Phishing   (fishing)  for  information  is  a  scam  by  crooks

Phishing is the act of attempting to acquire information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details (and sometimes, indirectly, money) by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Communications purporting to be from popular social web sites, auction sites, online payment processors or IT administrators are commonly used to lure the unsuspecting public. 

Phishing is typically carried out by  contacting you via your email address and it often directs users to enter details about you at a fake website whose look and feel are almost identical to the legitimate one. 

These scammers attempt to bait their victims by getting them to click open a malicious attachment and when they do, the victim’s financial information and even their passwords are stolen.

What follows are some of the attempts by these scammers to get money or information from me by sending me the following email messages.

What is typed in red are words misspelled

REF No: UK/9580X2/45
BATCH No: 062/01/ZY469
TICKET No:20511465463-7644
SERIAL No:S/N-00168
LUCKY No: 887-13-865-37-10-83

                                FINAL NOTIFICATION

This is to inform you that you have been selected for a cash prize of £1,000,000.00 (British Pounds) held on the 12th of October 2009 in London  Uk.The selection process was carried out through random selection in our computerized email selection system(ess) from a database of over 250,000 email addresses drawn from which you were selected.

please contact our claims agent;

Dr. Pinkett Griffin
Email: claimsagent51@yahoo.com.hk

Provide him with the information below:

1.Full Name:
2.Full Address:
3.Marital Status:
4.Occupation:
5.Age:
6.Sex:
7.Nationality:
8.Country Of Residence:
9.Telephone Number:

Yours faithfully,
Lorraine Dodds(Mrs.)
Online coordinator for THE NATIONAL LOTTERY
Sweepstakes International Program.

If I was foolish enough to give this scammer the information she asked for, she could open a bank account in my name or apply for a passport in my name. The same applies to the ones following this one.

UK NATIONAL LOTTERY
REF No: UK/9580X2/45
BATCH No: 062/01/ZY469
TICKET No:20511465463-7644
SERIAL No:S/N-00168
LUCKY No: 887-13-865-37-10-83

                     FINAL NOTIFICATION

This is to inform you that you have been selected for

a cash prize of £1,000,000.00 (British Pounds) held

on the 15th of october 2009 in London Uk. The

selection process was carried out through random

selection in our computerized email selection system

(ess) from a database of over 250,000 email

addresses drawn from which you were selected.

please contact our claims agent;

Ticket No: 16474620545 188

   Dr. Pinkett Griffin
Email:ukclaims78@googlemail.com

Provide him with the information below:

1.Full Name:
2.Full Address:
3.Marital Status:
4.Occupation:
5.Age:
6.Sex:
7.Nationality:
8.Country Of Residence:
9.Telephone Number:

____________________________________________________

ATTENTION*

*U.K NATIONAL PROMOTIONS*
*Ref: UK/9580X2/45*
*Batch: 062/01/ZY469*

We are pleased to inform you today 6th of October 2009 of the result of the winners of the UK NATIONAL ONLINE DRAW  PROMO, held on the 5th of October 2009.You have therefore been approved for a lump sum pay out of £1,000,000.00 (British Pounds) One Million Pounds Sterling, which your E-mail won for you, in cash credited file KTU/9013115308/03

To file for your claim, you are requied to provide the below informations to
the claim agent;

Dr. Pinkett Griffin
TELL:+(44) 703 595 0961
Email: drawdept47@yahoo.com.hk

Provide him with the information below:

*1.Full Name:    2.Full Address:     3.Occupation: *
*4.Age:     5.Sex:    6.Nationality: 7.Telephone Number: *

Congratulations once more from our members of staff and thank you for being part of our promotional program.

Rose Wood (Mrs.)
On-line Co-coordinator
U.K NATIONAL PROMOTIONS

This fool’s spelling is atrocious.

____________________________________________________

An Exactmax Hongkong Industry Holdings Limited,(Toyota Camry and $570,000 USD cash)have been awarded to you with MICROS ID (DVT-57010-JHN-624TM-2XL). contact below

Email with your details:

Your Full Name:
Address:
Country:
Phone number:
Age:
Occupation:
Micros ID:
Your Qualification number is: (DVT-00110-WIN-108YR-8XJ)


REMITTANCE CONTACT
Mr.Lee Chan Wilson
Email : exactmax.cliamsagent@yahoo.com.hk
Address : 24 Wilford park, London. United Kingdom
Phone : +44 704-575-4338

This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by OpenProtect(http://www.openprotect.com), and is
believed to be clean.

Hong Kong is two words, not one word.

