Most deceiving email ever
Friday, April 10th, 2009
I got this in my email box and had to share. This kind of message goes above and beyond usual spam and is a super intrusive technique called PHISHING. Wikipedia had a good definition:
In the field of computer security, phishing is the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as user-names, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.
I have to admit that I actually clicked through on this email. I knew the second I clicked that I had made a mistake and of course I didn’t enter any info, but there mere fact that I clicked freaked me out. Be careful out there…don’t ever enter information in a form field from an untrusted email link. Check yourself before you wreck yourself.
1. Check the from line/subject line/to line: In this case it was sent to a team email address clue #1 its not real
2. Check the wording/style: A bank would never ask for you to do what this email is asking. And I never received an email that looked like this from Chase ever.
3. Check the URL: If you do click through out of curiosity or mindlessness check the URL. Sometimes they try to mask buy purchasing a URL containing the brand they are imitating. If there is doubt don’t do it!
Here is an up close:
