Thursday, January 10, 2008

Idiot Phishers

I received an e-mail from "The Bank of America" about problems with my account. Here's what the text looked like:

Your Online Banking is Blocked

Because of unusual number of invalid login attempts on you account, we had to believe that, their might be some security problem on you account. So we have decided to put an extra verification process to ensure your identity and your account security. Please click on sign in to Online Banking to continue to the verification process and ensure your account security. It is all about your security. Thank you, and visit the customer service section.

Now, really. Is this going to fool anyone? The first sentence has so many errors in it ("unusual number" instead of "an unusual number"; "you account"; "their might be" instead of "there might be", as well as an unnecessary comma beforehand; "you account") that it's difficult to read.

A closer look shows that all the links go to some space at "charliegraham.com" except for the link on the phrase "Equal Housing Lender," which apparently actually does link to the Bank of America Web site.

One more dead giveaway: In the lower right was the Olympic insignia over the phrase "Official Sponsor of 2000-2004 US Olympic Teams." This calls to mind the cars I occasionally see puttering around proudly emblazoned with "Gore/Lieberman in 2000" bumper stickers.

I used to think that "phishing" was an intentional spelling derived from old Phone Phreaks. Now I wonder whether it's spelled that way simply because actual phishers can't spell worth a damn.