Ants on the Melon
• • • • •

Recently I have started receiving more phishing emails, so I thought I would explain these things and give an example of one. For those that don’t know, phishing is when scammers send email disguised as reputable companies such as Paypal and eBay, and sometimes as banks. The messages tend to look very similar to emails sent by those companies, in an attempt to trick you into clicking on a link in the email. Often, you will be asked to enter some login information such as your email address and password, or even worse, your credit card number. These email messages are sometimes very difficult to distinguish from the authentic messages from the actual company, so unsuspecting recipients rarely know the difference. Here’s an example of one that I recently received:

Dear PayPal User,

We recently noticed one or more attempts to log in to your PayPal
account from a foreign IP address.

If you recently accessed your account while traveling, the unusual log
in attempts may have been initiated by you. However, if you did not
initiate the log ins, please visit PayPal as soon as possible to verify
your account:

https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_login-run

Changing your password is a security measure that will ensure that you
are the only person with access to the account.

Thanks for your patience as we work together to protect your account.

Sincerely,
PayPal

—————————————————————-
PROTECT YOUR PASSWORD

NEVER give your password to anyone, including PayPal employees. Protect
yourself against fraudulent websites by opening a new web browser (e.g.
Internet Explorer or Netscape) and typing in the PayPal URL every time
you log in to your account.

—————————————————————-

Please do not reply to this email. This mailbox is not monitored and
you will not receive a response. For assistance, log in to your PayPal
account and click the Help link located in the top right corner of any
PayPal page.

PayPal Email ID PP321

Anyone who has a Paypal account will know that this looks very similar to the official messages that are sent out. However, this message was from a phisher, not Paypal. When I moved my mouse over the link in the above message, it pointed to http://paypalusupdate.info/cgibin/webscrcmd=_login+run/?logIN (DO NOT VISIT THAT LINK) rather than the official https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_login-run link that it appeared in the email.

The phisher even took the time to modify the message header so that it would appear the email originated from a Paypal mail server:

From: [email protected]
Subject: PayPal Email ID PP321
Date: December 11, 2005 1:28:53 PM CST
To: XXXXXX
Reply-To: [email protected]
Return-Path: <service @paypal.com>
Delivered-To: XXXXXX
Received: (qmail 12824 invoked by uid 533); 11 Dec 2005 19:38:58 -0000
Received: from 217.79.182.36 by silver.standblue.net (envelope-from <service @paypal.com>, uid 504) with qmail-scanner-1.25 ( Clear:RC:0(217.79.182.36):. Processed in 1.311025 secs); 11 Dec 2005 19:38:58 -0000
Received: from y036.yellow.fastwebserver.de (HELO 217.79.182.36) (217.79.182.36) by a.mx.standblue.net with SMTP; 11 Dec 2005 19:38:57 -0000
Received: from mexmmgabg.paypal.com (mexmmgabg.paypal.com [128.235.17.2]) by with Microsoft SMTPSVC(5.0.2195.6824); Sun, 11 Dec 2005 12:33:53 -0700
X-Qmail-Scanner-Mail-From: [email protected] via silver.standblue.net
X-Qmail-Scanner: 1.25 (Clear:RC:0(217.79.182.36):. Processed in 1.311025 secs)
Message-Id: <[email protected]>
X-Mailer:
Mime-Version: 1.0
Organization:
Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary=”=_IhfLiENz5z0″

If you receive a message from Paypal, eBay or any bank, please do not click on any link in the email. If you want to be sure, open your browser and type in the URL of the site, such as www.paypal.com or www.ebay.com, login, and update your information from there. Just please, please do not click on the links in these emails.

A few days ago I stopped at a nearby Shell station to get some gas. Gas prices are pretty high here too (around $2.05), although no way near as bad as what I saw in D.C. and Maryland last weekend (around $2.50). So anyway, as I hop out of my truck and reach for my wallet, I noticed this wonderfully succinct Neanderthal-esque message on the pump (click on the image for the full picture):

Apparently one of the local cavemen is mad that it costs almost 40,000 clams to gas up the Pachyderm.

WINDOWS TOO BAD STOP IT.

So we were at some restaurant tonight and the manager was discussing basketball with my girlfriend’s uncle. He was talking about how great some team is when I hear him say “so yeah, they shot 68% from the field during that game, which means they only missed like …….. uhm… 1 out of every 10 shots, or something.” He later says that he played basketball for the College of Charleston, and actually graduated.