# Chuckle of the day: worst phishing attempt ever **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 30, 2007, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chuckle-of-the-day-worst-phishing-attempt-ever/417444 "2007-08-30T00:58:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Kuboydal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecb155/32.png) [@Kuboydal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kuboydal)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2007, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chuckle-of-the-day-worst-phishing-attempt-ever/417444/21 "2007-08-31T12:59:53Z")
I hope no one thought I was disparaging the North Fork Bank or claiming it was not real. I was just mentioning that an offer, any offer, from the First Southern Spork Bank would automatically make me participate. Can’t we forkgive and forkget? ---
**Author:** ![Cheez\_Whia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d26b3c/32.png) [@Cheez\_Whia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheez_Whia)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2007, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chuckle-of-the-day-worst-phishing-attempt-ever/417444/22 "2007-08-31T14:17:06Z")
I had one last week that was a very good imitation of CitiBank, telling me I needed to check my credit card with them (I don’t have one). But scrolling down, in the same email, was an ad for Phaaarmaccy Pills. 😛 What were they thinking? ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_fight\_the\_hypothetical](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/59ef9b/32.png) [@Don\_t\_fight\_the\_hypothetical](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_fight_the_hypothetical)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2007, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chuckle-of-the-day-worst-phishing-attempt-ever/417444/23 "2007-08-31T14:57:04Z")
[You’ve been trumped.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=434728) ---
**Author:** ![Telperien](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/65b543/32.png) [@Telperien](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telperien)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2007, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chuckle-of-the-day-worst-phishing-attempt-ever/417444/24 "2007-08-31T16:52:19Z")
[QUOTE=dwc1970] Does anybody even hyphenate “web-site” these days? Same goes for “e-mail”. [/QUOTE] I hyphenate “e-mail.” But I am not a phisher. ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2007, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chuckle-of-the-day-worst-phishing-attempt-ever/417444/25 "2007-08-31T17:56:35Z")
[QUOTE=Don’t fight the hypothetical] [You’ve been trumped.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=434728) [/QUOTE] Ha! Can this Nigerian protect me from the frauds? I don’t think so. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2007, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chuckle-of-the-day-worst-phishing-attempt-ever/417444/26 "2007-08-31T18:50:31Z")
Kuboydal: > [@](#): > > I hope no one thought I was disparaging the North Fork Bank or claiming it was not real. I was just mentioning that an offer, any offer, from the First Southern Spork Bank would automatically make me participate. Can’t we forkgive and forkget? Oh, I don’t care if you disparage North Fork Bank - I don’t particularly care for them, myself. I just thought that you considered a bank named after an eating utensil to be a poor attempt by a bad spammer to make up a bank name, so I thought I’d correct you and point out that it really is a bank. ---
**Author:** ![Kuboydal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecb155/32.png) [@Kuboydal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kuboydal)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2007, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chuckle-of-the-day-worst-phishing-attempt-ever/417444/27 "2007-08-31T19:53:17Z")
hmmm, so you admit the bank was named after cutlery? What tangled webs we weave… ---
**Author:** ![MrJackboots](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MrJackboots](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrJackboots)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2007, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chuckle-of-the-day-worst-phishing-attempt-ever/417444/28 "2007-08-31T20:05:54Z")
I once received an email from a girl I “knew” (more on these scare-quotes later) claiming that she’d gone to London and been robbed, so she needed to borrow £2600 (nearly $5000!) to pay her bills and get back to the States. It really was from her email address, but there were two problems with this idea: 1 - I “knew” her in the sense that I’d taken her picture once, two years ago, and emailed back and forth with her for a week or so. That’s it. I was still in her address book, it seems, but that’s really not the kind of relationship that’s close enough for you to ask to borrow $5000. 2 - I had her phone number too. It took me some digging to find it, but I did have it. I called her up, confirmed that no, she was not in England, not robbed, and did not need $5000 to get home (though it would be nice!), considering that she was in her apartment having breakfast at the time. We had a good laugh about it, I advised that she change her password, and I wrote an email back congratulating her on her safe return without needing my help. _Fail!_ No money for scammer. ---
