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Phishers Get Phoney
Nick Johnson writes to mention a new twist on phishing. From the article: "The spammed message warns of a problem with a bank account and instructs the recipient to dial a phone number to resolve it. The caller is connected to a voice response system that is made to sound exactly like the bank's own system. The phone system identifies itself to the target as the financial institution and prompts them to enter account number and PIN."
Makes me think that it is still the safest option to have customers do all their banking right at a teller.
where's all that Karma?
..do they know what bank i use? I've had emails from banks all over the world regarding my "account". The only email i havent got yet is from the bank i actually use!
To dare, is to do.
It seems that phishing is evolving but they are getting forced to use more risky (for the phisher) methods. A phone number feels more physical than a web presence so it should be easier to track besides this has to be breaking some "dont screw around with the phone" federal law.
The best test environment is production. - Me
chrome://browser/content/browser.xul
So, what if you enter a random number with random PIN. They have to go thru the trouble to make the card, only to find out it doesn't work. And their face pop up at the video camera's of the ATMs all the time with failed withdrawals.
Bert
No one will ever ask you for your account number or pin. This is not so much a new twist as good old basic social engineering. It stands to reason NEVER to trust any unsolicited form of communication unless you check it out and NOT by calling the number the phisher provides.
one would think these guys would just seek gainful employment.
There exists no way of exchanging information without making judgments. --Bene Gesserit Axiom
In the area where I live there has been a more serious "phone phish" going on. You receive a call from someone and claiming to be a police officer. They say that they're very sorry to have to inform you that your mother/father/son/daughter/sister/bother has been involved in a serious crash and is being flown by emergency helicopter to regional hospital X. So that the hospital is able to treat them the moment it touches down, the officer is trying to complete necessary admittance and insurance paperwork in advance, and what they need from you is your insurance policy number *and* the full name, address, phone, credit card number, and social security number of someone who can be billed in the event that the insurance policy is unwilling to cover the necessary treatment.
From what I understand, these scammers have been doing pretty well, unfortunately, and as far as I know there are few leads. The public hasn't been told why... maybe they're using convenience store phones and/or pay phones.
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
I mean, arn't they fooling enough people in the status quo? Now, they have to pay people to act like they work for a bank, and have them on call 24/7.
The same stupid people are going to believe this (why would your bank email you asking you to call them?), so now the phishers will be losing money by paying actors, and not really getting enough extra to cover the cost.
I think the "Tragedy of the Commons" has struck the spam and phishing world. First, a few spams and you had a high return rate. Now that everyone's inbox is flooded, no one reads them anymore. So people turned to phishing, which made a lot of money. However, people realized that you know, the bank isn't going to send them alerts to *every* email account they have anymore (I get the same phish email in my home account (several copies), and my Gmail account), or as I mentioned in my anecdote, *several* copies. For the past week, Chase Online had a problem *EVERY SINGLE DAY*. The first time, maybe. The Nth time, well, it's obviously a scam.
Either that, or if one were to answer every phish, there would've been nothing left in the account beyond the first couple of phishers.
So now that everyone's into the phishing racket, all the low-hanging fruit is gone, since people get suspicious when the bank sends multiple emails on the same problem, or over the course of a week, or different problems with the same bank. It worked wonders when phishes were rare. Now that they happen daily, well.
Interesting how the Tragedy of the Commons can affect scams as well (which probably included a number of ways spam has evolved over the years).
But hey, calling a 1-800 number can be quite fun, since they're paying for the call. May be fun to do an automated calling thing that calls, presses random numbers, speaks sloooooooowwwwwwlllllly...
It's a form of online fraud, and I specialize in its prevention. There are two simple things to do to prevent ID/personal info theft like this. Never click a link in an e-mail. I'd say you can hover over the link and you'll see it's masked, forwarded, just plain a different site, etc., but most of the population has no clue how to read those things anyway (though I'm sure most, if not all, of you here know how to). Go directly to the company's page if you have an account with them. If they need you to "verify" info or whatever, the legit site will tell you after you've signed in. Ignore it altogether if you don't have an account with the place supposedly sending it (right now it's very common to receive things from "Chase" asking to fill out a survery and get $20). The second is to call the regular customer service number you can get through 411. An agent via that number can connect you to whoever you need. If the e-mail says to call a certain number to get hold of a certain person, an agent can help you find that person, if he/she exists and is an employee of the company. No legit institution at which you have an account will address you as, "Dear customer," or some other impersonal greeting. Always by your name. It's at the point that I believe that, if someone has their ID stolen, they deserve it. We've all heard time and again not to click on links, and yet 3-7% of people still fall for these things. Yes, the number is that high. Scary, huh?
It's a girl!