Phishing mails: Why?

[Kirk]

I know why in the simple sense to get information or cause problems.

But why can they not even spell correctly?

Just had one in that read: "FeDex Post" as the subject, then some supposed tracking number. I am guessing that most people in the world know it is "FedEx"

I get ones from Amazon that have spelt "Amazon" incorrectly, one had it as "Amazone"

Seems that a spam filter is unnecessary, a spell checker would do.

I think what really gets to me is that someone somewhere thinks I might just be stupid enough to open one especially when they spell it as FeDex. That is just an insult to intelligence. At least please give me the chance to have to spend 2 or 3 seconds thought and investigation before I delete it.

[RaptorUK]

The miss-spelling may be deliberate to avoid rules you have in place . . .

If they send 10,000,00 and 0.5% of people open them then that is 50,000 opened emails.

[bearded bloke]

If they send 10,000,00 and 0.5% of people open them then that is 50,000 opened emails.

Same applies to the pay per click spam posts we get on here,using filters can work but generally only after the poster has been recognised by the filter,they all have to make a first post & sadly we are getting a lot of those.

[gardening_gal]

I think what really gets to me is that someone somewhere thinks I might just be stupid enough to open one especially when they spell it as FeDex. That is just an insult to intelligence.

Many people get reams of emails every day and simply speed read and lightly process whatever info their glancing look provided. If they took time to read every single thing that popped into their email box, very carefully, they'd be there all day. I doubt this 'speed read' group would pick up on which letter was the capital and may well open such an email unwittingly.

Couple that with the elderly who may be unsure or the young who are inexperienced or the learning disabled who are uninformed and you have a whole section of society who aren't necessarily stupid but get caught out anyway.

I do think some of these phishing jobs are quite amusing more than anything else, I've seen emails that are much more obvious than a wrongly place capital letter and I feel embarrassed more than annoyed, for the sender.

By the way, I got the same email as you this afternoon. Do me a favour and pick my parcel up the same time as you get yours, it'll save me a trip?

[RaptorUK]

Same applies to the pay per click spam posts we get on here,using filters can work but generally only after the poster has been recognised by the filter,they all have to make a first post & sadly we are getting a lot of those.

What about using StopForumSpam ? another Forum I was a Moderator on had a problem with the Kitchen SPAMMERs and they always seemed to be listed on StopForumSpam. My understanding is that it prevents the SPAMMING user from registering in the first place . . .

[bearded bloke]

Hi Raptor,SFS only works if the spammer has posted before & has been logged onto the SFS system,it cannot predict if a poster is likely to be a spammer.

[Nicos]

What about using StopForumSpam ? another Forum I was a Moderator on had a problem with the Kitchen SPAMMERs and they always seemed to be listed on StopForumSpam. My understanding is that it prevents the SPAMMING user from registering in the first place . . .

yeh...we're working on the attack with the support of Admin...and quite honestly doing really well, even if a few are sneaking through!

Can't tell you what we're up to as there may be spies about!...but we're certainly very much on top of things due to massive amout of team work behind the scenes !

All the alerts peeps are sending us are really helping...keep them coming peeps!