Anglo phish

There's something strangely ironic about phishing for account details from Anglo Irish Bank. The Irish government have already spent €4 billion trying to keep the bank afloat. The Director of Corporate Enforcement and the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation are investigating allegations of circular transactions. This week it also emerged the Serious Fraud Office were called in to check out some transactions through its London offices. On top of that the bank had to write off €4.7 million invested with a Madoff scheme. The fraudsters better watch out, they could get saddled with some of the €28 billion in bad loans the bank made. If you're gonna phish a bank, I'd start somewhere else.

FAME at last!

It looks like my efforts in the field of journalism have finally brought me the recognition I truly deserve. I have been invited to appear in Who's Who - or maybe it is just another phishing scam?

LATEST phishing attempts

Here's two of the latest attempts at phishing for bank details. I got both today. Definitely the scam emails are more sophisticated, but a lot more people are aware that the fraudsters are out there.

PHISH hook

The National Consumer Agency are warning people about a scam in which a cheque is mailed to people telling them they've been selected for a grant from the Money Advice and Budgeting Service. To cash the cheque they have to phone a number and are asked for lots of personal details. The fake Bank of Ireland cheques for €1,450 are the latest attempt to entice people to hand over their identities to phishing scammers.
In another part of the forest customs found 4,000 litres of full-strength industrial alcohol being imported through Dublin Port on Tuesday (press release). It was packaged as car wash fluid. Destined for a fake address in County Louth, alcohol would have been used to make counterfeit vodka to be sold through pubs and clubs.

THREATENING phish

The latest wheeze from the 419ers is a phising email purporting to come from the taxman. It took me a few seconds to realise it wasn't a genuine email. It was clever in that it was only offering a €414 refund instead of the usual €100 million. One slight difference however are the two lines at the end warning that IS addresses are recorded and that 'deliberate wrong inputs are criminally pursued and indicted.' Clearly it is an implicit threat along the lines 'we know where you live.' Obviously the scam-baiters are getting on the nerves of the 419ers. Keep up the good work. The Revenue Comissioners issued a warning about the email.