Amusing myself with spammers

[pecunium]

I, as so many do, get told by banks with which I have no account (oddly no one has hit me from my actual bank, go figure) telling me these non-existent accounts have been compromised.

Of course what they want me to do is log in and tell them all about myself.

So I oblige them.

I enter fake names, rude passwords, SSN which are not mine, bogus card numbers and non-existent pins.

But the one today from Huntington bank (which I got at two seperate e-mail accounts) was perfect. It had the last four digits of my card on it (XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-4747).

How, in the name of all that's reasonable, can they figure people won't look and see that the numbers don't match (they have a 1/10,000 chance of being right).

Or is my, admittedly low, estimation of the average intellect still too high?

Comments

[lisajulie.livejournal.com]

yes. Your estimation of the average intellect is too high.

This, however, is spoken from the viewpoint of someone who did dial-up customer support in the early days of the internet.

After answering questions about the "any" key and pointing out that passwords were case sensitive, I'd believe just about anything that pointed to the cluelessness (clue server: connection refused) of the general populace.

Add in an allergy to numbers, because after all, numbers relate to math and math is difficult and evil.

/me wanders off mumbling because she knows her account numbers, credit card numbers, and bank balances (within pennies) without even thinking too hard about it.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

It isn't that I have all that high an estimation of people's education, or literacy (time has cured me of the last vestiges [what my professions hadn't gound away] of that) but rather that the numbers can be checked.

TK

[kynn.livejournal.com]

Yay, now we know the last 4 digits of your card number! :)

--K

Peoples iz dum indeedy

[shalanna.livejournal.com]

Assuming you put in the actual number. Or was that the number they were faking you out with? (The last four digits appear on most receipts nowadays.)

I don't think you'll go broke underestimating the intelligence of the public. People seem more doltish by the hour. Today some kid pointed at a computer we were looking at over at Fry's electronics and told his dad that was the one he wanted. The salesman hurried over to stop this outrage. "Oh, no," he assured the parent. "That one has Linus [sic] on it. And you can't install Windows on it, or it'll destroy the motherboard."

[facepalm]

The salesman led them to a not-on-sale system which the dad immediately "knew" was better.

[headbanging]

Re: Peoples iz dum indeedy

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

No it was, as you surmised, the digits they sent me.

I know, at a basic level, that people are not the brightest. I did journalism, then I did studio work (some great people, and some of the stupidist louts you can imagine) as a projectionist. If I never see another mid-career director trying to make his break-out picture, I'll be happy.

Then to the Army, where my line of work is about exploiting people's fears and weaknesses.

No, I am aware that one can see a lot of numbskull in the world. But this... this just croggles me. Not that someone would prey on the credulity of people. That's as old as people.

But that they would include a means of verifying the falsity of the claim they make. I just figured them for smarter than that.

As a photographer, well we won't speak to sales pitches.

TK

[jennae.livejournal.com]

That would scare me. I am actually worried right now, because I think I may have had my SS card stolen when my car was broken into in December. I haven't located it since at any rate. I only just recently started getting these types of inquiries. I can't decide if I should worry about them or not!

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Ignore them. You're bank won't solicit you to give them all that information... they already have it.

If you are worried, change your password, and check your credit every couple of months.

Don't ever fill one of these forms out (or at least don't do it with legitimate info).

TK