[OPLINTECH] spam email aka a burglar in our midst

[Chad Neeper]

Thanks for sharing that one! I receive weekly alerts about security issues,
social engineering tricks, etc. and haven't seen anything at all about one
like that. As far as phishing e-mails are concerned, this one seems a
little more aggressive than some of the more common ones we see. Usually
the mass-e-mailed scams are deliberately crafted to be obvious to 99.9% of
the people receiving them. They have obvious misspellings, punctuation, use
of language, odd formatting, and odd scenarios because they are designed to
filter out the people that are not likely to completely fall for and follow
through with the scam. ie. They're specifically designed for the .01
percent of the e-mailing population that are most gullible, thus maximizing
the "returns" on the scammers' "investment".

This one, however, seems to widen the net so to speak, offering a situation
that is more plausible to the masses and constructed in a way that is less
obviously a scam to less gullible people. It makes me wonder, from a purely
economic point of view, if this scam is more or less effective than a more
typical Nigerian 419 scam. It seems to me that more less-gullible people
might respond, increasing the "failure" or "miss" rate for the scammers and
increasing the amount of time they would need to invest in each mark, thus
lowering the overall returns. It *is* all about money, after all.

An email crafted like that leans more towards spear phishing than mass
phishing campaigns, but on the surface, doesn't seem to be optimal for
either.

Oh well. What do I know? I thought it was cool...in my own geeky kind of
way. LOL!

You could set up a new e-mail account and respond to Kathie letting him/her
know that you're an equal opportunity employer. ..and maybe that you talked
to the employee and the employee feels badly and would like to return the
stolen goods, but isn't certain which address Kathie lives at.  :-)


______________________________
*Chad Neeper*
Senior Systems Engineer

*Level 9 Networks*
740-548-8070 (voice)
866-214-6607 (fax)

*Full LAN/WAN consulting services -- Specialized in libraries and schools*


On Fri, Oct 25, 2013 at 1:35 PM, Adam Murphy
<murphyad at rossfordlibrary.org>wrote:

> Hello list
>
> I wanted to share the following email I received today from our website
> contact form:
> ---
> Kathie <kathiekearns at gmail.com>
>
> Hello, I am writing in an unusual case ... Some time ago, I used your
> services, and one of your employees face was familiar to me. At dinner with
> my wife, it turned out that he was a burglar, who 5 years ago broke into
> our home!!! This is ridiculous!!! How you can hire criminals? I found at
> least 3 bad entries for him at website for background check!! I am sure
> there are more!!! Please do something about it, things like that are
> ridiculous!!!
> ---
>
> I have never read an email like this one before so it caught my attention.
> It is a phishing/spam/junk email. Did a Google search on the exact phrase
> "Some time ago, I used your services, and one of your employees" which
> returned over 100 results and the first page contained recent timestamps.
> It appears to be a newish email going around. Thought I would share just in
> case others get the email and don't spend time looking for the burglar.
>
> Adam
> p.s. I wonder if Kathie has a new TV?
>
> --
> Adam Murphy
> IT Specialist
> Rossford Public Library
> 720 Dixie Highway
> Rossford, OH 43460
> P:(419) 666-0924 F:(419) 666-1989
> www.rossfordlibrary.org
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