Really scumbags?

Yeah, I have seen that before but note that is actually a different scenario. Each word there has the same number of letters and syllables. "Implemenet", besides being misspelled, has 4 syllables while the correctly spelled word, "implement", has only 3.

Again, read your reminder out loud and you will immediately pick up on all the misspellings.
 
Good read, Corrine. It boils it down to one of my favorite warnings - "don't be 'click happy' on unsolicited attachments, downloads, popups, and links!"
 
Another thing that gets me is the Nigerian scams. I got this today.

This mail is being sent to you because we have come to understand that
you have lost a lot of money all because you want to receive your fund
well note that all that have been put to a stop as the federal government of
Nigeria has promised to assist you with the sum of $5million in other to
compensate you and all you have to do is fill the below information s.

1 full name

2 home phone and cell phone number

3 occupation

4 amount that was lost by you

Take full note that you are to pay $95 for transfer and please do not
reply if you are not interested.

Send this and get back at once.

Warm regards

Femi


Virus-free. Avast | Download Free Antivirus for PC, Mac & Android
Click to expand...

The header showed:
Return-Path: <contact@videofood.ro>
Delivered-To: 3@4161615​
Romania? :lol: :r1:

It really baffled me how anyone who uses email today would not be aware of and therefore wary of any offer of ridiculously large sums of money that came from Nigeria. So I did some digging to find out why.

Interestingly, and according to Cormac Herley, a Microsoft researcher, Nigeria is constantly used because it is so ridiculous it immediately singles out all but the most gullible, leaving only the most promising "marks" to target.

The Nigerian email spam scams - nicknamed the 419 scam after the Nigerian criminal code section dealing with fraud - has roots going back centuries!) with sincere letters asking for help. It proliferated when faxes became popular and exploded when spam allowed reaching out to millions at once.

So how do we stop this scam? Education. If you know anyone who is naive and innocent, or just plain so kindhearted to be that gullible, take a minute to educate them to recognize the signs of such scams. And while at it, remind them to keep Windows current and don't be "click-happy".
 
There's some more interesting stats and figures in this (rather long, but detailed!) report here: http://ultrascan-agi.com/public_htm..._Statistics_2013-July-10-2014-NOT-FINAL-1.pdf

I've found other sources as well agreeing that these scams are written with poor English and are "obviously" fake on purpose so that they only get the most vulnerable/gullible/exploitable people falling for the scams. If anyone has ever wondered what happens if you reply to scam emails, a comedian did exactly that for this TED talk: James Veitch: This is what happens when you reply to spam email | TED Talk.

Some of the much more dangerous scams at the moment are the tech support scammers that target computer illiterate users and the elderly:
In 2017, Microsoft Customer Support Services received 153,000 reports from customers who encountered or fell victim to tech support scams, a 24% growth from the previous year. These reports came from 183 countries, indicating a global problem.

Approximately 15% of these customers lost money in the scam, costing them on average between $200 and $400. In some cases, victims pay a lot more. In December 2017, Microsoft received a report of a scammer emptying a bank account of €89,000 during a tech support scam in the Netherlands.

In a 2016 survey sponsored by Microsoft, two in three respondents reported experiencing some form of tech support scam in the previous 12 months, with nearly one in ten losing money.

However, as with many social engineering attacks, it’s tricky to put an absolute number to the problem. The figures above represent reports to Microsoft. The problem is so much bigger, given that tech support scams target customers of various other devices, platforms, or software.
Click to expand...
Source: Teaming up in the war on tech support scams – Microsoft Secure

Digerati said:
So how do we stop this scam? Education. If you know anyone who is naive and innocent, or just plain so kindhearted to be that gullible, take a minute to educate them to recognize the signs of such scams. And while at it, remind them to keep Windows current and don't be "click-happy".
Click to expand...
The one final step in stopping scams like this (especially phishing emails), is to report them.

Web hosts don't want to host phishing and scam sites. Email providers don't want to be used to send out spam. URL shortening services don't want to be responsible for spam. If Google/Mozilla/MS know about it, they can block it in their browsers and email clients within hours. It can also be good if it's a major phishing email to contact big firewall companies (Cisco, Palo Alto, Forcepoint) so they can block it at a network level in big organisations.
All of them have reporting tools available:

Reporting stage
  1. Google - Block in Chrome, Firefox, Android, iPhone, Google, and more
  2. Microsoft - Block in Edge, Office 365, and Internet Explorer
  3. NetCraft - Send to computer security companies
  4. Symantec - Submit to Norton
  5. Blue Coat - Symantec has not yet integrated with Norton submission
  6. McAfee - Select real-time, click Check, and click Submit at the bottom
  7. Websense/Forcepoint
  8. Webroot BrightCloud - Provides data to PaloAlto firewalls, many others.
  9. Cisco PhishTank - Wide distribution, but requires registration.
  10. Kaspersky
  11. CIRCL - Shares with European partners, lookup and click "Send report to CIRCL"
Report phishing/file hosting abuse directly:
Link shorteners
Click to expand...

This list is from: gotphish.com. Yes, I know I posted it before but I think it's important :p
 

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