November 2003
From phishing to slamming
Robin Houghton
Email and online scams - you just can't keep a good one down. Many column inches have been given lately to phishing - the practice of imitating legitimate companies in emails to entice people to share passwords or credit card numbers.
Recent victims include most of the major banks. It's not new - the last outbreak appears to have been in August, when
BBC online readers had their say about phishing and the people who fall for it.
But what about the lesser scams: the petty, the ill-conceived and the plain unintelligent marketing own-goals that land in our inboxes daily?
We all know about the poor Nigerian ambassador's widow, the generous offers of prescription drugs and the n0ns-ensic@l attempts to bypass email filters.
Let's forget the dangerous for now - here's this month's roll-call of the desperate, the delusional and the drossy.
1. We are going to sell your email address
Thanks, Kate. Go ahead and include my address on your list of 2 million. It's obviously already there on the list that you bought for 50p from a fellow spammer.
2. Update your listing on our top-rated directory
Aaah, isn't that nice? He gave me a 'free' listing and I didn't even have to ask for it! Be warned that this is a classic directory scam that can suddenly land you with a demand for $60 a year (per category).
In a similar vein is the one from 'yellovvpages' (check that spelling carefully) of which I was a lucky recipient recently. Another warning that my 'free listing' had expired, and what to do about it. I know you can't really read it, but you get the picture:
3. Sorry, there was a mistake in the last email
Come on, guys - this has been tried at least one too many times. Funny how previously buttoned-down marketing outfits are suddenly claiming to have put the wrong dates in their emails and missed out the crucial URLs. And approximately two hours later in comes the follow-up email to apologise for their clumsiness. Yeah, that's really going to make me open it THIS time.
4. Your domain is about to expire
OK, this didn't arrive by email - but it's a web-related scam, so worth sharing. Letters from the
Domain Registry of America headed 'Domain Name Expiration Notice' are not new - there is a history of the company doing this since the middle of 2002. But it was the first one I had received, and despite rulings in the US the company continues with this dubious practice of 'domain slamming'. And it seems to be more prevalent than ever in the UK.
The letter has the appearance of an invoice, and without reading the small print it would be all too easy to send off £18 for domain name renewal, without realising that you were inadvertently transferring your domain.
Pathetic? Yes.
But as we all know, the reason spam continues to grow is because it is lucrative. You could say we're bringing it on ourselves. Could someone please start a viral campaign to educate the masses not to respond to spam? Pretty please?
Until the next round up. And if you've news of any new scams you'd like to share, please
let us know.
Related links Phishing defined
Dr Bacchus' Journal: Domain Registry of America
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