Go Phish

This is a new trick (at least to me). I received a legitimate looking email from Amazon notifying me of a recent purchase of Windows Home Premium, which of course I did not order.

This called phishing, just another version of malware scams.

Here’s the email — I left all the links in because they no longer work and are of no danger to anyone who clicks them.  Instead of clicking on any of the links in this email, I immediately went to Amazon, my credit card accounts and paypal to verify that no real transaction had occurred.

But if you blast something like this out to enough people SOMEONE is going to fall for it (otherwise why would the Nigerian scam continue to be played?).  There are at least two reactions to this kind of email, which could result in BIG problems:

1. What?  I didn’t order anything from Amazon !! What is going on ??!!! The danger here is if they click on any of the links in the email, which does NOT go to Amazon, but to another then click on the link and it takes them to a landing page that infects the computer or flips it into a botnet.
2. Hey, this is not what I ordered from Amazon !! Jeez, can’t they get anything right??!! Again, by clicking on any of the links, they get more headaches than an Amazon overcharge.

This is just another cautionary tale that things are not always what they seem.

Thanks for your order, help@claudiamorgan.us! Want to manage your order online? If you need to check the status of your order or make changes, please visit our home page at Amazon.com and click on Your Account at the top of any page. Purchasing Information: E-mail Address: help@claudiamorgan.us Order Grand Total: $185.91 Get the Amazon.com Rewards Visa Card and earn 3% rewards on your Amazon.com orders. Order Summary: Shipping Details : (order will arrive in 1 shipment) Order #: 528-0236160-6078497 Shipping Method: Standard Shipping Shipping Preference: Group my items into as few shipments as possible Subtotal of Items: $180.93 Shipping & Handling: $4.98 —— Total for this Order: $185.91 Delivery estimate: August 26, 2010 1 “Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium”Windows XP; DVD-ROM; $180.93 Sold by: Amazon.com, LLC Need to print an invoice? Visit www.amazon.com/your-account and click to view your orders. Click “View order” next to the appropriate order You’ll find a button to print an invoice on the next page Where can I get help with reviewing or changing my orders? To learn more about managing your orders on Amazon.com, please visit our Help pages at amazon.com/help/orders/. Please note: This e-mail message was sent from a notification-only address that cannot accept incoming e-mail. Please do not reply to this message. If you ever need to return an order, visit our Online Returns Center: www.amazon.com/returns Thanks again for shopping with us. Amazon.com Earth’s Biggest Selection Prefer not to receive HTML mail? Click here