Phishing

[Sasha13]

I am fed up of getting emails phishing for my bank account details (always written in poor English and never from a bank that I actually hold an account with. Do they think I'm daft?) Anyway, has anybody got any good ideas how to "get one up on them" i.e. clever replies to the emails, or something similar? I'd love to get one back on behalf of people who have lost money this way, even if it is in a childish and trivial way!!!

[mattie]

Most of the time I just delete them, and block the senders email address, but I got one tonight supposedly from the Abbey National, who I have never banked with.

I clicked on the link, made up some random numbers, put my name as Michael Mouse with an email address of [email protected].

Childish I know but what the hell.

[Sammy Snake]

I had never had one before - until this week where I received 3.  None from banks I have an account with and one from a bank I have never even heard of.

I have to admit that I also replied and filled in the first form with a load of made up rubbish. I couldn't be bothered with the other two!

[stevie21]

If you reply then you're confirming that their crap has been sent to a valid email address and are leaving yourself liable to receive more crap. If you're clicking on a link in one of these emails then you may be unwittingly installing a virus/trojan from an unsafe website (this can VERY easily be done without your knowledge on a dodgy website).
I'd leave the attempts at being clever out of this and just delete them, it's much safer.

[IndieSinger]

Use GMail. That way, you can click "More options" and then "Report Phishing".

[stevie21]

and if anyone wants an email address with gmail then just email me with this same username I use here. At. gmail. dot com.

[Loosehead]

Not quite the same scam but this site has a lot of fun with the Nigerian scam:

http://www.ebolamonkeyman.com/

[dodgyshirt]

Many financial institutions and Ebay have addresses to which these phishing e-mails may be forwarded. These are usually in the form of spoof@ followed by the web address. i.e. [email protected] It may not achieve much on an individual basis, but unless these are reported, nothing can be done to stop them.

I normally forward and then delete them. As stevie said, whatever you do, don`t reply to them even with false details, for the reasons he mentioned.

[Oneeyedvic]

Try this site for ideas.....absolutely wonderful:

 

http://www.419eater.com/

[Sasha13]

i have two email accounts, one with gmail (which is excellent and highly recommended) and one with yahoo - I never get phishing attempts through my gmail account, just my yahoo one. Thanks for the ideas though - it just makes my blood boil that people may have been caught out with this sort of thing before it became well publicised and people started to be more careful. What is the world coming to huh??!

[ruthlessjak]

LOOSEHEAD - had an absolute scream reading the ebolamonkey site - what a bunch of nutters !!!!

Isnt it a rule of thumb that you never answer an emeil unless you know who its from ????