Beware of Phishing Phools Swimming Sharkily Around the Amazon Basin
Normally I wouldn't bother to write about an email scam, because I figure that readers of this blog (all, oh, seven or eight of you) are savvy enough to spot them on their own. Some of these are so ridiculously transparent that I'm genuinely amazed to learn that people fall for them, but this one was so cleverly disguised that I puzzled over it for some time before reporting it.
Yesterday morning I got an email purportedly from Amazon.com, with a very convincing-looking return address. (I started to include it here, but decided against because I couldn't figure out how to keep it from appearing as a hot link, and I certainly don't want anybody to click on it.) Anyway, the note concerned a billing issue: supposedly somebody had been trying to use my account or something, and they needed me to contact them using a Web address they provided. That URL was VERY convincing-looking--no "amazon @ hotmail.com" or whatever. It looked so much like the real thing, and the matter seemed plausible enough--I order a lot of stuff from Amazon regularly, and one of my assistants also uses my account to order things for Deidre and me--that I clicked on the link. And the site it brought me to looked SO much like Amazon that I very nearly took the bait.
Had it not been for something about the subject line of the original email that looked a little strange--it just didn't exactly correspond to anything I'd ever received from Amazon before--combined with something in the wording of the email that didn't sound quite like it applied to me (there was a reference to an Amazon credit card, which I don't have), I might very well have fallen for this clever scam. Instead, I went to Amazon--not using the URL from the email, but the one stored in my Favorites on Internet Explorer--and reported the matter to them. Sure enough, they sent back a boilerplate response indicating that the email I received was not from them, and thanking me for reporting the matter to them.
So if you get something from Amazon that doesn't look right, don't respond to it. Just go to Amazon--the real Amazon--and let them know about it. You don't have anything to lose by doing so, and if you fall for a scam (as yours truly, who prides himself for his wisdom in these matters, very nearly did), you could lose a lot.
posted by Judson Knight @ 10:42 AM
7 Comments:
Man! That fish is SCARY!!!!
I'm getting stuff all the time from scammers. If it's not something from someone I know, I don't bother with it. If I haven't solicitated contact initially, then any solicitation from "them" is immediately suspect.
So far so good. But if it can almost get past you, who is much more savvy then I, your message is timely and important. Thanks.
I take it you didn't see my question from your last post about the "ladies from hell". But that's OK. I found a website that talks about their WW 1 role. I was just wondering if you had found them interesting if you had ever come across them in your research....
Good luck with the anti-spam message. I hope more people see it.
Toodles
Hey, Michele. Actually, I did see the "Ladies from Hell" question, but since you said you were going to Google it--and since I didn't know anything about the subject and would have only Googled it myself--I didn't act on it.
But as proof that I always do notice and remember things you mention, look out for a post soon regarding the matter of really good *bad* movies, which you asked about a few weeks back.
P.S. Oh, and the fish--he of course is part of that infamous breed found in the river for which Amazon is named. Which brings to mind the fact that a recent New Yorker had a FASCINATING article about the search for a British explorer who in the 1920s entered the Amazon hinterland in search of what he believed was a lost civilization. Needless to say, he never returned, and many search and recovery parties in subsequent years have very nearly met the same fate. An extremely interesting story.
Oh yes, I bet an explorer becoming fish food is interesting. I wonder how much he "discovered" before nature said "hello"?
They used that lovely little biter in a CSI Vegas episode. Ate the evidence, but I guess the little beasties can't handle excess cholesterol because they don't get it in their natural food chain. I thought that was SO interesting!
I look forward to your next blog about good "bad" movies. How exciting.
Will the tomatos and giant bunnies be in there? Oh, and the alligator? Those were so silly.....but I watched, them.
Oh, do you remember the name of a movie that had Peter Cushing in it and cave men? I can't locate it . Something used a psychic wammy on him I think. I remembered Mr. Cushing going cross-eyes in it, so hitting my funny bone as it did, I remember that part vividly. Nothing else though......
Nothing like a silly challenge, eh?
Anyway, Thanks for addressing my questions!
I got the same exact email. Right down to the Amazon credit card nonsense (which I also don't have). I almost fell for it too, but stopped myself just in time. When I contacted Amazon, they sent me the same letter.
Now my internet service provider is having a similar phishing problem. These people are getting scarier every day.
Tanya
I got the same email and almost fell for it, too! Sheesh, don't these people have anything better to do?
I got the same email, too. I also get spam whose subject header says: SPAM blah blah. Why does earthlink let this thru??
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