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I got this this morning; the return address actually said amazon.com.
Greetings from Amazon Payments.
Your bank has contacted us regarding some attempts of charges from your credit card via the Amazon system. We have reasons to believe that you changed your registration information or that someone else has unauthorized access to your Amazon account Due to recent activity, including possible unauthorized listings placed on your account, we will require a second confirmation of your identity with us in order to allow us to investigate this matter further. Your account is not suspended, but if in 48 hours after you receive this message your account is not confirmed we reserve the right to suspend your Amazon registration. If you received this notice and you are not the authorized account holder, please be aware that it is in violation of Amazon policy to represent oneself as another Amazon user. Such action may also be in violation of local, national, and/or international law. Amazon is committed to assist law enforcement with any inquires related to attempts to misappropriate personal information with the intent to commit fraud or theft. Information will be provided at the request of law enforcement agencies to ensure that perpetrators are prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
Then it invited me to click on a link "To confirm your identity". I did not, remembering previous warnings I've read by members here. I did write to amazon (by going to their site independently of the e-mail), and learned that they did not in fact send this very convincing message.
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You done good, Opie. It's very easy to make an email look like it comes from somewhere other than where it is actually coming from. You don't even have to be particularly computer-savvy to do it. ALWAYS check any attempt to verify your identity.
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Pooh-Bah
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While we're here, why is it "phishing" with a "ph?"
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addict
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I was told the "ph" comes from the expression "Password Harvesting", which is what apparently they aim to do with these e-mails. I haven't confirmed it, though... does anyone know for sure?
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newbie
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hmm..thats pretty useful information...thanxx people
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Phishing with a ph is in homage to phone phreaking, considered by many to be the original hacking, though it was hardware, instead of software, hacking.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Pooh-Bah
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Jackie thank you for that. It is becoming more and more difficult to distinguish the real thing from the phishing. Between this and Abu Graib, Neocon lies and torture and the CIA Archipelago, road rage, and the reluctance to let our kids walk down the street alone, what's our country coming to
dalehileman
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Em--perhaps this phisher isn't from the U.S. ...
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Speaking of phishing: does anyone know anything about this source? I just got this in my e-mail, but did not sign up for it: Received: from securemail6.diginsite.com ([208.2.189.210])
by sccqmxc92.asp.att.net (sccqmxc92) with ESMTP
id <20051116212131q920039fghe>; Wed, 16 Nov 2005 21:21:31 +0000
X-Originating-IP: [208.2.189.210]
Date: Wed, 16 Nov 2005 13:21:30 -0800
Message-Id: <200511162121.jAGLLUq991910@helium2.diginsite.com>
From: web@diginsite.com
To:
Reply-To: support@billpaymentservices.com
Cc:
Subject: Bill Payment Enabled
Per your request, Bill Payment has been enabled. You can now log into your
Bill Payment account by simply clicking on the "Bill Payment" icon to access
this service.
Please do not respond to this e-mail address, as it is not set up to properly
route your questions.
Congratulations and welcome to online bill payment!
Sheesh--what have I done to deserve this? 
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formerly known as etaoin...
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That's why God invented the DELETE button.
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Pooh-Bah
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Google returns 46 hits. The best was "Cash Cow".
I didn't click, but from the blurbs, it looks like they're into debt-consolidation. In other words, they're loan sharks.
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I have an e-mail address that only my cousin used to mass mail jokes and funny pictures. As a result, my email address was co-opted by a spammer and I can no longer use that address for sending e-mail. I've been blacklisted! Anyone else out there had this problem?
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TEd
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I discovered something akin to what Connie discovered. In attempting to send an encyclical e-mail message to my congregation -- about 200 addresses -- a number of spam-recognition programs immediately flagged my message as spam because of the number of addressees. I ended up solving this problem by carving the church's group e-mail address into four parts and send the same message four times, once to each group of around fifty addressees ... which is apparently under the spam radar.
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What about puttting them on a list, and just sending them to that list. That way, email clients don't see the number of addresses involved? BCC has a similar effect. The Supreme and Universal Word Master could probably provide more practical assistance on this matter.
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And you should be using BCC anyway, since that keeps emails off the internet that have a lot of cc addresses, which, when forwarded indiscriminately, can be used by nefarious people on the internet (both of 'em) to construct new spam lists.
TEd
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Well, I've tried to tell my sister and my cousin about the wonderful aspects of BCC, but neither of them seems to get it. 
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Quote:
What about puttting them on a list, and just sending them to that list. That way, email clients don't see the number of addresses involved? BCC has a similar effect. The Supreme and Universal Word Master could probably provide more practical assistance on this matter.
yah sure, you betcha:
I have a separate email address set up (wwftd master) from which I send to one humongous list (wwftd minions). as a result, I get potsful of spam sent to wwftd master; but everyone on the list seems to remain spamfree (except for the yahoo! ads) -- unless of course I include one of the secret words that spamhaus objects to. the latter includes dastardly terms such as "Cockeram's Dictionary" and "quick and dirty". but I digress.
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Quote:
but I digress.
No, you are not digressing. It's important that us mere mortals learn more about how this stuff works. PLEASE, sir, could I have more, sir?
Could you explain a bit about how email is sorted into spam and non-spam? It might help some of us in the future.
TIA
TEd
TEd
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Quote:
Canis meus id comedit.
I ate my dog?! 
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I ate my dog?!
No, "my dog ate it."
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Heh®
Thanks, Fr Steve. I guess back then there was no word for homework or hard drive, huh.
