If someone walked up to you in the street saying he was from your bank and could you give him
your credit card details, what would you do?
 Just
say no.
Fake messages from banks and other financial institutions have been around for years now. You'd think we'd have got so
used to it that as a scamming strategy it's a non-starter but they're still sending them out. That can only mean one thing,
it's still working!
I recently (Jan 2005) received this eMail message (click the image to get a better view) and thought "That's it,
time to add my ha'peth worth" - and here it is. Scam eMailers, what to look for when someone eMails asking for
your credit card details! I'm not pretending this is a final solution, you can do plenty of other checks but what I'd
like to get over to you is how easy these scams can be to spot. The image above contains notes pointing out specific
parts of the message that give it away and parts that simply can't be trusted.
Things to watch for
- The message above wasn't even addressed to me at the correct address.
- The message contained no personal information at all. Although, it's possible for a clever hacker to gather information
that's already in the public domain. You'd be supervised how much information there is on YOU out there. Try entering
your name into google, see what comes back! Also, if you own a website or domain name (the bit after the @ symbol)
your details are available to anyone who cares to search the domain registries!
- Reading the message I noticed it hadn't been written very well, the english seemed awkward in places. Not what
I'd expect from a professional organisation.
- Biggest giveaway of all, when I held my mouse of the link I noticed the browser identified it as a completely different
address.
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