____________________________________________________ 

The ATM CARD payment center, has been mandated to issue out an ATM CARD
value of {700,000 USD},to you, which you can use to withdraw your money in
any ATM machine in any part of the world.,For more information’s and directives. Note that because of impostors, we hareby issued you our CODE OF CONDUCT, which is (ATM-900). For him verification purpose.

NAME:frankly white
E-mail atmdeliverycard18@yahoo.com.hk

(SEE BELOW)
CODE OF CONDUCT.............
NAME IN FULL...............
DATE OF BIRTH...............
AGE........................
SEX..........................
MARITIAL STATUS.............
HOME ADDRESS................
NATIONALITY.................
COUNTRY......................
OCCUPATION...........
POSITION...............
OFFICE ADDRESS...............
TEL.........................
MOBILE......................

DECLARATION....I.................
do hereby declare that the information given above,
is correct to the best of my knowledge and believe thesame to be true.

Regards,

What is written in red clearly proves that this person is negligent.

*REF No:UKNL-L/200-26937
*BATCH No:2005MJL-01*

We are pleased to inform you today 22nd of October 2009 of the result of the  winners of the UK NATIONAL ONLINE  DRAW  PROMO, held on the 17th of October 2009.You have therefore been approved for a lump sum pay out of £1,000,000.00 (British Pounds) One Million Pounds Sterling, which your E-mail won for you, in cash credited file KTU/9013115308/03

You are hereby  advice to get back to us via email for better explanations on
how to claim your prize. To file for your claim, you are required to
provide the below informations to the claim agent;

Dr. Michael Field
TELL: +44-702-4065-640
Email: claimsgroup81@yahoo.com.hk

Provide him with the information below:

*1.Full Name:    2.Full Address:     3.Occupation: *
*4.Age:     5.Sex:    6.Nationality: 7.Telephone Number: *

Congratulations once more from our members of staff and thank you for being part of our promotional program.

Elizabeth Bubb (Mrs.)
On-line Co-coordinator
U.K NATIONAL PROMOTIONS

Again, a scammer is hoping to use my information to use for opening a bank account in my name or getting a passport in my name.

It has come to our notice that your e-mail has been sending too spam messages over a period of time. Your spam quota have exceeded its limit and your e-mail account would be suspended within 24hrs. Please re-confirm your information with us in order for us to clear your spam quota. To clear your spam quota, please Verify your information by clicking below

https://login.yahoo.com/config/login_verify2?.partner=rogers
Thank you.
Online Security Team
Rogers Yahoo! High-Speed Internet
© 2009 All Rights Reserved

When I clicked in what they asked me to click in, I discovered a page that definitely appeared to be from my provider.  What tipped me off that something was amiss was when the scammer asked me for my password.

I called Rogers, my provider and they advised me that the two above messages I received in my email were phishing scams.

Dear (@Rogers.com)Webmail Account User

This message is to the Rogers.com account owners. We are currentlyupgrading our data base and e-mail account center. We are deleting all unused webmail account to create more space for new accounts. We are currently performing maintenance and upgrading our Digital webmail services for your convenience. To prevent your account from closing you will have to update it below to know it's status as a currently used account. Confirm

Your Rogers.com WebMail
Details;User Name:
Password:
Date of Birth:

You will be sent a new confirmation alphanumerical password so that it will only be valid during this period and can be changed after the process. Warning!!! Any account owner that refuses to update his or her account within Seven working days of this update notification will loose his or her account permanently.
Warning Code :ID67565434
Confirm Your Rogers.com Account
Contact email:upgradingservice@mail2webmaster.com
Copyright ?2009
Information Technology Services Centre All Rights Reserved.

What was the comma doing before the date? Needless to say, I didn’t forward this scammer the information it was seeking. Notice the typos.

Dear Royal Bank Of Canada Customer,

Your RBC bank account has been locked for the protection of your account. It has come to our notice that your account has been accessed from different locations and to help us protect your account security, you would have to re-confirm your account information by clicking following the reference below.

https://www1.royalbank.com

Regards

Royal Bank Of Canada Financial Group.

I don’t have an account with that bank and never did. 

 Dear Royal Bank Of Canada Customer,

During our regularly scheduled account maintenance and verification procedures, we have detected a slight error in your billing information.

This might be due to either of the following reasons:

1. A recent change in your personal information ( i.e.change of address).
2. Submiting invalid information during the initial sign up process.
3. An inability to accurately verify your selected option of payment due to an internal error within our processors.

