Comments on: So you want to be a cybercrook...

Web villains post do-it-yourself phishing kits to help any amateur become an online con artist.

Phony emails from "banks"

I got one of those phishing emails a couple weeks ago. It was supposedly from Wells Fargo, where I have never had an account. It was very official-looking, and said that my "account" had been frozen because it seemed to have suspicious money-laundering-type activity going on in it. It was scarey! I immediately wrote to Wells Fargo and discovered they have a whole department dedicated to tracking this type of fraud. This ain't no joke.

[Gabey8]

These people need to do SERIOUS jail time

The only way to stop this kind of crime is to make it punishable by LARGE fines and LONG jail terms.

ALL countries need to crack down on it, since perpetrators can victimize people in any country with internet service, not just the country where they are located.

Never click on a link that's in the suspicious e-mail itself. Call the customer service department for the bank (or whatever company supposedly sent the e-mail). Or open a new browser and visit the company web site from THERE, not from the link in the e-mail.

[Fray9]

Fighting back

I usually welcome a phishing email from an unsuspecting crook.

It gives me the opportunity to seriously foul up their whole operation.

You see when they send me one I usually follow the link they give, snicker at the poorly done website and clear signs its a phishing site, then proceed to unleash a random alphanumeric generator with a dictionary list and proper names list on it till its entered a few dozen thousand bogus usernames and passwords.

The phishers now have the always fun task of trying to figure out which ones are real from people they've really swindled and which are fake.

Typically its easier for them to just toss out entire lists and start from scratch, costing them time, money, and serious frustration.