Spam tricks

Spammers are the bane of email and, with public emails, I get more than my fair share, even with strong protection. Whilst they are a nuisance, they are also a worthy subject as they seek to grab attention. One of those that got through recently was quite ingenious. It goes like this.

Dear Gentlemen, Thank you for using our new service "Buy airplane ticket Online" on our website. Your account has been created:

Your login: davidstraker@changingminds.org Your password: passPQOH

Your credit card has been charged for $494.49. We would like to remind you that whenever you order tickets on our website you get a discount of 10%! Attached to this message is the purchase Invoice and the airplane ticket. To use your ticket, simply print it on a color printed, and you are set to take off for the journey!

Kind regards, AirTran Airways

The line that grabbed my attention was 'Your credit card has been charged for $494.49'. With the realistic email and password, it started to look real. Eek! I thought. Find out what this about! There was a zip attachment which it was inviting me to open -- something I'm very cautious about as just opening zip files can infect your machine, so I paused and looked harder at the message.

First, it started with 'Dear Gentlemen'. This made it less personal and made me pause. I also noticed a spelling error where it refers to a 'color printed' instead of 'color printer'. Grammatical errors are common where the spammers are not native English speakers.

So, having reason to pause, it prevented me from diving in. I took a copy of the text here, then deleted the message. Tricky, though, huh?

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Spam tricks