February 21, 2006

The dumbest phishing spammer I've heard from so far

Spammers try to look smart to fool us, but they really aren't. Reference this little gem that got past GMail's filters:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               
X-Gmail-Received: 7027b24f257865b549f0520a5e00633c137aa01b
Delivered-To: *********@*********
Received: by 10.65.96.5 with SMTP id y5cs41366qbl;
        Tue, 21 Feb 2006 12:23:38 -0800 (PST)
Received: by 10.65.155.19 with SMTP id h19mr1741150qbo;
        Tue, 21 Feb 2006 12:23:38 -0800 (PST)
Return-Path: <%CUSTOM_FINANCIAL_TERMS@gmail.com>
Received: from DM ([208.65.60.56])
        by mx.gmail.com with SMTP id e14si27530qba.2006.02.21.12.23.38;
        Tue, 21 Feb 2006 12:23:38 -0800 (PST)
Received-SPF: neutral (gmail.com: 208.65.60.56 is neither permitted nor denied by domain of %CUSTOM_FINANCIAL_TERMS@gmail.com)
Received: from %RND_HOST (8.8.8/8.8.8) id XAA59962; Tue, 21 Feb 2006 14:23:46 -0600
Message-Id: <170014510459.XAA13898%CUSTOM_FINANCIAL_TERMS@gmail.com>
From: "Nikhil Ball" <%CUSTOM_FINANCIAL_TERMS@gmail.com>
To: *********@*********
Subject: Concerning February Account Details
X-Mailer: Opera/7.02 (Windows ME; U)
Date: Tue, 21 Feb 2006 14:23:46 -0600

%CUSTOM_TO_ALIAS,

%CUSTOM_ACCOUNT - %CUSTOM_LINK  

Nikhil Ball, Account Rep. %CUSTOM_REP_NUMBER

Mr. Ball -- or whoever you really are -- when are you going to realize:

  1. I see a bunch of these every week, and it's getting old
  2. I don't have an account at %CUSTOM_LINK (or whatever bank you're trying to psyche me out on)
  3. My banks don't contact me by e-mail
  4. The wording on these bank-account-theft e-mails is largely the same
  5. I can read the status bar at the bottom of the page and see where the link is really going
  6. RTFM, an acronym you've never heard of

On the plus side, you did get past the filter. I did read your e-mail. The GMail one-line summary was amusing enough to prompt me to see what was going on.

Bottom line: if you want to defraud me, you're going to have to work harder than a simple form letter. As many people with so-called dearly departed and super-rich relatives have found out.

Posted by WeirdAl at February 21, 2006 1:01 PM