Oooh -- evil, but well done...

[jducoeur]

Okay, it's an evil phishing spam. But most of these phishing attempts are so pathetically lame, I have some small admiration for one that's well-executed. In this case, it claims to be a response to an eBay argument -- a faked reply. I've gotten these before, but this one has just the right tone: very defensive, with the person at the other end getting very offended about having been threatened over a bad bid. The immediate gut reaction is to log in and say, "Sorry, but you've got the wrong person". But of course, the "Respond Now" link (alone of the links in the message) goes to a phishing site.

I'm far too suspicious to fall for this, but it's nicely executed, and a good reminder to continue to be suspicious of all links found in email...

Comments

[patsmor.livejournal.com]

I've seen that one -- I forwarded it to their spoof team -- but you're right, it was really well done.

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

I keep wondering if the various spoofed companies (eBay, PayPal, etc.) actually *do* anything with these reports, or if they go into a giant virtual circular file. Haven't seen any articles/interviews about the process, not that I've been looking for them.

They give the *appearance* of caring, by having the spoof reporting email and automated responses, but I wonder if that's as far as it goes.

[patsmor.livejournal.com]

Well, I've gotten responses from both eBay and Amazon that look like they come from real people and don't feel like boilerplate. Other companies seem to run around in circles by using only canned responses until I get annoyed and say something about wanting to talk to a manager.

I do know that if they are members of the Seal organizations (TrustE, BBB online, etc.) they have to show they actually respond in person to a certain high percentage of their customer's reports. so...

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

Hm. I've never had a personal response to a spoof email that seemed personal in any way. They're identical, and have no names attached. Maybe they have you in a special response category.

[patsmor.livejournal.com]

Maybe I'm a well-known PITA. -)

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

Pita bread? ;) It's all that testifying to Congress stuff that does it, y'know.

[patsmor.livejournal.com]

That's why I'm earning the big bucks, right?

[fitzw.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen that particular one, but I have received an EBay phishing message where someone was demanding to know where their money was, for the item that I [supposedly] bid on and won, and a similar one, demanding the item that the phisher had [supposedly] bid on and won.

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

I'm getting them with Amazon spoofed now, too. I think the most recent one says that I changed my password two days ago, and if this is an error, follow this link to reconfirm. The newest variety of eBay ones I've recieved has the subject line: "eBay listing confirmed. Sell another item now!" which is likewise evil.

[doubleplus.livejournal.com]

I got a similar one a while back, and I was pretty impressed with the quality, too. I admire the craft of the ones that take the trouble to disguise the URL that displays when you mouse over the link, though I had one that was amusing because they'd got it backwards -- the actual link went to Amazon, but the *rollover* showed a server in Czechoslovakia!