ONLY the “log on” button in this morning’s e-mail “from my bank” told me it was phishing! Other than that I can’t describe how very, very convincing it was. Impressive, certainly.
Phil Bird of The PC Support Group recently featured on a radio programme about this very subject. The programme’s presenter wasn’t too bothered about having to delete a daily ton of spam but, as Phil pointed out, it’s not the volume but the content that’s the danger.
Usually there’s something about the command of the English language (or rather lack of it) in these e-mails that screams “rubbish” at you. It seems to me though that there’s an ever increasing band of much more savvy criminal geeks getting up to this game. Apart from missing spaces after a couple of commas there was nothing else I could pick up on this morning.
- Nice graphics? – check
- Bank Registered Office Address? – check
- Telephone banking number? – check
- Warnings about fraudsters? – check
- Privacy statement? – check
I could go on. It had the lot.
Still – there it was – the one thing without which the fraudsters are powerless to act – the “click here to log on” button. Gotcha! Simply out of curiousity we ran a quick check on it which traced it to Romania.
No bank would ever put such a thing into an e-mail – in the IT support world we all know that. None of us (surely) would touch the thing. If we wanted to check out a problem with our bank account, we’d get to the website in the usual way – via the web browser.
Nevertheless I can’t help my heart sinking at the thought of all those innocent people who just don’t get the simple rule … “NEVER click on a link in an e-mail – particularly not from a bank or building society”.
Is enough being done to get the message out there I wonder. As a kid I clearly remember seeing “adverts” on TV – not selling anything, just warning Joe Public about all kinds of useful trivia for their own sake! Some of them were downright silly and unnecessary and have passed into history as a bit of a national joke – but I’m sure others actually went as far as saving lives! What happened to them?
Bring them back! That’s what I say anyway. Until then, no point in us in the savvy computer support industry leaning back with an “I’m alright Jack” attitude. We have to spread the word whenever we can – and keep on spreading it – I’d like to see the fraudsters zip up their anoraks and sulk off home, defeated. It’s a slim chance but at least we can protect some friends, neighbours and, of course, our all-important clients.