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Social engineering has sunk really low…

August 22, 2010 · Filed Under Babel fish, Security

Someone could think that the strategies currently executed by cyber-criminals to extort personal information are sophisticated, dangerous and antivirus software-proof. Maybe it’s just like this, however it’s as much true that next to the fine technique the aforementioned criminals still use dirt cheap tricks against which there wouldn’t theoretically be any need for the antivirus at all. It would be enough to have one’s own brain always turned on when in front of the screen.

Here is the e-mail sent to me by an alleged “institutional” address, regarding my as much alleged win in London “Online Lottery Sweepstakes Promotion”:

REFERENCE #: UKL/452093G9/21
EMAIL TICKET #: 106-7871-404-199
This e-mail is to congratulate you as your email address have won you a cash prize of 715,000.00 Great British Pound in our Online Lottery Sweepstakes Promotion held in London August 2010. To file your claims, contact;
Agent: Mr. Douglas Hudson
E-mail: uknlverificationdepartment@w.cn

Note: You are required to tender your Full Name(s) & Reference # (same as above) Full Address, Country Of Residence, Occupation, Age, Sex, Telephone Number to the claims agent, via email for a valid response. Congratulations from all members and staffs of this program. Thank you for being a part of this online lottery promotion.

Leaving aside the nonsense of receiving a notice for a British lottery in Italy, by coming in contact with this well known Internet scam I wonder: is it really so simple to drive people to give away their name, address, telephone number, e-mail and everything, is there really someone ready to sell off his own digital ID for the alluring promise of a monetary reward literally fallen from the clouds of the big Internet sky?

Closing the case as too much stupid to be noteworthy would be too simplistic, still I can’t help but think about the fact that in a period like this, when uncertainty is strong and so is the need for money everywhere, even a ridiculous promise like the one of getting a prize from a lottery you didn’t join in (or maybe you don’t remember to have joined it? who knows…) can drive the most weak, keyboard-equipped minds to sell themselves off on-line.