We’re paid to be paranoid here at Managed Solutions. When this message arrived in my inbox today it was a rarity. Rare because it is one of very few phishing Emails that have bypassed my anti-spam mechanisms. Phishing is a process by which a criminal pretends to be a legitimate entity in an effort to gain passwords, identity, bank account or other private data. Here is the text of the message:
I am interested in purchasing a private residence in your country or in any country you are well-acquainted with.
The Property must be located in a well-reserved,serene,secure and highly-hygienic environment because I am most particular about the safety and sound health of my family.
I wish to make this transaction with you in a very secret and confidential manner due to my position as a cabinet minister here in my country Ghana.
Therefore,upon response from you I will connect you with my agent here whom I trust so much to represent my interest in this purchase.franciskweme2007@[hidden].com
Thank you and accept my kindest regards,
Dr. dan
Want to complete this article?
What issues do you see with the text of this message and why would I assume that it is a Phishing Email? Complete this story via comment and we’ll feature your comment as a part of the article and link back to your website.
We have a winner, David Schur completed the article via this comment on Facebook:
David Schur – I’ll take a shot Joe.
1) does not address you by name. Nobody will buy your house, or send you millions of dollars without knowing who the heck you are
2) Total lack of pii. If this was legit, they would know your address, which is the relevant pii in this case. My bank or cc includes the last 4 digits of my account to let me know the email is real.
3) Typo’s…when will the phishers learn that simply hiring a native english speaker to proofread would make a difference (maybe there is ba business opportunity here)
4) simple common sense…to good to be true = false…100% of the time
This won’t work for a real hack…but luckily phishers these days never invest in data that connects your email to any meaningful form of pii…luckily axiom 4 will ALLWAYS be true
Joe’s comment – I really like David’s rule #4, I think Phishers best tool is exploiting people’s greed. Also David had no desire to have a link back to anywhere so I asked him what Charity he likes, here is his response:
“American Red Cross…when bad stuff happens they get my money…then I can safely and with good conscience ignore the inevitable scam charity emails” – David Schur
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We received information today that Speakeasy is seeking to merge with Covad. As we are a Speakeasy partner we wanted to share this information with our customers immediately. Here is the Email from the Speakeasy CEO Bruce Chatterley:
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