Whats the deal with Phising emails?

Question

Do these people really think that I'm going to log into my bank account because I get a badly worded email asking me to. Or, that I'm going to buy some stocks and shares because, shhh, its a 'secret' tip off from someone I've never heard of? Or even, that I'm going to buy some 'magic pills' to help my love life and I'll become a successful 'man' apparently.
How many of these emails actually get responses?

That's better, I've got it off my chest now :-)

Answer 1

The thing with these scams is they are not sent by people they are sent out by bots, they send literally millions of them. if they only get .001% who actually fall that is more than enough. I must reply to at least ten people a day on various forums who are thinking about replying. So much so that I have the following answer on my desktop ready to cut and paste.
You don't get anything for nothing, it's a scam do not answer do not give personal information. Just google scam and see how many hits yoou get, there are millions of them and they are all aimed at taking your money.An excellent site giving advice on how to recognise and avoid scams is at www.rz-berlin.mpg.de/~wm/wm-lotto.html Also If you go to the following link you will get some info on ID theft www.identity-theft.org.uk the iinternet is safe enough if you are careful but please answer nothing that you are doubtful about.Good Luck and be careful.

Answer 2

You ask:
How many of these emails actually get responses?

My answer:
Too many. The reason spam exists is because that somewhere, someone falls for it and responds. It`s that simple. Educate your family, friends to NEVER EVER FOR WHATEVER REASON to reply to spam, or buy something through spam.

As to the other questions:
Yes, some people see the logo from their bank - get scared and (get this) stop thinking but act. Again, here, education is the key.
Secret tips and stock blah blah - same story, but there, as with nigerian scams, greed pops up. People think they can make some easy money - but the joke is on them, for they get suckered into losing money. A survey showed that it isn`t just poor people that get tricked, surprisingly many victims of (especially) nigerian scams (millions of dollars that you should help get out of the country) are educated people. Lawyers, doctors etc. You`d expect them to know better - but apparently greed, just as fear, clouds our judgement.

Rule of thumb - if it sounds too good to be true , it is!

Answer 3

Well, sorry to nitpick, but I think your confusing Phishing with Spam.

Phishing, as you correctly identified in your first example, is people trying to obtain your bank details through the badly worded e-mail that is addressed to "Dear Customer", which really means "Dear Gullible twit"

You must remember that these people send out about 1000 or so e-mails, and they only need about 3 replies to say "Success". Despite you being smart enough to know irt is dodgy, there are people who don't realise its a con, and go typing everything the can: Name, mothers maiden name, Account number, password, Shoe size, anul hole circumference and any other details the conners ask for. In short, some are gullible, and that is who the senders target.

Spam, on the other hand, is people sending you e-mails for pills you never need or a secret cream to cure baldness. It costs nothing to send out and it clutters up your inbox with crap.

Yahoo have done a good job of a spam filter to whittle out some of the crap, and other stuff exixts to help out. But I prefer a more agressive approach.

Spammers think they can send out this stuff because there is no consequences cause you can't trace it and they attempt to forge their e-mail address. WRONG. Nothing is completely hidden.

Through tracing their IP address back to the source, I can hunt down the address that swent it. By looking up the registration info on any website, I can pull up their addresses and telephone numbers.

Hit back against spam, and cut it out of your inbox.

Answer 4

Thats fantastic Emma

However without being rude please observe that Yahoo Answers is not a forum yet a site of educational / reference by user who ask questions.

Yet you are using a suitable method.

If you are in any doubt as to the content, sender or link supplied with an email, ignore and delete.

Banks and companies NEVER ask for your details as the company already own the records. Also delete suspicious emails.

You seem to know what you are doing.

Remember to report such messages as:

Junk

And report to either

[e-mail] / com

[e-mail] (as needed)

All the best

Moose

Answer 5

digital mail phising is almost a form of fraudulent digital mail that facilitates the sender to get mushy the help of an unknowning consumer by using sending them an digital mail that feels like a valid digital mail from a organization. as quickly as you click on the hyperlink on the digital mail, it redirects you to a faux web site the place it is going to ask the consumer mushy suggestions which contain SSN or economic company account extensive form, that are utilized by using the sender to do fraud. An occasion of phishing emails may well be an digital mail from a paypal asserting which you added yet another digital mail on your account yet you dont understand who's digital mail is it. a thank you to correctly known if its a phishing digital mail is to verify the place the hyperlink will take you by using soaring your mouse/mice over the hyperlink and observing the status bar of your window to make certain if the hyperlink is expert or no longer. while you're uncertain, some web site, which contain yahoo, ebay and paypal have a thank you to correctly known if the digital mail is spoof or no longer.

Answer 6

Read the answers forum; there are a few every day who get taken.

Impossible to believe but true. I think the gov reported something like 83 million dollars lost to NIgerian bank scams last year.

Answer 7

Obviously there are those who do. Otherwise you would not be getting them. All it takes is one sucker in every million e-mails they send for the SPAM to be effective. Now if only those few would have their computers taken off them the world would be a happier place.
As far as the Nigerian scams mentioned above, all it takes there is one person to be suckered for $100,000 and everyone and their brother will be trying to pull the same thing...That sucker should be shot!

Answer 8

LOL, a lot of people fall for it though. Plus be glad they are just phishing and not going to do a full war on your computer just to gain details.

Answer 9

Quite elementary my dear Watson: "The world wants to be fooled".