A Subtle Trap (fraudulent e-post)

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

I use a large PC – something like 24″ screen – for all Internet and non-Internet use. My portable telephone is a basic type not linked to the ‘Net, but I wonder if even a larger “smart” ‘phone would be too small to show the trap set by the formatting and spelling:

” Unread B T Broaclband Bill: – Is Ready to View !!! ”

 

I imagine the unwary would not spot it, though, if they were not already alerted by those words, and by the sender being allegedly an individual: “pat.innes [at] btinternet.com”.

 

Or had failed to twig this, in bold font:

“The BT Corporate Mark is a Registered Trademark of British Telecommunication Plc.”, although the only trade-mark shown is that of EE.

(Sender blocked, message reported to BT, and deleted.)

 

[cogdobblerParticipant @cogdobbler]

One of the 3.4 billion scam emails sent daily. Yes you read that right. 3.4 billion daily.

[cogdobbler]

On cogdobbler Said:

One of the 3.4 billion scam emails sent daily. Yes you read that right. 3.4 billion daily.

I can believe that, given the amount I get….

 

Jimb

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

I cabn believe that: the gangs have developed an entire “industry” that floods the Internet with blanket messages.

[Nigel Graham 2]

On Nigel Graham 2 Said:

I cabn believe that: the gangs have developed an entire “industry” that floods the Internet with blanket messages.

So much so that the gangs have large prison compounds across south-east Asia full of literally thousands of trafficked people forced to live in appalling conditions and work the phones and computers day and night, under threat of beatings, torture and worse.

Sadly, the governments of places like Laos and Myanmar know about it but do nothing. The gangs (mostly Chinese) are too rich and too powerful. It’s now a $60 billion a year industry. Probably earning more than the GDP of some of those countries.

It’s an open secret. The razor-wired multi-story compounds are huge, and in full public view.

And now they have AI and bots to help them…

[Clive FosterParticipant @clivefoster55965]

Given that all such scams (currently!) originate from the wrong E-Mail address what I can’t believe is that no one has produced an app that flags up the incorrect address. It would eb quite simple with modern AI techniques to match content against address to point out that the request for money doesn’t come from the real firm. Guess something similar to the trusted payer scheme used by the banks for online payment would work. Basically pick up the address first time you deal with a firm and warn if the wrong one is used.

I imagine similar things are just one of the ways that spam / fraud E-Mails are filtered out before they get to you. The only ones we actually see are those that slip through the end.

Clive

[cogdobblerParticipant @cogdobbler]

That’s why they use spellings such as broadbancl instead of broadband. It slips past the spam filters and might fool that 1 in 10,000 recipients who read it carelessly.

Basically these days, never ever click on a link in an email. Always navigate independently to your biller’s website and log into your account there. Almost all legitimate billers will not send a link in an email these days.

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

ALWAYS check the E mail address of the sender.

Some use an incorrect name / spelling (Chancers) or the country delineation gives it away.

None of my contacts live in .ru, and only one in .de.

Constant vigilance is needed.

If they are ignored often enough, they eventually realise that they are wasting time, and go to look for the less careful.

Most of us have had friends who have been mugged in Kiev, the day after being in California, or needing an Amazon gift card for some ill relative!!!

Howard

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

There was a rather chilling comment on the radio this morning about the major [anti?]social-media companies unable or even unwilling to do anything about the abuse of their services, because they have dismissed so many of their moderators and investigators.

I doubt the owners care….

The senders’ E-mail addresses often look totally wrong even before you read the country identifier; but there are plenty who use real, common domain names like “hotmail”. Some criminals have taken to using “names” that are long strings of random letters, and although they look totally silly I assume this is some sort of trap-evader.

 

Cogdobbler – you’ve spotted what I meant! A spelling that looks real unless displayed on a large screen.

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