They could write a book!

[TopSecret]

Phishing emails are nothing new, but I like reading them sometimes just because some of them show some imagination sometimes. I swear the people who think them up should try writing novels for a living . Here's the latest one I received, I thought it was quite funny:

Metro Plaza, Plot 991/992

Zakari Maimalari Street

Cadastral Zone AO,

Central Business District, Abuja.



Attention:Beneficiary,







The BRITISH High Commission in Nigeria, Benin Republic,Ghana and Burkinafaso received a report of scam against you and other British/US citizens and Maylaysia,Etc. The countries of Nigeria, Benin Republic, Burkinafaso And Ghana have recompensed you following the meeting held with the Four countries' Government and various countries' high commission for the fraudulent activities carried out by the Four countries' Citizens.



Your name was among those scammed as listed by the Nigeria Financial Intelligent Unit (NFIU). A compensation has been issued out in Certified Bank Drafts to all the affected victims and has been already been in distribution to all the bearers. Your draft was among those that was reported undelivered as at on Friday and we wish to advise you to see to the instructions of the Committee to make sure you receive your draft immediately.



According to the number of applicants at hand, 184 Beneficiaries has been paid, half of the victims are from the United States,we still have more 37 left to be paid the compensations of $2,500,000.00 USD each.

Your particulars was mentioned by one of the Syndicates who was arrested as one of their victims of the operations,you are hereby warned not to communicate or duplicate this message to him for any reason whatsoever as the U.S. secret service is already on trace of the other criminals.



So keep it secret till they are all apprehended.Other victims who have not been contacted can submit their application as well for scrutiny and possible consideration.



NFIU further told us that the use of Nigeria and Ghana Couriers was abolished due to interception activities noticed in the above mentioned courier services in Benin,Nigeria and Ghana and thereby have made a concrete arrangement with the DHL Courier Company for a safe delivery to your door-step once the beneficiary meets up the demand of the conveyance.



We advise that you do the needful to make sure the NFIU dispatches your Draft on Friday.



You are assured of the safety of your draft and availability. Be advised that you should stop further contacts with all the fake lawyers and security companies who in collaboration scammed you. Get back to me immediately to check if the delivery date suits you.



Yours in Service,



Mr. Peter Andrew

The scary part is that I remember seeing a documentary on phishers a couple of years ago, and some people have lost large amounts of money by responding to these ****pots. In the documentary, the reporters responded to a phishing email, and a meeting was set up where the reporter had to bring along money to enable the 'release' of the funds. Two Nigerians showed up and then done a bunk once the penny dropped that they had been set up. The show also featured some people who had been scammed and lost money so people did fall for crap like this every now and then.

[tinytomlogan]

Really winds me up this does, my nan got a phone call the other day about bank charges,

"Tom can you come round the bank is phoning back, they are going to refund all the bank charges for the last 5years, I dont know what account details they need can you talk to them"

they wanted all her details as security and card numbers the lot!!!

F'er's phoned back too, I did have fun with that call

[Lynx]

Im studying this crap at collage.. lol phising is wen they use someones account that u know. spoofing is pretending to be someone / somecompany that your not.. really no problem unless your naive/gullable/st00pid

[TopSecret]

wiki says not

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phishing

In the field of computer security, phishing is the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Communications purporting to be from popular social web sites, auction sites, online payment processors or IT Administrators are commonly used to lure the unsuspecting public. Phishing is typically carried out by e-mail or instant messaging,[1] and it often directs users to enter details at a fake website whose look and feel are almost identical to the legitimate one. Even when using server authentication, it may require tremendous skill to detect that the website is fake. Phishing is an example of social engineering techniques used to fool users,[2] and exploits the poor usability of current web security technologies.[3] Attempts to deal with the growing number of reported phishing incidents include legislation, user training, public awareness, and technical security measures.

A phishing technique was described in detail in 1987, and the first recorded use of the term "phishing" was made in 1996. The term is a variant of fishing,[4] probably influenced by phreaking,[5][6] and alludes to baits used to "catch" financial information and passwords.

Also, you don't have to be stupid, especially when it's newcomers to IT who end up targetted or people who have never experienced phishing before.

[Rastalovich]

Yeah it's equiv of me sending u an email, claiming I'm ur bank, asking u to provide details and giving u a link.

The phising bit is when the link I give u looks 100% like ur bank on the face of it, but the link details are quite different and will point to some site I've setup for farming details.

People need to be aware that banks don't actually need ur details.

Heck my bank phoned me legitimately about some feedback on a service and I wouldn't tell the person my details - I phone my bank, they confirmed it had legitimately taken place, and I said to them there and then - u shouldn't phone people and ask them security questions. My reply was u phoned me, u tell me my security info and I'll check ur legit 1st Not only that, fraudsters will pick-up on people getting used to their banks phoning them.

[zak4994]

Metro Plaza, Plot 991/992

Zakari Maimalari Street

Cadastral Zone AO,

Central Business District, Abuja.

OMFG!

My name!

Well the first 6 letter anyways.

Yeah now that I have released my urge to say that I was gonna ask Tom whether that was phone jacker calling you...

[Pseudonym]

Write a book? It's not quite the same, but I know they've written out a book

http://419eater.com/html/joyce_ozioma.htm - there are others, but that was the first one I could find.

Also, this isn't phishing, it's advance fee fraud.