You would think that after all these years of fraud and deception on the internet, people would learn not to download suspicious programs. Especially those linked by spammy emails.
Ignorant, naive computer users (I originally typed “stupid,” but then I would be mocking my own mother) in Sweden downloaded a “spam-fighting application” to their PC’s that stole their bank account information. This resulted in Nordea losing approximately 1 million US dollars to undiscovered hackers. If a spam email message said that it would help you fight spam, would you believe it?
The Swedish bank doesn’t want to blame a couple of prepubescent hackers for the bank heist, so they blame it on the Russian Mafia. Sounds scarier and makes the bank look more victimized that way. The article says that the Russians were clever enough to prolong this scam over 15 months all under the alert nose of the bank while “small transactions enabled the criminals to successfully transfer a huge sum overall.”
Evidence number two that these victims are incompetent beings: If you check your bank statement on a regular basis, which you should be doing as religiously as you go to church, you would notice small but conspicuous sums of money floating out to random destinations.
Unless you watch a lot of online porn and you’re billed by 23 different smut sites every month, you should be able to keep track of who is taking money out of your bank account.
There are some ingenious cases of Social Engineering which I’ll share with you on occasion, but this is not one of them. Please don’t be a dumbass. God gave you common sense for a reason.
The Conversation {2 comments}
“If you check your bank statement on a regular basis, which you should be doing as religiously as you go to church…”
Uhm, what if one doesn’t go to church? How about checking as regularly as changing ones underwear… That would be weekly, right?
Good post. As we all know, spammers wouldn’t spam if it weren’t profitable. The thing that has always bothered me is how 0.01% or whatever of the population is f*cking it up for the rest of us; I’m talking about the people who actually read spam and then click links to buy things like penis enlargement pills. Like you said, people can be dumbasses; all they have to do is use a Google search to buy their penis pills online. Sometimes I think there is no hope for the human species.
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