James Galvin

I was examining the junk mails that made it through the spam filter yesterday, wondering about the lengths that spammers have to go to in order to dodge Spam Assassin, and how many people actually respond to advertisements for V!agr$Aa. One of the more common characteristics of spam emails is a variety of colours in the text - a blue header, red sub-heading, green text, etc. I was amazed to learn from a colleague that, statistically, spam emails with multi-coloured text receive a much higher response than plain text. So, many of the internet users who do sign up for Fr€e un1vrs+y d1pl.o/\/\as are lured partially by the colourful text. It made me wonder about the type of people who click on these links. Surely there are no Irish people among them, right?

Phishing is a very different story, and unfortunately there seems to be no shortage of Irish among the victims of the latest Banking 365 scams.

BANK of Ireland issued a warning to its customers yesterday on online fraud as it emerged that seven customers of the bank have now lost a total of €113,000 to an internet swindle.

So who are the suckers who handed over their bank details? According to the Independent they are:

• A golf professional in North Dublin lost €16,900
• An environmental consultant in Dublin lost €5,000
• A small farmer in Galway lost €6,700
• A receptionist from the capital lost €7,600
• A midlands-based sales manager who was defrauded of €49,100
• A Kilkenny businesswoman who lost €12,000
• A university professor who lost €15,500

I have great sympathy for these people - some of these phishing attacks are very well crafted, and an inexperienced internet user can easily be fooled. But if you’re stupid/ignorant enough to fall for a scam, it is a costly lesson but you can only blame yourself. This group of people are taking on Bank of Ireland, demanding compensation. The receptionist goes so far as to say that it is was not her fault that she fell for this extremely common and basic scam:

The Dublin receptionist said yesterday her account had been used to lodge stolen cheques by the fraudsters. They had later withdrawn the money and Bank of Ireland was now insisting that the woman was liable for a deficit of €7,600 in her current account.

“I have no intention of paying one penny. It was not my fault fraudsters used my account to launder money,” she said.

While I hate banks, and 95% of the time I love to see them have to fork out in lawsuits, this time around I have to side with the BoI. The internet can be a dangerous place, I’m sure even the Galway farmer knew that when he got his Eircom 25 dialup account. There is no shortage of warnings, and a responsible internet user will surely take the time to inform himself about the potential dangers of online banking, and e-commerce. If anything, public tends to exaggerate the actual danger on the internet in my experience. I know there have been some horror stories on Bebo and Myspace and ICQ, but if you have a bit of sense and your eyes open then you would have to be extremely unlucky to fall into some internet pothole… it is certainly a lot safer than crossing the road.

To the receptionist from Dublin, let me tell you about a character from Skibbereen called Paddy Banana. I’m not sure how he got his name… I have been told that it was something to do with a banana-eating contest in Schull, but that is not relevant to my story. Paddy Banana was an old man with a shiny bald head and a waddly gait, well known in West Cork and often feared by the tourists because of his tendency to remove his false teeth and chase people down the street, clattering them in his hand. Paddy Banana made a few bob selling used lottery tickets. On a sunny day, he might take a trip to a neighbouring town, or more often than not he would just hang out in Skibb. Covering the date with his thumb, he would sell expired tickets of any description to whomever was willing to part with a few pounds. Occasionally, a self-righteous victim would demand money back, which would usually result in a very short conversation with Paddy’s false teeth. Now, receptionist, do you think that those aggrieved tourists have the right to claim compensation from the National Lottery?

The bank gave you a key. If somebody had broken into your account using brute force or an exploit, then I would be backing you fully. But you handed over your key to a Nigerian in a fake BoI uniform. By all means, press the bank for compensation. Demand that they launch an awareness campaign and increase the security of their online banking. But remember that on the internet there is nobody holding your hand, and there are always scammers ready to lure you away with their shiny multi-coloured text.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 16th, 2006 at 1:55 am and is filed under Internet, Ireland, Security. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.