Please update and verify your information by clicking the link below:

https://www.rbcroyalbank.com/update.dll?NbPlaceInfo

If your account information is not updated within 48 hours then your ability to access your account will become restricted.

Thank you

Royal Bank Of Canada Security Group .

* Please do not respond to this email as your reply will not be received.

The word in red is spelled wrong. It has two Ts not one. Again, I don’t bank with this bank.

The British National Lottery
P O Box 1010
3b Olympic Way, Sefton Business Park,
Aintree, Liverpool , L30 1RD
(Customer Services)

Ref: UK/9420X2/68
Batch: 074/05/ZY369
Ticket number:56475600545 188
Lucky Numbers: 05,06,17,20,28,42(Bonus33)

WINNING NOTIFICATION:

We wish to congratulate and inform you on the selection of cash prize #1,000,000.00 (British Pounds) held on the 16th August 2011 in London Uk.The selection process was carried out through random selection in Our computerized email selection system (ess) from a database of over 250,000 email addresses drawn from which you were selected. And Your e-mail address attached to ticket number: 56475600545 188 with Serial number 5368/02 drew the lucky numbers: 05, 06, 17, 20, 28, 42 (Bonus 33) ,which subsequently won you the lottery in the 1st category i.e match 5 plus bonus.

You have therefore been approved to claim a total sum of 1 Million Pounds,(One Million Pounds) in cash credited to file KTU/ 9023118308/03.This is from a total cash prize of 1000,000 Million Pounds, shared amongst the (4)lucky winners in this category i.e Match 6 plus bonus.

For due processing of your winning claim, please contact the
FIDUCIARY AGENT Information Officer Mr. Fred Peters who has been assigned to assist you. You are to contact him with the following details for the release of your winnings.

Agent Name: Mr. Fred Peters
Tel:+447024051534
+447024013832
Email: mr.fredpeters26@hotmail.co.uk

Contact him, please provide him with the following Requirements below:

Claims Requirements:
1.Name in full----------------------
2.Address---------------------------
3.Nationality-----------------------
4.Age-------------------------------
5.Occupation------------------------
6.Sex ------------------------------
7.Phone/Fax-------------------------
8.Present Country-------------------

If you do not contact your claims agent within 5 working days of this Notification, your winnings would be revoked. Winners are advised to keep their winning details/information from the public to avoid Fraudulent claim (IMPORTANT) pending the prize claim by Winner.

*Winner under the age of 18 are automatically disqualified. *Staff of the British Lottery are not to partake in this Lottery.

Accept my hearty congratulations once again!

Regards
Mrs. Stella Ellis
(Group Coordinator
Note that you are not to reply to this E-mail, please contact your
claims officer directly to start the processing of your claims
application form.

The grammatical errors are obvious.

Hello My Dearest one,
How are you, My name is Miss Promise Jamal i am 24 years old Girl, As I whisper my prayer tonight and went into search for a nice friend in (www.blogger.com)I came across your contact, My mind and my heart told me to contact you for friendship, A friend who truly understand his or her friend and share their feelings together. please kindly accept my request, I believe that distance, race or age can never be a barrier but lets love connect us because love is a bridge that connected far distance to be close to each other, contact me on my e-mail id;(promisejamal23@hotmail.com)I will send my pictures for a good start immediately i receive your reply
yours In Love,
Miss Promise

You are advised to open pdf Attached file, Is Scan And safe File.

Sincerely,
Management

I didn’t open it even though the message in my email said that I had won 915,850 euros. Who knows what lurks in the attachment?

Dear Customer ,
Your MBNA account has become inactive. If you want to continue using our services, please reactivate your account by confirming your billing details.
To reactivate your profile now, please visit our website.

Login to your account now

Your confidential and sensitive information will not be stored on our servers. It is requested only for verification purposes.

Sincerely,
MBNA Customer Care

***********************************
Please do not reply to this email. This mailbox is not monitored and you will not receive a response.
*************************************************

I don’t have an account with that bank

FedEx
Order: JN-7371-93033766
Order Date: Thursday, 3 January 2013, 11:23 AM
Dear Customer, Your parcel has arrived at the post office at January 6.Our courier was unable to deliver the parcel to you. To receive your parcel, please, go to the nearest office and show this receipt.
	GET & PRINT RECEIPT
Best Regards, The FedEx Team.

The first thing I did was look on the door handle of my front door to see if a card by FedEx was left for me. Nothing was there which means they never came to my door which also means that this is a scam.

YouTube Service sent you a personal message You can reply to this message by visiting your inbox. To: dahnbatchelor@rogers.com Your video has been approved https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1mxJUHpoEqc&feature=topvideos_mp Get more information

There is no way I was going to open that attachment.

