Phishing E-mail Examples

This first one purports to come from Ebay, attempting to alarm me into impulse action with the fear that someone has cracked my Ebay account. The writing is clumsy and plagued with frequent errors of spelling, grammar or punctuation (marked in red).

***Urgent Safeharbor Department Notice***

Fraud Alert ID : 00626654

You have received this email because you or someone had used your account to make fake bids on eBay. For security purposes, we are required to open an investigation into this matter. To help speed up this process, you are require to verify your eBay account by following the link below.

http://scgi.ebay.com/verify_id=ebay&user=00626654

Please save this fraud alert id for your reference

Please Note - If your account informations are not updated within the next 72 hours, then we will assume this account is fraudulent and will be cancelled. We apologize for this inconvenience, but the purpose of this verification is to ensure that your eBay account has not been fraudulently used and to combat fraud.

We apreciate your support and understading, as we work together to keep eBay a safe place to trade

Thank you for your patience in this matter.

Regards, Safeharbor Department (Trust and Safety Department)
eBay Inc.

Please do not reply to this e-mail as this is only a notification mail sent to this address cannot answered

Copyright 2004 eBay Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Designated trademarks and brands are the property of their respective owners.
eBay and the eBay logo are trademarks of eBay Inc. is located at Hamilton Avenue, San Jose, CA 95125

This second one below purports to come from Westpac, attempting to get me to hand over my banking log in details in order to help them provide a safer banking environment. It is a pretty pathetic attempt. They don't even bother to forge the look and feel of Westpac Bank and the language is rather clumsy. Of course the link does not go to the Westpac trust site at all. It goes to a site (now removed) that no doubt resembles the Wespac log in page, but which copies my user number and password for later criminal use.

Dear valued Customer!

As part of our continuing commitment to
protect your account and to reduce the instance
of fraud on our website, we are undertaking a
period review of our member accounts. You are
requested to visit our site by following the link
given below. This is required for us to continue
to offer you a safe and risk free environment to
send and receive money online, and maintain the
Westpac New Zealand Experience. After verification
you will be redirected to the Westpac New Zealand
home page. Thank you.
https://sec.westpactrust.co.nz/IOLB/newSession

We appreciate your business. It's truly our pleasure to serve you.

Westpac New Zealand Customer Care

This third one below purports to come from Paypal, attempting to get me to hand over my log in details as part of their routine efforts at security maintenance. Some effort has been made to imitate a PayPal look and feel but the language, especially in the second sentence was not produced by any commercial writer. The disclaimer at the bottom abruptly ends mid sentence.

Dear PayPal user,

Your account has been flagged in our system as a part of our routine security measures. This is a must to ensure that only you have access and use of your paypal account and to ensure a safe PayPal experience. We require all flagged accounts to verify their information on file with us. To verify your information, please click here.

Thank you for using PayPal!