  Imagine having that job - reading spam! I suppose at least they are paid to do that.  At this end, it's just a waste of time that takes up space on my email.


Have you had scam calls lately?  How do you handle them?  Have you ever been caught out? What happened? What do you do with spam?  I'd love to hear your stories.