So, more and more I see ‘phishing’ attempts come into my inbox. I’m not too worried that I’ll succumb to one of these fraudulent attempts; however, I think that those less ‘net-savvy should be aware. I just got a message in my inbox that I will proceed to deconstruct.
The email — A few things here arouse suspicion. For starters, the subject line uses poor grammar. Next, the ‘To:’ field doesn’t have my specific email address; this indicates the message was sent to many people. Oh, and here was another indicator in my situation: I don’t have a Chase bank account.
The link — The next bit that was suspicious was the address the link led to. It’s not www.chase.com, but rather some mangled address. http://ityt.net/~hong, eh? I don’t think so.
The page — Here’s the page I am led to. The ‘survey’ is asinine. Would you pay a customer $20 to fill this out?
The account information — Phishing attempts will always try to get account details. Beware of entering any sensitive information into a page you got to by clicking an emailed link. Double-check the website address, and when in doubt, don’t give out any info. In this case, I filled out their form with some expletives, just because I’m such a nice guy. If you’re a nice guy, forward the phishing attempt to the fraud division of the company that the phishers are trying to impersonate.
So, as I’m sure one or two of you know, Final Fantasy XII is being released in
Japan in a few days. As a tie in with this, Japanese beverage manufacturer
Suntory started making a Final Fantasy-themed “Potion” drink, complete with
fancy-pants limited edition bottles and whatnot.
I came across this page that had
pictures of Japanese kids mixing their potions with various other
drinks/substances. One of the mixers was Smirnoff Ice. The result?
A Hi-potion.
(In Japan, adding alcohol to a drink will make it “high.” I.E., Chu-hi, which
is a fruity alcoholic drink. In the game, a hi-potion is a more powerful
curative than the regular potion. Get it?)
I registered nathandemick.com today. If I was really crazy, I’d also get other variations on my name, but I’m not crazy. What I really wanted was demick.com, so my email address could be nathan@demick.com. However, demick.com is taken by some crazy shipping firm located in London. They’ve had the domain for a long time, but it’s just a lock—there’s nothing there. I guess I could settle for using demick.net, which my family does own.
Ok, now it’s 2:51, ‘cos I’ve been doing work. Laura says I should update the
page more; to be honest, I should retire this domain and get one based on my
name, there to keep the resumé and programs and stuff. I just can’t
write about personal things on the ‘net, which seems to be a requirement of
good online journals. The reason being I don’t like to spew emotional gibberish,
to be read and interpreted by all and sundry. For example, yesterday we were
reading a friend’s blog, and it was so personal that I almost, almost barfed.
I send email (sometimes) mentioning pertinent details, so if you’re not on the
list, I guess you should email me sometime, jerk.
Here’s something cool: I just finished playing some games of 9-ball on the pool
table that my company got for doing a stupid website. It’s kinda nice to take a
break that way around 3:30 in the afternoon.
I’m going to some kind of men’s retreat this weekend; where to, I have no idea.
I don’t know what’s going to happen there, either. How’s that for organized and
informed? Recent developments have made me a bit less enthusiastic about going
than I originally was (think of apathy turning into mild distaste). What recent
developments? Here’s where I get to make vague references that those in the know
will smile and nod their heads over. All you other chumps can try to use
Sherlock Holmes-style deduction to figure me out. Just think of what possible
(and rational) reasons I might have for not wanting to leave town, on the
weekend especially. If you guess correctly, you win absolutely nothing except a
glowing sense of self-satisfaction.
In other news, I’m thinking of expanding the Linker’s links on the main page,
so I can post multiple links and people will actually see them. And, that’s all!
