People are really Stupid.... E-mail Scam
This is presented to inform and educate how easy it is to get people to give you information they should not divuldge to an unknown party.
This week at work we are doing some security exercises to make sure people know what to do when certain events happen. I won't say were I work but before people are granted network access they are required to take a CBT and pass a test showing they know what to do if they get a suspicious e-mail. Part of the rules are they are not to reply in any way to the message but are to report it to one of their security monitors.
A few minutes before 6am yesterday I sent out a message to 4000 people telling them there was a problem with my database that stored their password and user name. They needed to reply to me so that they would not loose their network access. There are 4000 people at the site where I work. By 8am, 2 hours after I sent the message I received 39 replies to the message that basiclly told me they were not going to give me any information. However by replying they gave me a valid e-mail address to send junk mail to. Of the 39 that replied 5 gave me their user name and password via e-mail, 1 called me on the phone and left the user name and password on voice mail. By 2pm I was up to 50 repiles and 9 passwords. This morning has been slow as the message got out that this was a bogus request and people should not reply. However some people don't read all their e-mail and this morning so far I have received 3 more replies. No passwords yet, but do you think I could do anything with a Social Security Number?
Bottom line 4000 users, 51 repiles, 10 passwords, 1 SSN,
That's a 1.275% success rate. when you multiply that by the millons of users on ebay, AOL and Paypal, not to mention the thousands of other sites, you can see why we all get so many attempts to get us to click on a link in a spoofed paypal email.
To put this in persepective,
Of the people that replied but did not provide a username or password.
1 was a very senior leader (reports to one person at the top of the food chain)
4 were senior (2 levels below the leader above)
15 were Department managers
the rest were worker bees
These are people that have lots of experience with computers and we do this 4 times a year and they know it's coming.
Be safe, don't answer strage e-mail from people you don't know, click on any links, download files or offer any type of finacial information in the clear.
Disclaimer - Don't try this at home, I'm a professional and I do this for a living in a controlled enviorment with the full knowledge and consent of management. Doing otherwise is illega
Hopefully this will help someone.
In case you were wondering the name I used to send the message was Capt Chris Pike - And only one person got the Star Trek Reference.
Have a safe and secure internet Day
Jim
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幸運わんわん Luckydog or Yukiwanwan in Japanese 
Originally Posted by luckydog
