I'm constantly amazed at how stupid people are.
I received in my inbox today, a pretty convincing phishing email asking me to log in, in order to keep my account active.
I actually haven't used my account at this bank for a very long time, so I did click on the link, fully expecting I'd be directed through to some dodgy URL, which of course it did. However, even if I hadn't of looked for the URL, don't you reckon the banner ad for what looks like a Russian dating service might have given the scam away?
Filed under: Uncategorized
Phil Sim 
Hey Phil.
My mum, who trusts banks and doesn’t trust her own expertise with technology, especially the internet, wouldn’t have thought the Russian dating ad was a giveaway that this site was a fake. That doesn’t make her stupid.
I think we have to be careful that we don’t assume that the majority of people spend the majority of their life living on and thinking about the internet like we do. The majority of people don’t have the exposure or fluency that we do with emerging (or annoying) trends and behaviours online.
For most people, phishing is still something you do with a hook and a line by a river.
We should be looking after these people and picking on the phishers.
Leisa, I was actually referring to the phishers themselves as being stupid. Take away that ad and its a very sophisticated, convincing scam. Why you’d go to all that trouble and then undermine its credibility with that ad is beyond me!
Mind you, if your taken by a bank advertising russian brides or whatever it actually is, I’m going to have a hard time thinking your the brightest star in the sky.
I hope that your client number and password aren’t the only safety measures you need to log on to your bank account.
For my bank I need to enter my user number and the serial number of my key generator, then enter my 5 digit PIN on that key generator, and finally enter the number it spews out to get to my account; for every different session at that too. Moreover, it’s a free service, so it would never ‘expire’ and if it did, they’d send me a secure envelope asking me to come sign something at their agency (of course bringing my digital identity card). Maybe we have gone a bit overboard?
But you’re right: the URL, the ad… it all screams bogus. Have you ever tried entering a fake logon and seen what happens after that? Maybe you get robbed, but you win one of the brides as compensation?
Some people are stupid, but most are worrying about other things to notice the giveaways.
Napfisk, which bank is that with?
Its possible that this is not a poor attempt at phishing, but a good attempt at spamming.
How do we know that the purpose of the whole thing was not to get into your account, but simply show you the ad?
So which one did you order? 😀
Here is an interesting idea Phil,
http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/#00000853
It’s actually the real commbank site – they are just stretching into new personal services
and I just heard that they actually have the brides available in-branch now as well
Would never work Nik, the fees would be too exorbitant.
if you guys think you’re so smart why don’t you use your intelligence for a purpose, not just to ridicule the less fortunate?
get some real friends too, not just other losers on a website
How can the question, “Why are people so stupid?”, be answered with reference to only one instance of stupidity (which isn’t even agreed upon as necessarily being a stupid instance)? Isn’t that stupid in and of itself? Just asking (because I’m stupid).
people are stupid, spam is stupid, almost everyone is stupid.
stop the bitching, start a revolution
Stupidity is always a matter of perception… You talk to an engineer and if you do not speak his language you are stupid? Every persons PC literacy, or lack there-of, is based on exposure, which is a matter of need or choice, and cannot be used as the sole determination of a persons intelligence or lack there-of. But lack of common sense may be an entirely different matter.
Because people are human. And humans always want bigger, better, faster, stronger, harder, prettier, nicer, smarter. Therefore, what is normal will never be good enough. The average intelligence will always be “stupid”.
If you ask why the average intelligence is so slow, then the answer is very simply, evolution stopped with us at this point. We are good enough to survive and continue to survive. As such, our intelligence isn’t going to move.
So we’ve gotta learn to deal with it, ‘cause it’s never gonna get better than this.