Fergie's Tech Blog

Phishers Sinking to New Lows

Don Oldenburg writes in The Washington Post's "Consumate Consumer" Column:

Don't get me started on spam. But the other day, scanning the dregs of my spam filter, there was this one that stood out from the hundreds of unsolicited commercial e-mails that pitch porn, get-rich-quick schemes, cheap pharmaceuticals, urgent business proposals and sure-thing investments. All no-brainer deletes. Click, click, click.

But this one stopped me cold. It raised images of stressed-out and distraught military families stunned by the message that their bank accounts had been breached (all the more troubling after last week's news that someone had indeed hacked an Air Force nonfinancial database containing 33,000 Social Security numbers). Recipients could follow the message's instructions, click on a link to a Web site, and divulge their passwords and confidential information.

Only, that urgent notice isn't from their bank. It's from a crook.

posted by Fergie @ 8/27/2005 03:33:00 PM