Re: "badkey" e-mail from Microsoft
From: N. Miller (nsm_at_blackhole.aosake.net)
Date: 01/06/04
- Previous message: DT: "Windows XP IPSec client"
- In reply to: Turan Fettahoglu: "Re: "badkey" e-mail from Microsoft"
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Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2004 02:24:07 -0800
In article <uL7rSB#0DHA.560@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl>, turan.fe@web.de says...
> > ...supposedly came from Microsoft stating that my Product
> > Key for the Windows OS could not be validated. There was
> > a link to click and I was supposed to fill out a webform
> > with all my personal information including Product Key.
> > It looks like someone is trying to steal Windows OS
> > product keys.
>
> Would it be wise to send a fake webform with the name of, say, your late
> great-grandfather and a bogus product key from a throwaway address? Is there
> any harm the product key thief could do with it?
I wouldn't use any relative's name, dead or alive. I might use these names,
though: Alan Ralsky, Eddie Marin, Thomas Cowles, Ronnie Scelson, Laura
Betterly, Scotty Richter. All are notorious spammers. I'd be careful about
creating a "bogus" key, though. The odds against accidently creating an
active key belonging to an innocent party may be one in a million, but once
is enough. Try using all of the same character in the string; all '1's for
numeric characters, and all 'a's for alpha. Unless they have some kind of
script to reject such an obvious forger, it should fly.
When creating a phoney email address, be very, very careful. If you must
have one that looks real, use a known spammer's domain. Don't just make up a
domain, or even a "phoney" user name with a valid ISP domain. Again, you
might accidentally hit on some innocent party's real email address, and ruin
his Internet experience.
Think through the possible consequences of your act; very carefully.
Otherwise you are only contributing to the nastiness of the Internet, not
helping at all.
I have used some government agency phone numbers for some spammer web forms,
but am re-thinking even that strategy after reading about how one police
department phone system was knocked out by its publication in a spam.
-- Norman ~Win dain a lotica, En vai tu ri, Si lo ta ~Fin dein a loluca, En dragu a sei lain ~Vi fa-ru les shutai am, En riga-lint
- Previous message: DT: "Windows XP IPSec client"
- In reply to: Turan Fettahoglu: "Re: "badkey" e-mail from Microsoft"
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