Another spoof email...

[agilebrit]

Purporting to be my "FINAL WARNING OMGWTFBBQ!!!" from eBay.

Let's see how many errors we can find in this, shall we? We'll have a look at the headers first, where we find out it came from webd@hermes.taz.de. Now, last time I checked, eBay emails come from eBay's server, not some German site. So, strike one.

On to the message:

Dear eBay Customer , [1]

During our regulary [2] schedule [3] account maintenance and verification we have detected a slight error in your billing information on file with eBay. If you do not update your billing informations [4], your account will be deleted for security reasons. Remember that this is your final warning! This might be due to either [5] following reasons:

- A recent change in your personal information (i.e. change of address)
- Submiting invalid information during the initial sign up process.
- An inability to accurately verify your selected option of payment due an internal error within our processors.

Your credit card on file with eBay

Card number: XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-4322 [6]
(Not shown for security purposes) Expiration date: 11/05 [7]

Please sign in to your eBay account and update your billing information:

[insert fake link here]

If your account information is not update [8], your ability to sell or bid on eBay will become restricted.

Thank you,
eBay Billing Department

[1] Yeah, that space between "customer" and the comma? Shouldn't be there. And eBay won't start an email to a member like that. Ever.
[2] regulary? Um, I believe the word you're looking for is "regularly."
[3] schedule? Again, should be "sheduled." You know, if you're going to try to panic me into clicking your fake link, you should at least have a grammatically correct spoof email.
[4] informations? Um, no "s" on the end of that word. See [3] above.
[5] "either" implies one of two options. You have three options there. Learn to count. Also, it should be "either of the following reasons."
[6] Last four of that CC#...close, but no cigar.
[7] Expiration of that CC...not even close.
[8] "update" should be "updated."

Therefore, BZZZZT! You lose! Strikes two through nine. Consider yourself reported. [font=Soup Nazi]No information for you![/Soup Nazi]

Jeebers. Do people really fall for these things? Not only that, but I have three more emails in my inbox, all purporting to be from eBay, telling me basically the same thing, in a letter different from this one, but identical to each other--except for the headers. They even took the "not" from the following sentence: "eBay will not request personal data (password, credit card/bank numbers, and so on) in this email." Uh, no, moron, eBay will NEVER request information like that in an email. How stupid do you think I am? Especially when a quick look at the headers tells me who it really came from? So, I won't click on your fake link and give you my credit card number, my bank account and routing number, my PIN, my mother's maiden name, my social security number, or any other information you need to steal my identity. kthxdie.

Comments

[whirligigged.livejournal.com]

Soup Nazi! *love*

Pfft. What a pathetic attempt at identity theft. Even I wouldn't fall for that! And I am notorious for my obliviousness (sp?).

"OMGWTFBBQ!!!"? BBQ?! Where?!

Speaking of food, how was your Thanksgiving?

[agilebrit.livejournal.com]

Just me and Da Boy; Hubby had to work. We celebrated a couple of weeks ago in Colorado. Watched the parade and the dog show and football today. Now have Shrek2 on for Da Boy. Just a quiet evening at home. :-) No major pigout for us today.

[speakr2customrs.livejournal.com]

People do fall for these things. Recent research by APACS (the Association for Payment Clearing Services, one of the bodies involved in running the British banking system) has found that 4 per cent of customers would reply with password details to an e-mail if they thought it was from their bank, and I would guess that the figure for people who would respond to E-Bay is likely to be very similar.

I work for a major bank and a lot of my time is spent trying to protect customers from themselves. A lot of them seem almost suicidally determined to spread their confidential information around.

[agilebrit.livejournal.com]

It's crazy. I get the scam emails from banks too...banks I don't even bank with! Yeah, sure, guys, have my info, I don't mind. Yeesh.

[speakr2customrs.livejournal.com]

The Eastern European mafiyas send out literally millions of these e-mails at random on the reckoning that some of the recipients will bank with the named banks, and if they hit with 100,000 and 4 per cent reply that gives them 4,000 bank accounts to loot, and to use to create cloned IDs, and so on.