Phishing

Originally Posted: January 4th, 2009

In the field of computer security, phishing is the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.

That’s how wikipedia defines phishing. Don’t confusing it with fishing which is a sport where you either catch undersized fish and brag about the ones that go away, or it’s a way people get out their sadistic torture urges by torturing fish for fun.

Phishers on the Internet do so to rob people of their username/password combos for many different websites. This is generally used with banking websites through the use of fake-login pages or emails that look official. Banks get hit by this a lot, as people use it to literally rob you of your money, so you need to be bloody careful.

What annoys me though it’s not limited to things that have actual worth, such as money. People phish other people on gaming websites to access their game accounts. It amazes me honestly.

If you’ve been on Gaia for more than five minutes then you’ll know they have password phishers floating about. Claiming to be from admin who need your password to check your account out, or claiming to be a moderator giving you gold. It’s funny and sad at times really.

I get a few a week sent to me, I don’t know why honestly I guess they’re hoping I’m extra stupid.

Obviously it wasn’t coloured, instead I added the colours so I can talk about the specific points. So shall we embark?

attempted hacking, scamming, trolling, and life threatening

Wow, I’ve certainly been a bad boy haven’t I? I mean attempting hacking is one thing, but also trolling and scamming as well. Apparently also life threatening which is a concern.

Obviously it’s complete rubbish. They like to put a lot of threatening words inside their messages as then it scares some users into not reading the rest properly and ignoring the warnings (like common sense) and falling for the scam.

The light-blue section cracks me up, yes you shouldn’t give out your password normally but this is a special time and you should anyway.

Then we add with the yellow section, threats. If you don’t do this then “it will resolve in a 6 month ban and banning of the IP power”. Right, so firstly how can it resolve into a ban? Wouldn’t it result in a ban? And do any of you reading this understand what “banning of the IP power” means? I don’t think I’ve ever heard of the IP power.

Once again, it’s meant to scare you though this wouldn’t scare a toaster.

We also ned space between your password

Ok, so you ned a space between my password. Would this have anything to do with the fact that passwords cannot be PMed on Gaia and an error occurs when you try it?

Now, correct me if I’m wrong, why would a website require you to be examined for bad things by sending them your password, and then design a system that actively prevents the password from being sent? That just doesn’t make sense.

Unfortunately a lot of people don’t actually think about that. They don’t wonder why any developer would design a system that relied on user assistance to examine anything bad they may have done.

It would be as if the police had to get your personal PIN number for your bank account to examine your bank records so they can make a case against you. Can anyone spot the flaw in the system?

Any developer who designs a system like that deserves being sacked and then banned from ever going near a computer again.

Sadly phishers are still out there, because they’re evil, greedy people who need to be banned from the Internet for life.

They’re thieves, digital thieves.