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Quote:
Could you explain a bit about how email is sorted into spam and non-spam? It might help some of us in the future.
oh lord..
with all the legal ramifications currently involved, you will be hard-pressed to get a straight and/or meaningful answer to this.
for instance, The Spamhaus Project defines spam as Unsolicited Bulk Email
and claims "Spam is an issue about consent, not content."
I have not been able to learn why it is, then, that I keep getting blocked for some seemingly random sample of my subscription service postings. It certainly seems as though they are banning certain content when I receive numerous bounced messages which contain the word "cock" embedded in the name Cockeram.
but as I say, they will admit to none of this. Spamcop is even less open about what it is they're up to -- it seems as though subscribers will get anything blocked that any other subscriber has complained about!!
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oh lord..  Anyway... my guess is that it has something to do with opposite and (hardly) equal reaction to spam. Unsolicited means unwanted... period! It kinda goes along the same lines as the use of what are known as whitelists (crossthreading-e). To allow traffic based on certain and only that criteria. (Almost) nobody (I know) uses a whitelist. Something about this form of revenge works better when it is not personal (just like the problem to begin with). Cold, like revenge should be served. It's too much work (as well) to start typing in all the addresses I do want mail from... and what happens if I win the internet jackpot lottery... how will I know? If my *friends sends me an address from thier new location, do they have to *call me first to tell me the email is on its way? This is why, on my network at work, my rule is: "Don't send/share files over the email system, send hyperlinks/paths to thier internal network location. Very few people have any reason to open files sent from other people... suspicion of the worst-case-scenarios keep people on thier *toes!
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great stuff if you're worried about what you <get>, musick; useless if you're merely sending (in effect) harmless, and even requested, "bulk" mail. (btw, I seem to remember getting bounces from your address on the *odd occasion.)
note to those with more than a passing interest:
when a yahoo! delivery gets "bounced", for whatever reason,
that account is in effect off-line for a minimum of five days FROM WHEN A REACTIVATE IS SENT. this really means 8 to 11 days - 2 or 3 for the event to actually get posted to my account, plus 2 or 3 more for me to spot it and manually request reactivation or for an automatic request, plus the basic built-in yahoo! delay of 5 days to actually reactivate. when I get a bundle of rejections due to spamhaus or spamcop, I usually have to let unnature take its course -- what do I care if a couple of dozen subscribers miss a couple of weeks of worthless words?!
-joe (asking yahoo! for a refund would be fruitless) bfstplk
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Well, tsuwm, I didn't think you were one of the ones that wanted *help...  There are the "email box full" and the "person is not accepting from your address" and the "permanent mailbox failures" and the "person no longer exists" on top of the other, obvious ones (out-of-office, go-to-hell, etc...). What percentage of your email list does get bounced back? My work list runs, on average, from 3-8% depending on how often I edit it. I go by the three bounce back strike rule. Try making an html based e-mail and embed a .gif or .jpg scan of the wwftd info and note how many of those get returned. A picture may, indeed, be *worth a thousand words.
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Pooh-Bah
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Phishing has become so rampant, and distinguishing it from the legitimate message so difficult, that I am seriously considering canceling my every Internet account and purchasing nothing whatever through this medium until such a time as technology had advanced to the state where identify theft is virtually impossible. In a day and age when sending manned rocket ships to the moon became so easy we quit doing it, I don't think my proposition should entail so much difficulty that Bill Gates and his underpaid minions can't accomplish it
dalehileman
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Just buy a prepaid credit card. No worries about thieves racking up huge bills on your account, and no identity theft issues either.
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Say, Max... I was under the impression that the (prepaid)card itself didn't hold the "balance" and *network verification still had to take place. This would, of course, limit potential theft to the amount that the account number was prepaid, but it isn't a specific protection against the number being stolen, even if the card holder's ID remains secure... no?
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seriously considering canceling my every Internet account and purchasing nothing whatever through this medium until such a time as technology had advanced to the state where identify theft is virtually impossible.
Ahh, HA! This old lady -who's friends have mocked her refusal to do any fnancial business on the internet - is vindicated at last!
I quickly discovered that a toll free number is usually available - or an address! And the "contact us" link will bring a quick response. Rather than lose a customer most groups/individuals will accept your personal check or money order sent via trustworthy U.S. Mail.
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Quote:
Say, Max... I was under the impression that the (prepaid)card itself didn't hold the "balance" and *network verification still had to take place. This would, of course, limit potential theft to the amount that the account number was prepaid, but it isn't a specific protection against the number being stolen, even if the card holder's ID remains secure... no?
You're right, but since you decide how much money is on the card, and since, at least here, you can get nameless cards, that's why I said there were no identity theft issues. If the card is kept with a near-zero balance until you decide to top it up for a specific purchase, then you won't be out of pocket if the card number is hacked and the much more valuable commodity, your oen personal details, will be unaffected. If the pre-paid card is hacked, just ditch it and get a new one, na?
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Pooh-Bah
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Wow: THank you, it's rare I vindicate anybody
dalehileman
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[shrug] meanwhile, in the New World cheques will soon shrink to the point of invisibility - they are already used virtually only for utility payments and stuff like that by many. If you want the complete impossibility of identity theft, get used to Brave New World. Me, I'll happily live with compromise and no fear. Cash-limited cards are fine.
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I gather ATMs in the UK and in N. America are still comparatively primitive. Should you be so inclined here you can transfer money to someone else's account, and pay utility bills, phone bills, and credit card bills all through your ATM. I can't remember the last time I used a cheque.
Bingley
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