**Author:** ![dynamitedave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ed655f/32.png) [@dynamitedave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dynamitedave)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2007, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chuckle-of-the-day-worst-phishing-attempt-ever/417444/29 "2007-09-01T00:58:34Z")
And now for a new tactic (well, at least for me), saying they are the IRS and have a refund waiting for you, if only you send them your CC details :rolleyes: Of course, IRS means nothing to me 😛 > [@](#): > > After the last annual calculations of your fiscal activity we have determined that you are eligible to receive a tax refund of $109.30. Please submit the tax refund request and allow us 6-9 days in order to process it. > > A refund can be delayed for a variety of reasons. For example submitting invalid records or applying after the deadline. > > To access the form for your tax refund, please {click here } [_deleted_/Get Tax Refund on your VISA or MasterCard .htm] > > Regards, > Internal Revenue Service > © Copyright 2007, Internal Revenue Service U.S.A.. > RZLHXERFQZJFPQBITJZJXUOTFZNNPMSMMHOICV ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2007, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chuckle-of-the-day-worst-phishing-attempt-ever/417444/30 "2007-09-19T12:32:24Z")
And I thought it couldn’t get more lame. But it could! Here’s an e-mail I received today, copied verbatim. Aside from the obvious lack of editing, it looks like the sender couldn’t even be bothered to fill in the name of a bank, etc.. Don’t they know about the old adage: Teach a man to phish… > [@](#): > > Meanwhile,i didn’t forget your past efforts and attempts to assist me > This is to inform you about my success in transfering your money into an ATM master card to curtail the risk of carrying huge amount of money arround.We are the peole that coded this amount of money in the card and we are going to tell you how to make use of it.Presently i’m out of the coutry for investing my own part of the total money . > > Meanwhile,i didn’t forget your past efforts and attempts to assist me > in moving the cash despite that both of us could not make it.Now contact ATM PAYMENT DEPARTMENT and their email address is([atmpayment\_departmentbenin011@yahoo.fr](mailto:atmpayment_departmentbenin011@yahoo.fr) ) ask them to send you the sum of eight hundred and fifty thousand us dollars ( $850.000.00 in an ATM MASTER CARD which i kept for your compensation for all the past efforts and attempts to assist me in this matter. I appreciated your efforts at that time very much,So feel free and get in touched with the ATM PAYMENT DEPARTMENT and instruct them on where to send your total share of the money to you. > > Please do let me know immediately you receive it so that we can share the joy together after all the sufferness at that time. In the moment, i am very busy here investing with my new partner.Remember that you are going to pay a reactivation fee of $90.00 only and it is for the reactivation of your card against it’s expiry before the delivery is made.The reason for the reactivation fee is that the account has been there for a long time while the government was doing serious investigations on the right owner of the money before this conclusion was made. > > Finally, I have forwarded instructions to the DEPARTMENT to send the Confirmable ATM MASTER CARD toyou, so feel free to get in touch with the DEPARTMENTand they will send the CARD to you without any delay. DO FAST AND CONTACT HEM IMMEDIATELY OK? > > Best Regards, > BARR.JOHNPAUL > CONTACT ATM DEPARTMENT > > Please do let me know immediately you receive it so that we can share the joy together after all the sufferness at that time. In the moment, i am very busy here investing with my new partner.Remember that you are going to pay a reactivation fee of $90.00 only and it is for the reactivation of your card against it’s expiry before the delivery is made.The reason for the reactivation fee is that the account has been there for a long time while the government was doing serious investigations on the right owner of the money before this conclusion was made. > > Finally, I have forwarded instructions to the DEPARTMENT to send the Confirmable ATM MASTER CARD toyou, so feel free to get in touch with the DEPARTMENTand they will send the CARD to you without any delay. DO FAST AND CONTACT HEM IMMEDIATELY OK? > > Best Regards, > > BARR.JOHNPAUL Save us from all the sufferness!!! ---
**Author:** ![Scuba\_Ben](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/278dde/32.png) [@Scuba\_Ben](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scuba_Ben)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2007, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chuckle-of-the-day-worst-phishing-attempt-ever/417444/31 "2007-09-19T13:33:16Z")
[QUOTE=PunditLisa] And I thought it couldn’t get more lame. But it could! Here’s an e-mail I received today, copied verbatim. Aside from the obvious lack of editing, it looks like the sender couldn’t even be bothered to fill in the name of a bank, etc.. Don’t they know about the old adage: Teach a man to phish… [/QUOTE] Yep, that’s a pretty poor job of phishing that you’ve collected, **PunditLisa**. Today being ITLaPD, I suggest you keelhaul the phisher! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chuckle-of-the-day-worst-phishing-attempt-ever/417444.md?page=1)