84% of net users don't know what phishing is?!

[Tenko]

How can that be true, are people so dumb?

Confusing "geek speak" used by experts and media included "phishing", "rogue dialler", "Trojan" and "spyware".

Eighty-four percent did not know that phishing describes faked e-mail scams.

Must be best news for scam artists they've heard all week but I couldn't believe it to be true.


That is until I read this bit...

Many [net users]are often left vulnerable because they have no idea what they are supposed to be protecting themselves against, a survey for AOL UK has found

Ahhh.. that explains everything

original story, BBC news.

 

[Trebz]

Thats saying they don't know what the term means, it doesnt mean they are unaware of the method. A slightly misleading number methinks.

 

[Jonty]

Some phishing is that convincing it takes many people in, not just AOL customers In fairness to AOL, they did recently take out full page adverts in national newspapers explaining terms like viruses, spam and phishing in a non-partisan manner to help people stay safe online, so that's commendable.

I read not so long ago about identity theft which used to go on prior to phishing, it was scarily effective by the sounds of it. For instance (please don't try this at home, no doubt it's highly illegal) ...

Scammer rings a company up choosing a random extension

Scammer: Hi there, I'm just ringing to confirm your forthcoming business trip details.

Respondant: Sorry, I'm not going on any business trip.

Scammer: Oh, sorry, wouldn't you like to?! I'd better just check your details with the ones our department has on file. Can I just check your name?

Respondant gives out their name

Scammer: Ah yes, Mr/Mrs X. I just need the name of your department and your computer password, just for security purposes that is, then I'll run a check and see what the mix up is.

Respondant many times give out further details unaware of the scam

Scammer: Ah yes, here we are, it looks like your details have been confused with someone elses. Sorry about that, I'll make the necessary changes for you. Sorry for your trouble.

Scammer hangs up with the employee's name, place of work, department, extension number and computer login.

Scary. There has recently been a new breed of server which is capable of intelligently filtering both inbound and outbound spam, phishing and other illegal content, but even if censorship and privacy concerns are overcome and they're used by ISPs, 'traditional' cons are still hard to stop.

Kind Regards

 

[old.Tohtori]

Jonty i can't read your post for some reason...might be because i haven't logged you in on my own account.

Mind sending your login and password details so i can fix the problem?

 

[Jonty]

LOL You can't fool those who have fooled thousands

Kind Regards

 

[Tom]

How can that be true, are people so dumb?

Not everybody lives and breathes computers. Most people just don't care. Think about the average person, and then realise that 50% of the population are more stupid than him/her.

 

[Lazarus]

Think about the average person, and then realise that 50% of the population are more stupid than him/her.

*thinks about Tom*




FECKING HELL!!!! That is scary! :kissit:

 

[old.Tohtori]

And also take into consideration, the normal person doesn't look at every box they click "ok" on either when surfing teh inturnet.

It's like...umm..."accept license agreement" with games, i bet most of us just click "ok ok ok" on install.

 

[Wazzerphuk]

I didn't know what "phishing" referred to exactly. Nor do I value the information now I do have it. Useless gunk no-one in the real world is ever going to need to know - I have no idea why you think this makes net users stupid.

 

[Ch3tan]

What the Seal and Swift said.

I spent Sunday fixing and cleaning trojans and spyware off my uncles PC. Now it wasn't on there because they are stupid, they use a firewall and an anti-virus. But it is a family PC, 6 different people use it. They have automatic updates on, but at the end of the day they don't care about phishing. As long as the comupter does what they want they are happy. The people that make trojans and try and steal peoples log-in details prey specifically on those who dont have the tehcnical knowledge to stop them, because that is the majority of the net population.

 

[Clown]

Wow. People are dumb because they don't use geek jargon.

 

[Tenko]

Not everybody lives and breathes computers. Most people just don't care. Think about the average person, and then realise that 50% of the population are more stupid than him/her.

True Tom, true. Most people using the internet are Sunday drivers.

Still, you reckon if it wasn't a survey of AOL's users the percentage may have been a little lower?

Most of the things listed have been in newspapers over the past few years and as such you don't even have to be an internet user to understand most of them, certainly my office co-workers, techno phobes to a man knew half of those terms

 

[Delboy]

It'll be a familiar theme for a couple of years at least. Should see more newspaper headlines about folk PC's being scammed or hijacked etc...

 

[yaruar]

Scary. There has recently been a new breed of server which is capable of intelligently filtering both inbound and outbound spam, phishing and other illegal content, but even if censorship and privacy concerns are overcome and they're used by ISPs, 'traditional' cons are still hard to stop.

Kind Regards

In my previous company i purchased a barracuda apam firewall, worked a treat (and gave me the added joy of caching all incoming and outgoing email so i could read it at my leasure with no one knowing...)

 

[yaruar]

I didn't know what "phishing" referred to exactly. Nor do I value the information now I do have it. Useless gunk no-one in the real world is ever going to need to know - I have no idea why you think this makes net users stupid.

TBH the problem is still that geeks wrap their world up in incomprehensible garbage to try to seem cool and different. If they dropped the term phishing and just said "people scamming you to try to get your passwords/bank details" they there would be less burying heads in sand from the general public.

Ask kids today what phreaking is and i suspect most wouldn't be able to tell you. Although phreaks are 133t3r than phishers

 

[Jonaldo]

It's a fact that 90% of people who knew what phishing was before this thread don't have girlfriends.