OT: phishing

["Bob La Londe" <usenet@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

In computing, phishing (also known as carding and spoofing) is a form of
social engineering, characterised by attempts to fraudulently acquire
sensitive information, such as passwords and credit card details, by
masquerading as a trustworthy person or business in an apparently official
electronic communication, such as an email or an instant message. The term
phishing arises from the use of increasingly sophisticated lures to "fish"
for users' financial information and passwords.

I get tons of phishing e-mails.  Uusally two or three everday on some
accounts.  When they first started I used to forward them to my regional FBI
office, but there are so many I just delete them anymore.  I'm sure the
local FBI agents get plenty of heads up on them.

Today I decided to do something just for fun and visit a couple of those
fake site links.  They are quite sophisticated.  They even have number
checking algorithims in place.  I enter several sets of fake data, and even
a couple universal system test numbers and the phishing sites promptly
notified me there was something wrong with the number.  LOL..  I did not go
further to see if they would accept a legitimate card number for obvious
reasons, but over all I was impressed with the layout.  Its sad really that
somebody with that much talent doesn't feel they can make a good living from
legitimate use of their skills.


--
Bob La Londe

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