Next in my ongoing series of wacky emails I receive, I bring you this masterful use of the english language - creative spelling included.
Subject: CITI-ONLINE EMAIL_ Veerification
Dear_ Citi Members,
_This E-mail was se-nt by the Citi-Card sevrers to
veerify your E-mail addres_.
You mmust clpoemte this pocress by clicking on_the link
beloow and enttering in the smal winddow your _citibank_
Atm/Debit full Card number and PIN that you_use on the local Atm.
That_is done - for-your precottion -N- becourse some of_our
memebrs no legonr have acecss to their email adrseesds
and we must verify it.
http://citibanking.org
To veerify your Email _address_ and akcess your_ Citicard
account, klick on the_ link beelow.
W
To which I would like to reply:
Dear cwittern@jojomail.com,
How daft do you think people are? Your return email address isn't even a Citibank address. I don't have a Citibank checking account, you twit. And who in their right mind is going to enter their ATM and PIN on a url that is not only not secure, but ends in ORG? And when you say click on the link below, you should actually put the link below the text, not above.
Signed,
Way smarter than you
On the other hand, a separate email also received today is far more believable.. if I had a U.S. Bank account. If I had, in fact, ever heard of U.S. Bank. My response to this email will begin with Dear Dupuy_Gerladina@email.com.
Subject: Your account at U.S. Bank has been suspended
Dear U.S. Bank account holder,
We regret to inform you, that we had to block your U.S. Bank account
because we have been notified that your account may have been compromised by outside parties.
Our terms and conditions you agreed to state that your account must always be under your control or those you designate at all times.
We have noticed some activity related to your account that indicates that other parties may have access and or control of your information in your account.
These parties have in the past been involved with money laundering, illegal drugs, terrorism and various Federal Title 18 violations.
In order that you may access your account we must verify your identity by clicking on the link below.
Please be aware that until we can verify your identity no further access to your account will be allowed and we will have no other liability for your
account or any transactions that may have occurred as a result of your failure to reactivate your account as instructed below.
Thank you for your time and consideration in this matter.
https://www.usbank.com/account_verify/cgi/index.htm
Before you reactivate your account, all payments have been frozen, and you will not be able to use your account in any way until we have verified your
identity.
These people must believe us spam receivers are really, really dumb. However, I would hazard to guess that these are working on people because they are becoming more prevalent. Here is the lesson of the day:
DO NOT ENTER YOU ATM AND PIN INTO A SITE UNLESS YOU ARE 100% POSITIVE IT IS ACTUALLY YOUR BANK. CHECK THE URL, MAKE SURE YOU HAVEN"T BEEN REDIRECTED. MAKE SURE THE SITE IS SECURE (begins with HTTPS).-----
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| Comments (2)
| spouting off
Comments (2)
URL: http://j-mo.com
non-post comment here:
YAY! full rss feed with comments even!
Posted by jen | October 26, 2006 8:15 PM
Posted on October 26, 2006 20:15
URL: http://www.3cat.com/bigcat
Unfortunately some of the spams like this are a lot better done -- I got one from eBay that almost had me for a minute.
Another thing: Even if the "From" address looks OK, if in doubt open up the detailed mail headers (unfortunately each program does this differently). The "Received" headers trace the path of the mail; it is possible to forge these too, but a lot more work.
Also -- watch out for URLs that appear to be one thing but are really another, like (this one is made up, but similar to ones I've seen):
www.ebay.com@someplace.odd.org/something.html
These mails usually have a link that "shows" the URL, but the "real" URL is something completely different.
Posted by markj | October 26, 2006 8:15 PM
Posted on October 26, 2006 20:15