As we watch Northern Rock shares go down faster than Kate Moss on a table of Columbian nose-candy, the newspapers are taking the hard work out of phishing. Over the last 7 days, newspapers have printed over 10 different people’s names, along with their age, regional location, and importantly how much cash they withdrew from Northern Rock.
“Mr Bob Simmon, 68, Kingston-upon-Thames told us ‘I have taken out all £450,000 of my life savings..”
An easy bet is that Mr Simmons is either:
a) Burgled four times over
b) Receiving 25 contacts a day from scammers
c) Receiving 10 letters a day from other banks and financial organisations happy to help him invest
d) Receiving emails from Nwanga Rudi in Nigeria, offering to unlock the $250m his uncle (a Government official) redirected in to a personal account which is now in limbo and only requires £5,000 and a UK bank account to transfer to…
OK, so we all get the fourth kind of communication but the point is the fourth kind is junk phishing that, to be fair, if you actually do send your money to Nwanga, you’re an idiot and don’t deserve to keep it. The first three issues are going to be targeted responses from the press coverage. Everyone is quick to point a finger at New Media being a new evil for scammers and con-artists yet there needs to be more responsibility across all media channels and appreciation of the kind of scum that exploit information like that above.
Tags Northern Rock