Is it just me or are Phishing emails getting more pathetic?

[Harold Mansfield]

Every now and then I like reading phishing emails to see how desperate they sound.
I am sure we all get them.. You have just won some foreign lottery(a couple times a day), someone saw your profile somewhere and wants to meet you, or the most prevalent..."Help me and my family move some money."

They are all written in horrible English, from free email addresses, and some of the really disgusting ones try and use religion or some kind of blessing as part of the guise.

I read one this morning where they pulled out all of the stops....it was from a (supposed) Catholic woman who's husband was a political prisoner (common) in a war ravaged country and she needed help to transfer money to the U.S. to help care for her 5 year old little girl who was chronically ill and needed special treatments weekly to stay alive.
If she couldn't leave the country with her family's money, she would have to leave her sick little girl behind in a Govt. run hospital where she has been abused frequently, because it is the only facility that has the medical technology to keep her alive...and she can't afford the treatments in the U.S.

Her son who as 13 was also in danger since he was coming of the age where roving bands of soldiers will kidnap him to fight in the war, and needed to get him out of the country to save his life.

_____________

WOW !
I couldn't help think to myself how creative they were and how they just stacked all of the normal lies into one email...going for it all.
None of that is the funniest part...the war torn country with political strife, hardships and roving bands of killers was ..of all places...Kuwait.

I really did spit coffee all over my keyboard. (I actually choked a little)

If you don't know much about Kuwait, outside of the Iraqi invasion in the 90's it is one of the richest, educated, and westernized Muslim nation in the middle east and a strong Ally and economic partner of the U.S...and by the way is not involved in a civil war or any kind of ethnic cleansing.

Normally these scam artist will use countries that you have never heard of , or have a history of hardship, but I guess they are running out of places to use a scams.

The irony here is that these scam artists think that we must be inherently stupid here in America, while the very scam they are running has an intelligence factor lower than what it takes to not look directly into the sun.

Or is the the irony that no matter how stupid the scam, that they still get the occasional bite from normally intelligent Americans who actually fall for it?

Sometimes they don't even make much effort. I got one last month that said simply "You have won" and asked for my name , email, phone, occupation, bank information..in plain text. No lead in. No back story. Just plain ole' - send me your personal information.
I thought that one was really funny.

[huggytree]

i get paypal emails every other day which are fake saying i have a problem with my account..

i get irs emails every other week

its rare i have one telling a sob story asking for $

[Spider]

Yes, some are pathetic. Yet, I often receive sophisticated phishing e-mails that really are very good. No grammatical errors, logical backstory, good quality company logo - Paypal and eBay are favorites, but Chase, Western Union and Citi have all been received in the past. They've had the small pale gray disclaimer at the bottom with legitimate contact e-mail.

The poor ones are easy to spot, but the good ones take a bit of careful analysis to confirm they are fake. Take care, folks. Some of these crooks are getting better.

[vangogh]

I get emails like that and some are getting really bad or funny depending on your perspective. I don't think those are considered phishing though. Phishing is more like what huggy mentioned, the emails trying to pass themselves off as from a legit site. Those are actually getting much better and I can see how people fall for them.

Many have become very good at matching the real emails the company sends out and the messages are sounding more plausible.

[Harold Mansfield]

Actually the Pay Pal, Bank of America and Citi one's are really good. almost excellent in quality. The B of A one actually had the real 800 number at the bottom, when I reported it to the B of A fraud line, even they were amazed of the quality.

When they start putting names and phone numbers together and begin calling you misrepresenting as a bank, we are going to really be in trouble.

[billbenson]

I've had some ligit emails from my bank with links to a sign in page as well. You would think they would be smarter than that. Banks with legit emails that look like Phishing emails...

[vangogh]

You can see how people would fall for some of those emails. I always hover over links to see where they'll take me and most of those emails tend to get sent to addresses that have no connection to the company they're trying to impersonate. Plus when the same email gets sent to several addresses at the same time it becomes easier to tell.

[nealrm]

Unfortunately these emails are not aimed at the general public but at individuals with diminish mental functions. The elderly is especially at risk.

Some of the emails are getting really bad. I had one that used made up countries and dictators. There have also been a large increase in "Job offers".

[dpdumas642]

I just got one of these emails the other day. It was supposedly from Paypal saying that there was a problem with my account and I need to verify some account information. The the thing of it was is I had just made a transaction through Paypal. Any time someone asks for your account information in an email that should send up a big red flag. But I can see how people could fall for it though. The email looked just like one I would get from Paypal.

[KristineS]

I love the phishing e-mails I get from banks or businesses with whom I never do business. Those aren't any problem. What is scary is when it is from some company with whom I do business. As was pointed out earlier, some of those are really good and you need to look very carefully at them.

[yoyoyoyoyo]

I don't enter or supply any information that the people I do business with, should already know and have records of (i.e. the bank, hosting, etc.)

if those people can't keep track of account numbers, my physical address, etc. (which has never been the case) than I shouldn't be doing business with them.


And if I need to straighten something out, it's in person. Or on a number *I* dial, as represented on the actual/REAL site/company itself.

---

the new great scam is, like someone mentioned earlier, "I have a job for you!" in a time of economic distress.

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In my humble opinion...

You can create a scam of a biz and have to worry about looking over your shoulder for the rest of your life.

OR

You can start a legitimate company doing legal things, and only have to worry about the courts. (while taking as much effort to legally indemnify yourself as much as possible, of course)

[vangogh]

Scams have a much shorter lifespan than legit business don't they?

[KristineS]

In my humble opinion...

You can create a scam of a biz and have to worry about looking over your shoulder for the rest of your life.

OR

You can start a legitimate company doing legal things, and only have to worry about the courts. (while taking as much effort to legally indemnify yourself as much as possible, of course)

I have to agree with you on this one. When you take a look at how much work goes into setting up some of these schemes, you have to wonder what the scammers could have done if they'd put their time and expertise to work legitimately. It's kind of sad, really.

[nealrm]

Scams have a much shorter lifespan than legit business don't they?

I'm not sure there really anything new in scams in the last 100 years. The only thing that has changed is the details, stories and methods . They generally fall into the get something for nothing area, give me money because of [sob story here] or selling a worthless object for a high price. Even identity theft predates computers by many years.

[vangogh]

True. The details need to be updated, but the scams are pretty much the same at their heart.