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Friday 12 December 2014

Facebook password change

I got this email:

Hi,

Your Facebook password was been reset on Friday, December 12, 2014 at 03:36PM (UTC) due to suspicious activity of your account.

Operating system: Android
Browser: Google Chrome
IP address: 214.127.120.199
Estimated location: Bluff, UT, US

To restore the password complete this form please, your request will be
considered within 24 hours.

Thanks,
The Facebook Security Team
Facebook, Inc., Attention: Department 425, PO Box 10005, Palo Alto, CA 94303


It is, of course, a scam. The link they give to click on leads to howardrobbinsconstruction.com, and I rather doubt that this is a URL used by the Facebook Security Team.

I think most email clients don't bother to tell you where a link goes. I use Pine, and it does.

This kind of scam is called "Phishing". I first encountered it on AOL some 20 years ago; people would send an IM that was trying to get your password by pretending to be coming from AOL.

It works, of course. Not on everyone, obviously, but it works on the gullible. It works on people with more faith than reason. It works on people who think that everything is what it says it is.

If more mail clients told you where a link is taking you *before* you click on it, phishing would be a lot less profitable. Am I wishing for the moon?

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