I’ve recently been receiving more and more phishing scams in my email box and they are getting better all the time. Now, you and I know better than to click a link in an email telling us to login to our bank, right? Further, you and I certainly know not to provide our bank information to an unknown person who is letting us in on a deal. But, I bet a lot of our parents or grandparents or wives or husbands or…you get the idea…the less tech savvy need to be aware.

Email “from addresses” can be spoofed. Easily. Everyone needs to know that. Here’s an easy way to show someone. Go to prankmail.org and send yourself an email from “fill in the blank”…..how about Bill Gates, bequeathing you a billion dollars (he wouldn’t miss it right?).

I’ve gotten phony emails pretending to be from EBay telling me “If the request information is not provided to us then we will regret to inform you that your account will be suspended from our database until required the information is provided.” followed by instructions to login with links to a bogus website. I’ve received phony emails pretending to be Washington Mutual telling me “During our regularly scheduled account maintenance and verification we have detected a slight error in your billing information on file with WASHINGTON MUTUAL BANK ( WAMU )”…..telling me to login (again a bogus link to a non-WaMu website). The web addresses linked in the emails of the spoofed website are usually just ip addresses or else a variant on a company name (e.g. somecompanybilling.com).

Today I stumbled across a humorous and yet educational email exchanged about a Nigerian email scam. I supposed I can see if this is sent to 100 million email addresses, at least someone is going to fall for it. Paul Phillips archived the whole humorous back-and-forth email exchange as he tried to have fun the unsavory scammer with his own outrageous claims.

Here’s an excerpt. Its fascinating to see how these operate.

THE PROPOSITION: A Foreigner an Australia, Late Eng. Steve Moore (Sir.) an Oil Merchant with the Federal Government of Nigeria, until his death months ago in Kenya Air Bus (A310-300) Flight KQ431, Banked with us at STANDARD TRUST BANK LIMITED, Lagos and had a closing balance as at the end of September, 2000 worth US$35,500,000.00 (thirty five Million five hundred thousand United State Dollars), the bank now expects a next of kin as beneficiary.Valuable efforts are being made by the STANDARD TRUST BANK LIMITED to get in touch with any of the Moor’s family or relatives but to no success. It is because of the perceived possibility of not being able to locate any of Late Engr. Steve Moore (Sir.)’ s next kin (He had no wife or child that is know to us). The Management under the influence of our Chairman and Members of the Board of Directors, that arrange has been made for the fund to be declared “Unclaimed” and subsequently be donated to the trust fund for arms and ammunition to further enhance the course of War in Africa and the World in General. In order to avert this negative development some of my trusted colleagues and I now seek your permission to have you stand as next of kin to Late Engr. Steve Moore (Sir.) so that the fund US$35.5 Million will be released and paid into your account as the Beneficiary’s next of kin.

…in a later email, they ask for this:
1, your bank name and address
2, your bank account number
3, your bank’s swift code numbers
4, your account name and the beneficiary’s name
5, your company’s name and address
DON’T EVER GIVE THAT OUT!

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to phish and you best ignore his emails. I wonder how Phish feels about the meaning their name has taken on.