Fishy Phish

[JamesVincent]

I got an email the other day, looked like a collection notice from someone. Typical me I glanced at it real quick and pfft, get in line. I looked at it a little closer earlier when I was cleaning my email box out and then really started looking at it.

K&L GATES

Final notice

Hereby you are notified that you have unpaid utility bills and your debt amounts to $45 for August 21, 2014.

If you do not fulfill your debt-service obligations within three days in accordance with the applicable legislation, we will have to file actions with the court and apply enforcement options - in this case you can be evicted from the occupied territory (property rights termination).

We are asking you to pay the arrears as soon as possible! See further details here.

Copyright (c) 2014 | All right reserved

The words unpaid utility bills and see further details here are hyperlinks which are disabled since the email went to my spam box. The law firm of K&L Gates is a pretty high end, high priced international law firm, much to big to be fooling with a $45 collection notice. The sender box says K&L Gates but when I hovered over it it said lim@Feugocollection.com so I looked them up. The president, Peter Kim, seems to be affiliated with about 10 other companies, all incorporated and supposedly active in the past decade. The hyperlinks take you to this page:http://trailandultra.com/, not that exact address but something on that site. Needless to say I have no friggin clue what it is. The IP address from the actual header comes from Columbus, OH. Don't know why I actually took the time to look all this up, bored I guess. It just looked phishy.

[bmxninja357]

is there a point in the phrase 'unpaid utility bills' your having a rough time with?

service may be achieved by facebook notification, by email, in person. by proxy, depending on province ,state or country.

the phrase means pay your bill or get f@@ked.
(and no im not actually being a dick)

ninj
ps,
make a fair offer and move on.

[JamesVincent]

Yeah, I have no unpaid utility bills. And, even if I did, them not saying what bill it is would preclude me paying it. And, outside of my house, I have nothing that I could be evicted from. And I failed to see what sort of utility you actually COULD be evicted from. And, quite frankly, it doesn't seem that the writer has a very good command of the English language. And the hyperlinks don't even lead to a utility company, they lead to a website about running and fitness. And, oh, about a dozen other little things that I guess you didn't pay attention to.

[notorial dissent]

Yeah, Ninj, you actually are being a dick, and a rather stupid one at that.

No reputable company sends a notice like that through email. Something like that that lists no real business name, no real contact information, and no information about the charge and makes a demand is a sure and certain sign of a phishing attempt, particularly since it came through email. It is not anymore valid than the invoices I used to get for service contracts, toner shipments, warranty renewals on non-existent vehicles, or whatever through the mails. I could usually count on at least three a month, and they all went in the trash as we had no relationship with any of them, invoice or not.

[Pottapaug1938]

Not to mention that these people are asking for the big, huge sum of... $45.00 US. Maybe that sum goes a long way when converted to naira, rubles, hryvnia or whatever; but over here it's almost a nuisance amount. The only possible way that I could imagine someone threatening action over something this small is if some scum-sucking law firm offered to buy a utility's old debt and then tried to collect on it; but even then the law firm would use other means of demanding payment.

[Judge Roy Bean]

There is a possibility that by clicking on those supposedly-benign links that you now have malware/spyware hidden in your machine. Your virus protection can only handle things that are already well-known and responded to - until word gets around and a response is developed and deployed, the threat actors have time to play.

Also, state laws apply to debt collectors. Email notification many not constitute a valid form of communication in your state. Frankly, I don't know one that specifically recognizes it in collections.

[JamesVincent]

There is a possibility that by clicking on those supposedly-benign links that you now have malware/spyware hidden in your machine.

I didn't click through them, they were de-activated by my email server. I made them seeable and then mouse-hovered over them long enough to see the web address that they represented and then went to the main website, not the sub-site in the link.

[Famspear]

Hereby you are notified that you have unpaid utility bills and your debt amounts to $45 for August 21, 2014.

If you do not fulfill your debt-service obligations within three days in accordance with the applicable legislation, we will have to file actions with the court and apply enforcement options - in this case you can be evicted from the occupied territory (property rights termination).

We are asking you to pay the arrears as soon as possible! See further details here.

Copyright (c) 2014 | All right reserved

This looks like it was thrown together by a couple of kids in school, in a Ninth Grade study hall, with too much time on their hands.

[JamesVincent]

Got another one, similar to the utility one.

Green Winick
ATTORNEYS AT LAW
Notice to Appear,

To view copy of the court notice click here. Please, read it thoroughly. Note: If you do not attend the hearing the judge may hear the case in your absence.

2014 Green Winick, P.L.C. All Rights Reserved.

Here is a hyperlink, and it doesn't lead to an attorney's website or a court website.

Fortunately it appears others have already looked into this one.

http://my.lawsociety.org.nz/in-practice ... een-winick

A virus email message purporting to come from Green Winick Attorneys at Law has been reported in New Zealand.

The message has the heading "Notice to Appear in Court" and it may be accompanied by a number (such as "No#6022").

Anyone clicking on the link provided will risk downloading a malicious file which infects their computer once opened.

The body of the message reads as follows:

"Green Winnick

ATTORNEYS AT LAW

Notice to Appear,

To viewcopy of the court notice click here. Please, read it thoroughly. Note: If you do not attend the hearing the judge may hear the case in your absence."

[notorial dissent]

I've seen variations of these purportedly from the IRS, UN, FBI, and two or three other alphabet agencies I don't remember now. All pretty much the same, make a threat give you a dirty link to click, and then the fun really starts, but not for you. A lot of time the visible link looks valid, but it isn't the underlying one which takes you where you don't want to be.

My spam program gets about 99.99% of these, but every once in a while one slips by somehow.

[AndyK]

And yet another source:

Yesterday I received a phone call from "Bank Of America" (it even came up as BANK OF AMERICA on my caller ID).

They were informing me that my debit card might have been compromised and they were about to cancel it and issue a new one inten days or so.

BUT, if I stayed on the line and answered a few security questions, I could confirm that I still held the card and it wouldn't be cancelled.

Since their first question was asking me to key in my card number, I hung up. One would think that, since they called me, they would know who they were calling and what my card number was.

I then called BoA Fraud / Security to check on the status of my card.

Surprisingly (Duh !) they hadn't called me and everything was fine. They did ask me to e-mail them the phone number and other details of the call -- which I did.

If there's any interesting feedback, I'll follow up here.

[JamesVincent]

And yet another source:

Yesterday I received a phone call from "Bank Of America" (it even came up as BANK OF AMERICA on my caller ID).

I had a similar one from Tower Federal Credit Union several years back. Only problem was, I don't have any accounts at a credit union. Went to the banks website and reported it, also found a special notice on the website stating that they were having an issue with a phishing scam pretty similar to what had happened to me.

[Burnaby49]

Wife and I both answered similar automatic phone calls although it is incorrect to say they were targetted against either of us specifically. The message was along the line of "We are the Credit Secuity Agency (or something similar; I forget exact wording). Your credit card has been seriously compromised and will be cancelled unless you respond by calling this number and confirming your ID". Wife was all concerned until I noted that the calls weren't addressed to anyone specifically, just whoever chanced to answer, and they did not identify what type of card was at issue. Just phone phishing.

[JamesVincent]

Notice of appearance in court No#8246

Now I have a number! How awesome is that?

[notorial dissent]

Tres awesomeness!!!!! I don't suppose they bothered to tell which court by any chance??? Nah that would make blowing the scam too easy.