Spammers and scammers get sneakier but not smarter

[David Baxter PhD]

This email received today (complete with official looking RBC logos, etc.) amazes me with its inherent transparent dumbness:

Dear Sir/Madam,

RBC Financial Group always looks forward for the high security of our
clients. Some customers have been receiving an email claiming to be
from RBC Financial Group advising them to follow a link to what appear
to be a RBC Financial Group web site, where they are prompted to enter
their personal Online Banking details. RBC Financial Group is in no
way involved with this email and the web site does not belong to us.

RBC Financial Group is proud to announce about their new updated secure system.

We updated our new SSL servers to give our customers a better, fast
and secure online banking service.

Due to the recent update of the servers, you are requested to please
update your account info at the following link.

http://ns.edwardltd.com/rbc/Online.htm

RBC Financial Group
Security Advisor
RBC Financial Group

This web site is operated by Royal Bank of Canada

The guy hasn't even bothered to hide the fact that the link isn't to the RBC website but to his personal website.

By the way, SpamAssassin easily tagged it as fake:

Content analysis details: (10.6 points, 4.0 required)

 

[ThatLady]

This stuff always gives me a giggle, until I think about how many people out there must fall for this kind of stuff.

 

[AVC]

Many of them are dumb indeed, but you would be surprised at how many webmasters let these guys get away with dropping links on forums successfully.

 

[David Baxter PhD]

Indeed. We've both seen plenty of evidence of that. How are you doing there, AC?

 

[AVC]

Hanging in there, the forum is looking good.

Fighting spammers is something I do daily and seems a full time occupation.

You would be shocked at how many spammers are out there, if you are interested I can leave you a link that will send shivers down your spine in regard to the spammers and scammers you have 24/7 watching a forum.

 

[ThatLady]

No kidding, AVC! Battling spammers and scammers can become a full-time job all too quickly. It's often so frustrating one want's to chew one's mouse!

 

[AVC]

Oh, they are smarter than you all think, see this thread on stopping forum spammers running posting bots, content scraping spiders and spam harvesting bots.