Dear customer, As part of our security measures, we regularly screen activity in the PayPal system.                                                      During a recent screening, we noticed an issue regarding your account.We have reason  to believe that your account was accessed by a third party and some unauthorized  transactions were made.   Transaction Dispute ! You've sent a payment for $210.00 CDN to Julie Elizabeth Donovan. Please note that it may take a little while for this payment to appear in the Recent Activity list on your Account Overview.
	You've sent a payment Transaction ID:5WR54413K4388193D Amount: $210.00 CDN Currency conversion: $ 0 Exchange rate: 1 USD = 0.753825AUD Sent on: 22 December 2012

	You've sent a payment Transaction ID:5WR54413K4388193D Dear customer, As part of our security measures, we regularly screen activity in the PayPal system. During a recent screening, we noticed an issue regarding your account. We have reason to believe that your account was accessed by a third party and some unauthorized transactions were made.   Transaction Dispute ! You've sent a payment for $210.00 AUD to Julie Elizabeth Greenwood. Please note that it may take a little while for this payment to appear in the Recent Activity list on your Account Overview. Amount: $210.00 AUD Currency conversion: $281.85 USD = $210.00 AUD Exchange rate: 1 USD = 0.753825AUD Sent on: 19 December 2012

Help Center | Resolution Center | Please do not reply to this email because we are not monitoring this inbox. To get in touch with us, log in to your account and click "Contact Us" at the bottom of any page.

Copyright © 2012 PayPal Inc. All rights reserved.

Consumer advisory: PayPal Pte Ltd, the Holder of the PayPal™ payment service stored value facility, does not require the approval of the Monetary Authority of Singapore. Consumers (users) are advised to read the terms and conditions carefully.

PayPal Email ID PP118

Did you notice that the last name of the Julie is now Greenwood? Obviously the fool didn’t check his previous message for comparison.

Re: From Emmanuel Yao

Reu 68 Ave 129 Cotonou Bp 127

Cotonou Benin Republic

Email: emma.yao@e-mail.ua

Dear Beneficiary,

Good day and may the peace of the most gracious God be with you,please I have a problem and needs your help,I have decided that it's good a thing to write you for help.

I have a proposal for you-this however is not mandatory nor will I in any manner compel you to honor against your will. I am in a state of delinma and your profile pushed me to send you this mail, I am Emmanuel Yao, 19 years old and the only son of my late parents Mr. and Mrs. Edward Yao . My father was a highly reputable business magnet (a cocoa merchant) who operated in the capital of Ivory coast during his days. It is sad to say that he passed away mysteriously in France during one of his business trips abroad on 12th.September 2008. Though his sudden death was linked or rather suspected to have been masterminded by an uncle of his who traveled with him at that time. But only God knows the truth!

My mother died when I was just 4 years old, and since then my father took me so special. Before his death on September 12th 2008 he called the secretary who accompanied him to the hospital and told him that he has the sum of twelve million, seven hundred thousand United State Dollars. (USD$12.700,000) left in one of the leading security company.

He further told him that he deposited the money in my name, and finally issued a written instruction to his lawyer whom he said is in possession of all the necessary legal documents to this fund and the security company . I am just 19 years old and a university undergraduate and really don't know what to do. This is because I have suffered a lot of set backs as a result of the death of my late parents. The death of my father actually brought sorrow to my life.

I am in a sincere desire of your humble assistance in this regards. Your suggestions and ideas will be highly regarded. Now permit me to ask these few questions:-

1. Can you honestly help me as your Son?

2. Can I completely trust you?

3. What percentage of the total amount in question i will be good for you after the money is in your country.

Please, Consider this and get back to me as soon as possible.

Thank you so much.

My Regards to your family,

Emmanuel Yao

emma.yao@e-mail.ua

This is a common scam. They end up asking you for money. One victim actually ended up giving the scammer $20,000 before he realized he had been scammed.

Well, there you have it folks. These are the kind of phishing messages I received in my email.  The most important advice I can give you is as follows.

(1)  Don’t open their attachments. It is like bringing the Greek’s Trojan horse into your commuter.

(2)  Check with the real entities first.

(3)  Completely ignore messages that claim you won a lottery. No Lottery Corporation ever sends messages to potential winners and that also applies to Lotteries in which you didn’t buy a ticket.

(4)  Completely ignore messages from banks you don’t have accounts with.

(5)  Call your Internet provider before you submit information to a scammer claiming to be your provider.