Great piece in The New Yorker by Mitchell Zuckoff (thanks, John) about a 419 Nigerian email scam that dates back to 2001 involving an ordained minister, John W. Worley. You think you know how these scams work but read on. These people are much more sophisticated and tenacious than the spam you receive. Also, the … Read more
I guess it had to happen: phishers are not only trying to snag you by setting up fake banking websites, now they’re trying to snag you by setting up fake switchboards too. Tim McElligott writes in Telephony Online that scammers “posing as a financial institution and using a VoIP phone number e-mailed people asking them … Read more
It’s interesting, if you like this kind of thing, to see how online scams learn from each other. Until recently I thought of the Nigeria 419 scam — where you’re contacted by some grieving African widow, burdened with millions that she wants to share with you, if only you’ll let her park it in your … Read more
I’m probably naive, but I’m gobsmacked that, nearly 24 hours later, a phishing website is still active despite my alerting the registrar and host of the domain in question. The only access was via a form so I’m not able to record my email to them but it was shortly after I posted the comment … Read more
I’m amazed at how lax domain registrations still are, despite the fact that phishing is now so much a household word that even my mum’s heard of it. But here’s another trick being used to try to dupe those people who still remain gullible: change the “o” in online to “c” because in many email … Read more