Scammers also need money at this time of year... :)

We all know about fake banking emailers that regularly get sent out, giving the impression that the mail is being sent from a legitimate financial institution.
We also know all about what to watch out for - I have written several posts on the topic in the past which you can search for if you need to find out more.

Anyway, I just received the latest FNB scam in my Inbox, and thought I would put some points out there about it:

- The mail supposedly comes from nolan.steven@fnb.cc.za - alarm bells should be ringing there already, since the sender domain specified is @fnb.cc.za (not @fnb.co.za);

- The mail did not go to Junk Mail, so somehow it got past my ISP filters and Outlook's Junk Mail filter;

- The body of the email is a bit dodgy (it's the first giveaway - oddly worded, no branding, plain text email...), and it goes like this:

         Debt. order ending 41405 from Old Mutual has deducted your monthly payment. 
         Click here to stop the order if you are not satisfied. 
         Regards

- If you click the link, you get to the page below, which actually looks pretty good if you aren't keeping up to date with the current FNB page. If you enter anything into the User ID and Password fields, it actually goes on to a One-Time PIN page, keeping up a pretty good illusion of legitimacy.:

The fake FNB site...

The fake OTP page...

- Rule of thumb: ALWAYS check the URL (web address at the top of the page) to see where you really ended up after clicking the link. Check this one out - it's the "smoking gun"...:

The fake URL...

Somehow I just don't buy "gledo.com"...
Once again, ALWAYS check the URL above the site. 

Sure, there are ways to mask URL's, but so far in all the scam mails I have received I have never come across a masked URL, so hopefully things remain this way...!

Be safe out there - even scammers need to eat, and they will send out anything remotely believable to try and prey on unsuspecting victims.

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Do you suffer from Nomophobia...?

When I found out about a very real fear called Nomophobia recently, I had a bit of a giggle as I thought it was all a joke...

After all, surely Nomophobia is a fear of food...? (Nom nom nom... get it? :)

Ah but wait, there is more to it than that - did you know that Nomophobia is actually a fear of being out of mobile contact?
The word is derived from the term "no-mobile-phone phobia", and it was coined by the UK Post Office during a study to look at anxieties suffered by mobile phone users.

Thinking back to my teenage years when cellphones were not really around yet, I have to wonder how the heck we got by back then?
Sure we had landlines and pagers, but once we set foot outside of home or work, then we were out of touch for hours at a time.
Today that is unheard of - we SMS, BBM, Whatsapp, Email and call constantly through the day.
It's a communications overload if ever there was one...!

Speaking from experience here, it is pretty easy to get caught up in it all.
I know that when my phone battery dies, or if I lose signal, it adds quite a bit of stress to my day.
So I guess in that regard, I am a bit of a Nomophobe... :)

Can you afford to be out of touch with the world and without your cellphone?
Are you a Nomophobe?

Oh, and if you are, then why not head over to the Nybbles and Bytes Store and order yourself a Powertraveller powermonkey, so that you never get stuck with a flat cellphone battery again :)

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Now this is what you call higher grade spam...

Got this gem in my Junk E-mail today - it was so convincing that I nearly fell for it!...;)

-----Original Message-----
From: Webmail Communication Customer Service [mailto:gourock@coppernet.zm]
Sent: 14 January 2012 17:31
To: undisclosed-recipients:
Subject: UPDATE YOUR EMAIL ACCOUNT TODAY

  

Attn:Account User,

We have notice a high rate of spam activities in your mail server.

Enter your password (............) here for anti spam upgrading in order to ensure you do not experience mail intruder by spam as we have discovered or lose your email server.

N.B: We require your password only for uploading Anti Spam Device

----Copyright © 2011 Webmail Communication Ltd. All rights reserved.

Man oh man, whatever will these geniuses think of next...?

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Should we just believe everything we get in our Inbox...? Do you...?

Email is fantastic.
It makes messaging so darn simple. Keeping in touch with customers, family, friends and the world in general is really a breeze thanks to good old email.

The downside, of course is that we as human beings like to buy into almost anything that we read. Especially if we received it in an email...
"Sure it came in my email - so it must be true!"...

Fact is, most of the time those outrageous crazed stories are actually a load of lard (that's pig fat by the way).
I have no idea where some of the stories actually start - who in the world thought up some of this stuff?

The latest one I picked up is the one about the "widely unknown" SAPS law, whereby a woman cannot be arrested between 6PM and 6AM, unless she is arrested by a woman officer and taken to an all-woman police station... SERIOUSLY??

An all-woman police station? Do such things even exist?
The reason that this law is so "widely unknown" is because IT DOESN"T EXIST.
Want proof?
This is what the SAPS themselves have to say about it:
http://www.saps.gov.za/_dynamicModules/internetSite/newsBuild.asp?myURL=907

So did you buy into this one? Imagine for a second that it is true:

The cops arrive at a crime scene at 03:00 a.m. - let's say a robbery for arguments sake.
Ah but alas, the perpetrators are all women and the cops are all men!! OH NO!!
The subsequent cop-criminal negotiations could go something like this:

COPS (shouting): "Come out with your hands up! You are all under arrest for armed robbery!"


DANGEROUS FEMALES: "Sorry, no can do! We are ladies and we know our rights. Please stand down and let us escape."


COPS (whispering to each other): "Damn, we should have brought Sergeant Nomsa with us!"


COPS (shouting): "Umm, ok then... can you guys hang around until 06:00a.m. maybe? You haven't got anywhere to be now have you...?"


DANGEROUS FEMALES: "..."


Yup - all they will get is a silent reply because by now of course the dangerous ladies are long gone.
So next time you receive an email which claims to show a giant clam devouring an entire cargo ship in Durban Harbour (or some other absurd phenomenon)... just stop for a second and check it out properly before forwarding it onto every single person in your address book.

I usually head on over to www.snopes.com... it is a wealth of eye-opening and myth-debunking!

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