[extropy-chat] fishing for cc numbers: idea

Tue May 11 03:28:51 UTC 2004

Hey extropians, check this.  It came in my inbox the other day.  Its one
of those
scams where they get the gullible to give away their credit card
numbers.
Note the many mistakes in the *two sentences* of the message.  How 
many do you count?  I get at least nine.  {8^D  "regular and
verification",
missing or misplaced commas and periods, extra spaces,  inappropriate
lower/upper case, etc.  It makes me think it came from overseas, which 
gives me an idea.

The actual site asks for all kinds of personal information that identity
theives would use, mother's maiden name, etc.  If we all went to the
site and entered a bunch of incorrect information, then the identity
theives would use up a bunch of time and stamps applying for credit 
cards that wouldn't get them a card, but would give the card company
information on who is trying to rip them off.

Better idea: suppose the scam does originate overseas, so the
perps would be unfamiliar with yankee slang, yankee names and
yankee culture.  Then one could fill in names that no one would actually
have, which would immediately tip off the credit card company that it is

a scammer.  Then they would have the option of sending the scammer 
a card with an electronic red flag, to see if they are stupid enough to
use it.
Examples: Ebenezer Scrooge, Ewell B. Butfuct, Anita B. Laydman,
Monica Lewinski, etc.

If the scammer isn't hip to our culture, they *might* apply for a credit
card using these names, which any credit card company would
immediately recognize as a flimflam.  Some code jockey might even
be able to gen up a script that would automatically fill in and return
bogus
data to these kinds of sites.  {8^D  spike

-----Original Message-----
From: Support [mailto:support at ebay.com] 
Sent: Saturday, May 08, 2004 1:44 PM
To: Dbguru
Subject: Your eBay Account Must Be Confirmed

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Update Your Credit / Debit Card On Your eBay File 	spacer	
spacer	

Dear eBay member ,

During our regular and verification of the accounts we couldn't verify
your current information, either your information Has changed or it is
incomplete . if the account is not updated to current information within
5 days then , your access to Buy or Sell on eBay will be restricted

Go to the link below to Update your account information :

 <http://61.100.12.150/verify/index.php>
http://signin.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?SignIn&ssPageName=h:h:sin:US

please dont reply to this email as you will not receive a response 

Thank You for using eBay!

http://www.eBay.com

________________________________________________________________________
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<http://pages.ebay.com/help/community/png-priv.html>  and
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