Why is there no pride in Internet fraud anymore?

Is it just me, or is there no pride in the Internet fraud industry anymore? I mean, fraudsters used to be a noble breed, with standards and ethics… well, maybe not ethics, but they had standards. There was no point being a fraudster if you were sloppy; you wouldn’t defraud many people.

These days however it seems every Tom, Dick or Amjad is committing fraud online, and standards have really slipped. I received the email below today, supposedly from Lloyds TSB, trying to get me to enter my online banking details into a phishing website. Nothing unusual there, millions of these emails are sent every day. PayPal and eBay ones are the most common, and are often quite convincing.

This email however is bloody awful. I was insulted to receive it. What’s the point in going to the trouble of setting up a fake website to capture people’s login details, sending out countless emails (which aren’t free to send, they cost you know) and then not even bothering to spell check the sodding email?

This email is scandalous. It’s riddled with typos, americanised spellings and even refers to an ATM… hello… UK?

Come on fraudsters, sort it out. Get your bleedin’ act together and write some decent phishing emails.

FROM: Lloyds TSB <onlinebanking@lloydstsb.co.uk>
Subject: Lloyds TSB Alerts : Irregular Check Card Activity

Dear Customer ,

We have informed that you have received unauthorized access to your Lloyds TSB ATM Card by date of April 08 2009 ,
We already put your account on third party until the verification is finish
We ask you now to Log-In to your internet banking and check your statment .
We asking you to Log in immidiatly to your Internet Banking and and follow this steps

1. Log-In to your internet banking by clicking here
2. Check your recent statment

Please make sure to let us know if there is any authorized withdraw from your Lloyds ATM Card

Lebel Operation :
4670659

Your account is on the third party and is will be untill you finish the steps
Lloyds TSB , United Kingdom

***********************************************************************************************
This message and any attachments are confidential and intended for the named addressee(s) only.
If you have received this message in error, please notify immediately the sender, then delete
the message. Any unauthorized modification, edition, use or dissemination is prohibited.
The sender does not be liable for this message if it has been modified, altered, falsified,
infected by a virus or even edited or disseminated without authorization.
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Darren Jamieson

Darren Jamieson, aka MrDaz, is the Technical Director and co-founder of Engage Web and has been working online in a career spanning two decades. His first website was built in 1998 and is still live today.

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2 thoughts on “Why is there no pride in Internet fraud anymore?”

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