AntiOnline Spotlight: Phishing and Cyber Scam Forum
March 4, 2005
It used to be that con artists vanished with a briefcase full of money after meticulous scheming and a dash of daring. Almost admirable, if it weren't criminal.
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| Meet the face, or fingers rather, of a modern day conman. |
Today's conmen (and ladies undoubtedly) are more likely to be toiling at a keyboard. What's more, they will never see their victims' faces, let alone set foot in their town, country, continent, and in many cases, the same hemisphere.
Internet-based scams have come a long way from the days of Nigerian 419 frauds, although even those still seem to linger. They have evolved from laughably unprofessional attempts to steer users to fake banking sites (complete with spelling and grammatical errors) to sophisticated spoofs that for all intents and purposes look and behave like the real deal.
For all the advancements in learning, personal communication, business and entertainment the Internet has fostered, it has also given scammers a far wider net with which to ensnare the hapless user. But all is not lost.
AntiOnline recently launched a dedicated Phishing and Cyber Scams forum where members (and lurkers) can gather helpful tips that they can use to see right through the latest scams.
Note: The opinions expressed below are solely those of the individual posters on the AntiOnline forums.
This Week's Spotlight Forum:
Phishing and Cyber Scams
This week we spotlight an entire forum. Below are some choice threads.
A good place to start is the Phish/Scam Contact Directory started by moderator HTRegz:
whatthe clues us in to these two anti-scam resources:
Name of Organization: Bank Safe Online
Website: http://www.banksafeonline.org.uk/
Contact Name/Mailing Address: [email protected]
Description of Organization/Site: UK banking website to report phishing scams and links to curruent scams
Name of Organization: Anti-Phishing Working Group
Website: http://www.antiphishing.org/index.html
Contact Name/Mailing Address: [email protected]
Description of Organization/Site:
The Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) is the global pan-industrial and law enforcement association focused on eliminating the fraud and identity theft that result from phishing, pharming and email spoofing of all types...
A 419 resurgence with better writing?
valhallen offers a
taste of what to look out for.
Dear Partner,
It is my pleasure to write you this letter on behalf of my colleagues. We have decided to seek a confidential co-operation with you for the execution of a transaction hereunder for the benefit of all parties and hope you will keep it confidential because of the nature of this business.
I am the director of Audit and Project Implementation with the Department of Mineral and Energy, two top officials and I have in our possession an overdue payment in US funds. The said funds represent a certain percentage of the total contract value executed on behalf of my department by a foreign contracting firm which we the officials over-invoiced to the amount of Fourteen Million, Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars only (US$14,500,000.00). The reason of inflating the original value is to divert the excess value to a foreign bank account for our personal use. The actual contract cost has been paid to the original contractor leaving the balance unclaimed...
Spot a scam? Can you smell a phish a mile away? Share your experiences
here.
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