OT: FYI - AT&T scam

[William]

Received this in the email yesterday. First, we don't use AT&T so I knew it was a scam. Second, there were other addresses with the same IP that also got them listed. Third, if you place the cursor over the hyperlinks an address pops up that is not related to AT&T.

Be aware.





William

[MattTuck]

Thanks William, and I don't want to hijack the thread... but, if I may stand on a soap box for a moment...

Joe Average American is really not sophisticated enough to identify and protect themselves from threats like this. Tech savvy users certainly are, but e-mail is basically an open invitation for scams. And since the email system is basically a network of private actors, there's no real interest in cleaning it up.

The U.S. Postal Service completely missed the boat when it comes to email. They could have (and possibly the opportunity still exists) created a secure and straightforward system for delivering correspondence, bills, certified email (ie. certifiying the sender), registered email with read receipts.

They were so caught up in delivering more paper mail, and giving discounts to big catalog companies and direct mail marketers that they forgot their purpose was to facilitate commerce through delivering mail, not delivering mail to facilitate commerce. Since the way that people mail stuff changed, they never understood how their mission should change as well.

Anyway, they could have a system where every American and resident has an official email address, and a sender (say your credit card company) pays a nominal amount (say $0.001) to certify the sender information and then have congress mandate that bills be sent via certified email or traditional mail. It would almost totally eliminate email fraud and would certainly protect those less tech savvy users, all the while, it would increase revenues for the USPS and keep them a going concern.

Ok, off soap box.

[Wayne77]

+1000

The implications of having something like this in place are huge. No more change of address process every time someone moves too!

Thanks William, and I don't want to hijack the thread... but, if I may stand on a soap box for a moment...

Joe Average American is really not sophisticated enough to identify and protect themselves from threats like this. Tech savvy users certainly are, but e-mail is basically an open invitation for scams. And since the email system is basically a network of private actors, there's no real interest in cleaning it up.

The U.S. Postal Service completely missed the boat when it comes to email. They could have (and possibly the opportunity still exists) created a secure and straightforward system for delivering correspondence, bills, certified email (ie. certifiying the sender), registered email with read receipts.

They were so caught up in delivering more paper mail, and giving discounts to big catalog companies and direct mail marketers that they forgot their purpose was to facilitate commerce through delivering mail, not delivering mail to facilitate commerce. Since the way that people mail stuff changed, they never understood how their mission should change as well.

Anyway, they could have a system where every American and resident has an official email address, and a sender (say your credit card company) pays a nominal amount (say $0.001) to certify the sender information and then have congress mandate that bills be sent via certified email or traditional mail. It would almost totally eliminate email fraud and would certainly protect those less tech savvy users, all the while, it would increase revenues for the USPS and keep them a going concern.

Ok, off soap box.

[Bob Loblaw]

Brilliant idea.

Thanks William, and I don't want to hijack the thread... but, if I may stand on a soap box for a moment...

Joe Average American is really not sophisticated enough to identify and protect themselves from threats like this. Tech savvy users certainly are, but e-mail is basically an open invitation for scams. And since the email system is basically a network of private actors, there's no real interest in cleaning it up.

The U.S. Postal Service completely missed the boat when it comes to email. They could have (and possibly the opportunity still exists) created a secure and straightforward system for delivering correspondence, bills, certified email (ie. certifiying the sender), registered email with read receipts.

They were so caught up in delivering more paper mail, and giving discounts to big catalog companies and direct mail marketers that they forgot their purpose was to facilitate commerce through delivering mail, not delivering mail to facilitate commerce. Since the way that people mail stuff changed, they never understood how their mission should change as well.

Anyway, they could have a system where every American and resident has an official email address, and a sender (say your credit card company) pays a nominal amount (say $0.001) to certify the sender information and then have congress mandate that bills be sent via certified email or traditional mail. It would almost totally eliminate email fraud and would certainly protect those less tech savvy users, all the while, it would increase revenues for the USPS and keep them a going concern.

Ok, off soap box.

[oldfatslow]

how would I get all of those extremely targeted marketing offers for penis enlargement and Viagra? It's clear that the e-mail marketers have done extensive customer research and targeting to know that i need both treatments. Why should we put the Federalies in the middle to muck that up?

[Jellybird3]

Wow, that bill looks EXACTLY like the one I received last week. It looks like the hyperlinks in my email all go to AT&T sites though.

Hackers are so sophisticated these days.

[torquer]

Matt, do you know this guy?
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2387557,00.asp

[MattTuck]

Matt, do you know this guy?
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2387557,00.asp

Ha! I know Dvorak, but didn't know he wrote on this topic. The USPS is in a real mess, and virtually all involved are standing in the way of a solution, including congress, the USPS unions, people at the top of the USPS.

Preserving the status quo is the primary directive of virtually all entrenched powerful organizations, and since the only constant is change, is the reason virtually all entrenched powerful organizations eventually die.

[deechee]

Sounds like a silly idea to me.

Fixed email address format at usps? It would make it even easier to hack into someone's account. Look up your neighbor's name, find out some personal info and try to log into his/her account. Its easy enough messing around with people's accounts at work, imagine something with access to your social insurance, medicare etc.

I've had cold callers ask for money too, just because they call and have caller-id showing a proper name, is that reason enough for you to give them money? Same for people who show up at your door. Its really not that different.

[William]

It's funny, for such a close reproduction on an "AT&T Bill" , the hyperlink went to an address with no reference to AT&T at all. Sometimes they at least try with something like AT&T@gmail.com.:rolleyes::rolleyes:







William

[SEABREEZE]

As Matt says, click on it and your up the river without a paddle.

[learningtoride]

)

[Ti Designs]

Joe Average American is really not sophisticated enough to identify and protect themselves from threats like this.

Joe Average isn't sophisticated enough to protect themselves from a 32oz bottle of coke...

[learningtoride]

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