Wow, how stupid do they think I am?
It’s a rhetorical question wise guy.
Here’s a phishing email that I received this evening.
——————–
From: Chianelli, Russell R.
Date: Thu, Apr 24, 2008 at 8:05 PM
Subject: UNICEF ORGANISATION DONATION AWARDED PIN NUMBERS U-777-1815, D-01-47 CONTACT INFOS (**********@yahoo.com.hk)
To: undisclosed-recipientsUNICEF ORGANISATION DONATION.
Unicef OrganisationConcern.
The Unicef Orgnasation, Would like to notify you that you have been chosen by the board of trustees as one of the final recipients of a cash Grant/Donation for your own personal, educational, and business development. The Unicef Orgnasation was formed in 1947 after WWII to help children displaced by the war. It was then called the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund. The United Nations Organization (UNO) and the European Union (EU) was conceived with the objective of human growth, educational, and community development.
To celebrate the 27th anniversary program, The Unicef Organisation is giving out a yearly donation of One Million Four Hundred and Seventy Thousand United States Dollars. These specific Donations/Grants will be awarded to 70 lucky international recipients worldwide; in different categories for their personal business development and enhancement of their educational plans. At least 17% of the awarded funds should be used by you to develop a part of your environment. This is a yearly program, which is a measure of universal development strategy.
Based on the Continental selection exercise of internet,data base websites and millions of supermarket cash invoices worldwide, you were selected among the lucky recipients to receive the award sum of US$1,470,000.00 (One Million Four Hundred and Seventy Thousand United States Dollars) as charity donations/aid from the Unicef Orgnasation and the UNO in accordance with the enabling act of Parliament. (Note that all beneficiaries email addresses were selected randomly from Various internet Job websites or a shop’s cash invoice around your area in which you might have purchased something from).
You are required to contact the Permanent Secetary below for qualification documentation (ed. note: emphasis added) and processing of your claims. After contacting our office, you will be given your pin number, which you will used in claiming the funds. Please endeavor to quote your Awarded pin numbers (U-777-1815, D-01-47) in all discussions.
Permanent Secetary- Mr. Peter Geroge
Email: *********@yahoo.com.hk
Finally, all funds should be claimed by their respective beneficiaries, no later than14 days after notification. Failure to do so will mean cancellation of that beneficiary and its donation will then be reserved for next year’s recipients. On behalf of the Board kindly, accept our warmest congratulations.
Happy New Year.Regards.
Sir. williams Charlton
(Online Coordinator)
Happy New Year…riiiight.
Now, call me crazy but, I’m fairly certain that Unicef doesn’t use Yahoo for their email. In all seriousness if you receive an email like the aforementioned, delete it.
Now, where’s did I leave that whack-a-mole mallet?
No, not that kind.
Spam. You know, that insidious type of email detritus that clogs your inbox and the “tubes” of the internet. Apparently, a new spam site hits the interweb every 3 seconds. I can’t say that I’m surprised in the least. Why else would companies like IronPort and their ilk have so much business?
From ITNews Australia:
New figures suggest that 92.3 percent of all email sent globally during the first three months of 2008 was spam..
The data from Sophos also indicated that 23,300 new spam-related web pages were created every day during the period, or one about every three seconds.
For the first time Turkey’s contribution to the global spam problem puts it in the top three offending countries.
Compromised computers in Turkey are now responsible for relaying 5.9 percent of the world’s junk email, compared to 3.8 percent in the final quarter of 2007.
The US and Russia maintained first and second place respectively, but both countries managed to reduce their contribution to the worldwide spam problem compared to the final three months of 2007.
As long as there is money to be made in this manner…it’ll just keep on rolling. Cut off the money and it’s a faint memory.
Yeah, I don’t see that happening either.
This morning brings word of another data breach. This time the victim was the Irish employment site Jobs.ie.
From Ireland.com:
Jobs.ie would not say how many of its clients had been affected, but said it had now fixed the security breach.
The clients whose information was taken are at risk from identity fraud and “phishing”, where criminals, often posing as a well-known, legitimate company, use the information gleaned to try to extract further personal and financial information from their victims.
It is understood that the hackers used an illegally obtained log-in and password given to employers who are registered with Jobs.ie to access the job applications area of the site. They then downloaded personal information from CVs submitted, along with job applications.
Most of the stolen information relates to archive CVs rather than those of people now looking for jobs.
The company, which is owned by businessman Denis O’Brien, has in recent days contacted those affected to warn them of the possibility that they may receive e-mails from people using their information.
“All of the people affected have been contacted and informed of the situation. We have urged them to exercise extra vigilance with inbound e-mails in the coming weeks to ensure online security,” a spokeswoman said.
Read on.
