If it doesn’t sound like someone you know, it probably isn’t

I woke up this morning and noticed this instant message waiting for me on my computer from a good friend of mine:

Are you finally ready to lose some weight with no effort, well I am living proof that those acai berry pills everyone is talking about actually work, I lost 22 pounds in two weeks and it only cost me five dollars over at http://regontown.com

For a split second, I thought my friend was trying to tell me something. After all I have put on a few pounds over the past few months. But that thought quickly faded as I realized my friend would never send me an unsolicited instant message like this.

Then I started to look at the punctuation. Again, my friend wouldn't end his sentences with commas and knows enough to start the beginning of a new sentence with a capital letter.

Hijacking and spoofing

So I knew the message was either the result of someone hijacking his account (learning his username and password and then changing the psasword to have full control of someone else's account) or spoofing (sending messages that appear to come from someone else's account). Either way, there was zero chance I was going to click on that link for the web site mentioned in the message.

And for safety reasons, I intentionally changed the link to that web site on this blog post to go nowhere in case someone accidentally clicks on it.

I want noobies to learn from this experience. You know how your friends talk. You know what type of messages they send you. So when you receive one that just doesn't sound like something your friend would say, it probably didn't come from your friend.

Be careful how you respond

You can always use an alternate form of communication to ask your friend if he/she really sent you the message. In other words, if you receive an instant message, email your friend. If you receive it via email, instant message or call your friend. Just don't reply to the original message.

Now, if anyone knows any legitimate way to quickly lose 22 pounds in two weeks, I'm all ears!

4 comments for this blog post so far...

  • #1
    June 10, 2009 at 9:54 am

    Chris Theisen

    You can stop eating and hope you survive the 2 weeks.  I can’t tell you how many times my wife (who is intelligent) will ask about a crazy spam type emails authenticity.  These people obviously send these messages because someone is clicking/replying to them.  Good post.

  • #2
    June 10, 2009 at 10:04 am

    Patric Welch

    @Chris: Something tells me I wouldn’t make it past day 1 of the 2 weeks! And I agree completely with you. If just 0.25% of people click or reply to those messages, it’s a dream come true for the spammer. It’s a numbers game.

  • #3
    June 10, 2009 at 1:03 pm

    ahow628

    Patric, there are these things called acai berries and they can definitely help you lose 22 lbs in two weeks. My friend told me so.

    I agree with Chris. I have friends and family asking me on a regular basis, “Hey, I got this thing that said <insert latest phishing scam here>. Is this for real? I generally reply, “Well, what do you think?” As soon as they have to think of a response, it is usually a resounding, “Its gotta be a scam.”

    I think you would be surprised what the average human being can talk themselves into when it is just them sitting alone with some dubious information.

  • #4
    June 10, 2009 at 9:46 pm

    Patric Welch

    @ahow628: Crud, I guess I’m not getting that free trip to Disneyland from Bill Gates after all. Darn it. And after forwarding so many of those emails! :)

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