(cross-posted at TechLearning)
This week, I’m pointing you to one of my favorite podcasts: NY Times Tech Talk, and in particular, their most recent show (January 7, 2009). There’s a great piece on email SCAMS with guests David Perry and Todd Robbins that got me thinking on the way to work the other day. I was listening intently, for one of the teachers in my district had just fallen for a scam last week. Here’s what she had received:
Dear Email Owner,
This message is from messaging center to all Email owners. We are
currently upgrading our data base and e-mail center. We are deleting all
unused email to create more space for new one.CONFIRM YOUR EMAIL BELOW:
Email Username: ……………
EMAIL Password: …………….Warning!!! Email owner that refuses to update his or her Email, within
Seven days of receiving this warning will lose his or her Email
permanently. You are to send your email username and password to the
webmaster via this email: e-update2009@hotmail.comRegards
Mrs. Anderson Mary
Webmaster (ORG)
Sadly, she did it. She gave her username and her password. Gave them away. Now, this is a smart person who fell for this. So, the question is: where was the breakdown? How do these scams work, and why do so many of us fall for them?
In the NY Times podcast, Perry and Robbins show that many email scams of the day have “direct routes to ‘old school’ con games. They call the type of email the teacher above fell for a “jam”, when someone is trying to “push you into doing something”, usually with urgency. This is a very effective ploy, because, quite simply, we are taught (from an early age) to do the right thing and most people want to quickly “fix” any problem they’re presented with. I think that no matter how savy you are, when you get an email with such urgency, it makes you at least pause a little. The line, “Warning!!! Email owner that refuses to update his or her Email, within Seven days of receiving this warning will lose his or her Email permanently” has psychological leverage with even the toughest of us.
The interviewer on the NY Times podcasts asked her guests, “How can we still fall for these things?” One answer given is that there are over 100 million new Internet users every year. In the “bad guys’” eyes, that’s 100 million new suckers born every year. I think we’re probably all born suckers, that is, until someone schools us in ways to not be. This is not really about technology at all. It’s about becoming “street smart.” It’s about becoming literate. If we just leave it to chance and hope that our students get the skills they need to avoid scams then clearly we’re doing them a disservice. Part of preparing them for their future well-being is showing them actual scams, have them analyze how scams work, how to verify information, where to go for help. It has to become part of the curriculum — and not just confined to Technology class.
Some sources to start educating yourself/your students with are:
- iSafe.org (offers an intensive curriculum and training and has an excellent unit on Phishing and scams)
FBI: New E-Scams and Warnings
Snopes.com (a site many use to verify viruses and scams)
Scamdex (use email from their HUGE archive of scam-mail to offer your students a “SPAM of the week” to analyze).
Federal Trade Commission: Spam
Hoax-Slayer (latest scams and hoaxes; move over Buffy!)
Please add to the list of resources in the comments section. And remember: your bank, your Internet provider, Amazon, PayPal, the government, etc. will NEVER send you an email asking you for your password.
4 responses so far ↓
1 Eric Lawson // Jan 15, 2009 at 9:32 am
Wasn’t there a web site a few years ago that allowed people to submit their email address to stop receiving spam mail similar to submitting your phone number for cold callers? Was this a hoax as well?
2 Tim Hart // Jan 15, 2009 at 9:40 am
Ouch. It is so hard to tell someone that they have fallen prey to such a simple scam. It is interesting how people are scared into things. We could point that towards Iraq and the bailouts. Again, knowledge is our only defense against any of this. Another reason to engage these things in schools. Thanks for the post.
3 andreea // Jan 18, 2009 at 9:32 am
I’ve had some recent experiences with these scare scams. For quite a while now there’s a viral mail floating around that yahoo is going to close and, every now and then, I get “the” mail requiring me to write my address and password asap so I don’t get my account closed. I haven’t, so far. But I admit it has been terribly tempting to fall for it, at least at first.
See you around on ning!
Cheers
4 StefanieK // Jan 28, 2009 at 5:51 pm
In my school district, email use is fairly new. In the past two years each teacher has been given a laptop and email address. Many were resistant to the new changes of going paperless and communicating primarily via email. We have been warned of an almost identical email scam that is circulating. It is a scary thing to know that there are people just waiting for you to slip up and make yourself vulnerable, in order to gain information about and steal your identity. For many veteran teachers that I work with computer and internet use is very scary to them. As a younger teacher, I am more comfortable using different computer programs/sites, email, etc. But for many it is still and adjustment. Receiving emails like the scam mentioned, do not help put them at ease. However, I have to agree with Tim that being knowledgable about the potential dangers and scams is our only defense. Convincing some parents to let their son/daughter blog a class writing assignment, however, can be a challenge and for good reason.
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