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Hotmail Phishing scam Alert
02-19-2009, 04:42 PM
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#1
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: South Texas~29N/98W Just West of Woman Hollering Creek
Posts: 6,668
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Hotmail Phishing scam Alert
I receive this today via email to my Hotmail account. It obviously is aimed at the dumbest of the dumb (may be the reason that they select me ), but this may be a good opportunity to alert any loved ones who have a Hotmail account to avoid this like the plague.
" we are having congestions " = Does not seem like Hotmail lingo.
Quote:
This Email is from Hotmail Customer Care and we are sending it to every Hotmail Email User Accounts Owner for safety. we are having congestions due to the anonymous registration of Hotmail accounts so we are shutting down some Hotmail accounts and your account was among those to be deleted. We are sending this email to you so that you can verify and let us know if you still want to use this account. If you are still interested please confirm your account by filling the space below.Your User name, password, date of birth and your country information would be needed to verify your account.
Due to the congestion in all Hotmail users and removal of all unused Hotmail Accounts, Hotmail would be shutting down all unused Accounts, You will have to confirm your E-mail by filling out your Login Information below after clicking the reply button, or your account will be suspended within 24 hours for security reasons.
* Username: ..............................
* Password: ................................
* Date of Birth: ............................
* Country Or Territory: ................
After following the instructions in the sheet, your account will not be interrupted and will continue as normal. Thanks for your attention to this request. We apologize for any inconveniences.
Warning!!! Account owner that refuses to update his/her account after two weeks of receiving this warning will lose his or her account permanently.
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__________________
Part-Owner of Texas
Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read. Groucho Marx
In dire need of: faster horses, younger woman, older whiskey, more money.
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02-19-2009, 07:49 PM
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#2
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: May 2008
Location: No fixed abode
Posts: 8,764
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Standard poorly written phishing. I'm surprised it ever made it into your inbox. I'm pretty sure the normal spam filters would have sent it to the junk mail folder. Out of curiosity, what did the headers look like?
__________________
"Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement." - Anonymous (not Will Rogers or Sam Clemens)
DW and I - FIREd at 50 (7/06), living off assets
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02-20-2009, 01:01 AM
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#3
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: North of Montana
Posts: 2,768
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Can't be phishing. No request for banking, credit card or other financial information. I'm sure Mr. Gates has outsourced Hotmail Customer Support to another country where technical support is superb but English is a second language. OK folks, come up with a new term, maybe email address harvesting (oops, old term)?
__________________
There are two kinds of people in the world: those who can extrapolate conclusions from insufficient data and ..
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02-20-2009, 10:47 AM
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#4
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: May 2008
Location: No fixed abode
Posts: 8,764
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Phishing is an attempt to get information about a person, not just banking stuff. If you get my Hotmail account and password there's a good chance that you might be able to see some of my banking transactions. Combine that with date of birth and the always publicly available mother's maiden name, and you have everything except my SSN. It's all phishing.
Via Wikipedia:
In the field of computer security, phishing is the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.
__________________
"Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement." - Anonymous (not Will Rogers or Sam Clemens)
DW and I - FIREd at 50 (7/06), living off assets
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02-20-2009, 10:57 AM
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#5
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: May 2008
Posts: 6,496
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They just want to know you a little bit better.
Sorta like the banks "know your customer" program, so they can rat on you little better. The banks maintain your profile, when you get outside of those "normal" parameters for deposits etc. they give a heads up to the friendly feds.
So call it the international know your customer expedition.
__________________
There must be moderation in everything, including moderation.
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02-20-2009, 02:09 PM
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#6
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Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: At The Cafe
Posts: 6,873
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02-20-2009, 02:59 PM
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#7
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: North of Montana
Posts: 2,768
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Quote:
Originally Posted by harley
Phishing is an attempt to get information ......... It's all phishing.
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Seems my attempt at sarcasm failed.
__________________
There are two kinds of people in the world: those who can extrapolate conclusions from insufficient data and ..
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02-21-2009, 08:00 PM
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#8
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: May 2008
Location: No fixed abode
Posts: 8,764
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Yeppers. I didn't see any sarcasm. I think the outsourcing statement is probably accurate, except for the superb support part. That's why I always try to use the emoticons. Text doesn't do body language or facial expressions very well. Not to mention that many people don't recognize my sense of humor as such, even face to face.
__________________
"Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement." - Anonymous (not Will Rogers or Sam Clemens)
DW and I - FIREd at 50 (7/06), living off assets
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02-22-2009, 08:49 PM
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#9
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Laurel, MD
Posts: 8,304
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"Due to the congestion in all Hotmail users...."
I always knew there was something about Hotmail I didn't like.
__________________
...with no reasonable expectation for ER, I'm just here auditing the AP class.Retired 8/1/15.
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