Email scams and pfishing

[Arab Nights (imported)]

This is for the internet astute out there.

Let’s call one of my best clients the last few years Bubba Cola and their email address is @bubbacola.com. So they have had cost overruns on their big project and need to raise more money. They have not paid my last two invoices. So I get this email in the junk folder to resolve unpaid Bubba Cola invoices CLICK ON LINK [email protected]. (I do get real emails occasionally in the junk file). It didn’t feel right, so I emailed the Bubba CEO and was told that it was fake – note colas is plural, not cola singular. I coincidently was talking with their biggest contractor who also has unpaid invoices and also got that email.

Now we have two companies who have gotten two emails from bubbacolas.com about unpaid invoices. The chances of that happening by chance are pretty small.

I recently ordered two separate gifts for Christmas. Next day there was an email that my order had arrived at the warehouse with incomplete shipping info and click on the link to fix that. There was no info on which gift it regarded and the email address looked shady.

Correct me if I am wrong, but it looks to me like scammers are able to get pretty specific info and use that.

[Losethem (imported)]

This is for the internet astute out there.

Let’s call one of my best clients the last few years Bubba Cola and their email address is @bubbacola.com. So they have had cost overruns on their big project and need to raise more money. They have not paid my last two invoices. So I get this email in the junk folder to resolve unpaid Bubba Cola invoices CLICK ON LINK [email protected]. (I do get real emails occasionally in the junk file). It didn’t feel right, so I emailed the Bubba CEO and was told that it was fake – note colas is plural, not cola singular. I coincidently was talking with their biggest contractor who also has unpaid invoices and also got that email.

Now we have two companies who have gotten two emails from bubbacolas.com about unpaid invoices. The chances of that happening by chance are pretty small.

I recently ordered two separate gifts for Christmas. Next day there was an email that my order had arrived at the warehouse with incomplete shipping info and click on the link to fix that. There was no info on which gift it regarded and the email address looked shady.

Correct me if I am wrong, but it looks to me like scammers are able to get pretty specific info and use that.

It sounds like you have a scraper or logger on your computer getting your information. The good news is you are catching it, the bad news is it still may be present in your system. I'd say any good commercial and reputable product to get rid of malware/viruses, should take care of the problem if you run it on your system, should that be the issue.

[WheelyFixed]

The problem could also be on BubbaCola's end - perhaps more likely since I presume that Arab Knights wouldn't have had info about the other contractor on his system...

As to the "problem w/ package" mail, I've gotten a few of those as well, and apparently its a known common scam... The scammers apparently send out a LOT of these randomly, on the assumption (probably not a bad one considering how big e-commerce is these days) that the majority of folks getting them will have some sort of ordered package on the way.... I'm not sure just how they monetize the folks that respond, as I didn't, but I think the idea is that they claim to need added postage or customs fees and get the sucker to give them their credit card info...

WheelyFixed