Maes
I like big butts!
Posts: 10313
Registered: 07-06 |
Phml said:
You'd believe the ten minutes or so it'd take to rewrite the generic comment template in proper english would make it much more likely to trick people.
Scammin' ain't easy, dude. Apparently every wannabe scammer starts from scratch with no outside help and "know how", and both technical and social engineering approaches seem to go cyclically, rather than perpetually evolve at the same level for everyone involved in the "business". That's why you see primitive, clearly 90s approaches (obviously malicious .exe downloads, plaintext form submissions, nigerian scams, annoying javascript popups etc.) coexist with sophisticated XSS attacks, drive-by downloads, botnets etc.
I guess it's for the same reason why e.g. not every petty criminal becomes a big fish, or at least a more sophisticated/effective kind of criminal: everybody wants a piece of the pie (the pool of potential victims) but not everybody can get to play in the big leagues either due to lack of ability, sophistication, know-how, connections etc. However on the Internet it's simply easier to avoid violent confrontation with competitors for "turf" or even attracting undue police attention, unlike RL crime, so there are more wannabes at all times.
I particularly like the bit about meta-scamming:
I guess the next step now would be introducing meta-scamming: scamming aimed at scamming other scammers (or wannabes).
E.g. remember those dot-com bubble era "Start your online business! Work from home! Be a web enterpreneur/milionaire!" scams?There must be something equivalent for gullible scammer wannabes: "Did you know that you can get RICH ON THE WEB by sending poorly phrased, incoherent, vague ramblings and getting THOUSANDS of potential marks customers to trust you with your personal data? Be second to none, join our ONLINE TRAINING COURSE FOR A MODEST FEE and learn the secrets of REAL WEB BUSINESS!".
....otherwise how would you explain that many scammers behave literally as if they started from zero and under someone else's (not entirely effective nor aimed at their best interests) directions? The very least it boosts bulk e-mail sales, and would surely allow selling canned scam instructions as a form of "franchise" to those desperate enough to blindly follow "instructions to success" which apparently involve sending poorly written text. Well, they should at least teach them to edit away the template. Did I win a lottery? Receive an inheritance or get a bank loan approved? Try scamming me with ONE thing at a time, not all three together!
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03-07-13 19:27 
