Hey, head's up here guys (and gals), there's some really serious phishing emails going around right now. (has NOTHING to do with this site, but this is some important shit).
I work in electronic systems and classified stuff. My shit is tight, security wise. And it has been for many years. (just some background; don't care if anyone believes me or not, but listen up).
The other day I received an 'email' from my bank. The email made it through all my blockers and firewalls. The email had my name, and my credit card number, along with other personal info. The subject of the email isn't important (well, maybe it is...it was offering an account discount to include another authorized person on my account). My immediate mental reaction was..."ALERT...PHISHING!". I did all the usual stuff, like checking the URLs in any links, checking the sender URL and various other stuff. All of it looked legit, but I still had a bad feeling about this. First off, I would never add another user to my account...not even my wife, so that was a big red flag. But the fact that everything else checked out worried me.
I'll cut to the chase here for brevity (then explain more later, aka TLDR style). I called the fraud line with my bank, and they said the last email they sent me was (9) days ago. I explained the email I got, and they wanted to see it. I forwarded it to them. They emailed me back and said it was one of the most sophisticated phishing emails they had ever seen. This thing was stone cold accurate. Had it not been for the stupid notion of adding someone to my account, I could have easily missed it. Now, everyone should know a bank, your bank, or any reputable bank, will never send you a link to log into your account from. That's an automatic red flag...and I know this.
In any case, this email was so cleverly worded (all in perfect English), and in a way which would dupe many people...I wanted to pass this along.
I probably get (5) serious phishing emails a week. Most of them get quarantined before I ever see them. This one got through, and it even took my bank a couple minutes to figure out it wasn't real. In fact, the first line operator said it was no issue, but asked if I wanted to speak with someone higher (and I did). In order to see the deceit, you had to drill down into the IP forwarding headers, and even then it wasn't immediately clear. These guys were good.
I write this only to warn all of us to be on the lookout for shit like this. I've seen millions of phishing emails, but nothing this sophisticated.
Lots' of people out there today trying to do harm, and big disruptive harm too. Be careful my brothers and sisters!
Seriously. Take it from someone who works in the "business", this was no joke!
Stay vigilant.
Watch out for stuff from your bank, your insurance company, your investment companies...anything. These guys are getting real!
I work in electronic systems and classified stuff. My shit is tight, security wise. And it has been for many years. (just some background; don't care if anyone believes me or not, but listen up).
The other day I received an 'email' from my bank. The email made it through all my blockers and firewalls. The email had my name, and my credit card number, along with other personal info. The subject of the email isn't important (well, maybe it is...it was offering an account discount to include another authorized person on my account). My immediate mental reaction was..."ALERT...PHISHING!". I did all the usual stuff, like checking the URLs in any links, checking the sender URL and various other stuff. All of it looked legit, but I still had a bad feeling about this. First off, I would never add another user to my account...not even my wife, so that was a big red flag. But the fact that everything else checked out worried me.
I'll cut to the chase here for brevity (then explain more later, aka TLDR style). I called the fraud line with my bank, and they said the last email they sent me was (9) days ago. I explained the email I got, and they wanted to see it. I forwarded it to them. They emailed me back and said it was one of the most sophisticated phishing emails they had ever seen. This thing was stone cold accurate. Had it not been for the stupid notion of adding someone to my account, I could have easily missed it. Now, everyone should know a bank, your bank, or any reputable bank, will never send you a link to log into your account from. That's an automatic red flag...and I know this.
In any case, this email was so cleverly worded (all in perfect English), and in a way which would dupe many people...I wanted to pass this along.
I probably get (5) serious phishing emails a week. Most of them get quarantined before I ever see them. This one got through, and it even took my bank a couple minutes to figure out it wasn't real. In fact, the first line operator said it was no issue, but asked if I wanted to speak with someone higher (and I did). In order to see the deceit, you had to drill down into the IP forwarding headers, and even then it wasn't immediately clear. These guys were good.
I write this only to warn all of us to be on the lookout for shit like this. I've seen millions of phishing emails, but nothing this sophisticated.
Lots' of people out there today trying to do harm, and big disruptive harm too. Be careful my brothers and sisters!
Seriously. Take it from someone who works in the "business", this was no joke!
Stay vigilant.
Watch out for stuff from your bank, your insurance company, your investment companies...anything. These guys are getting real!
