Phishing

[RedOctober]

I have a Spam account (e-mail address that I give to advertisers, etc.) and of course it gets a lot of junk. On occassion I get the Phishing stuff (see definition below). Got to thinking and decided, what the heck, lets see how many different ones we all get.

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/p/phishing.html

Quote:Phishing

(fish´ing) (n.) The act of sending an e-mail to a user falsely claiming to be an established legitimate enterprise in an attempt to scam the user into surrendering private information that will be used for identity theft. The e-mail directs the user to visit a Web site where they are asked to update personal information, such as passwords and credit card, social security, and bank account numbers, that the legitimate organization already has. The Web site, however, is bogus and set up only to steal the user’s information. For example, 2003 saw the proliferation of a phishing scam in which users received e-mails supposedly from eBay claiming that the user’s account was about to be suspended unless he clicked on the provided link and updated the credit card information that the genuine eBay already had. Because it is relatively simple to make a Web site look like a legitimate organizations site by mimicking the html code, the scam counted on people being tricked into thinking they were actually being contacted by eBay and were subsequently going to eBay’s site to update their account information. By spamming large groups of people, the "phisher" counted on the e-mail being read by a percentage of people who actually had listed credit card numbers with eBay legitimately.

Phishing, also referred to as brand spoofing or carding, is a variation on "fishing," the idea being that bait is thrown out with the hopes that while most will ignore the bait, some will be tempted into biting.

And here's the one I got the other day....

Anhui Guofeng Plastic Industry Co., Ltd
Tian Zhi Road
Hefei, ANH 230088
China.
Website: XXXXXXXX

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am Mr.Zheng Zhungxun, Board Director, ANHUI GUOFENG PLASTIC INDUSTRY.
We are a company who deal on Plastics, candle holder, wind chime, photo
frame, suncatcher, night lamp,tiffany lamp and the other decorations.
We export into The United States, Canada and parts of Europe.
We require competent representatives who can help us establish a medium
of getting to our customers in the USA, Canada and Europe as well as
making payments through you to us.

We will be glad and would be willing to give a good percentage for
this. Please contact us for more information on the above Subject to
your satisfaction you will be given the opportunity to negotiate your
mode of which we will pay for your services as our representative.
Please, if interested, forward your contact information, stating names,
physical address, phone/fax numbers promptly.

Regards,
Mr.Zheng Zhungxun.
Board Director,

NB: CHANNEL YOUR RESPONSE ONLY TO THIS ADDRESS:
XXXXX@asiamail.com / XXXXXX@yahoo.com