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of PayPal scams from which to copy, the wide press coverage re. the common tell-tale signs of phishing, easy access to spell-checkers, etc., that even the rank amateur would have done a better job than this.

Clearly the originator was in such a hurry to hit as many targets as possible, in the least amount of time, that he gave little thought to measures that might have greatly increased his return with but a minimal extra effort.

This guy has all the makings of a marketer.

I have sept email for paypal only, which spammers don't have, makes it easy to spot the fakes.

To help them I immed fwd email to them either abuse@paypal.com or spoof@paypal.com, is on their website, and mention to not send me anti-phishing info as I didn't reply.

Rememeber out in our day-to-day world a great percentage are only marginally literate, most are horrible spellers, and very few have even the most rudimentary knowledge of how computers and the internet work. Mix these ingredients together with poorly protected computers, online banking and buying, and some at least marginally plausible phishing attempts and voila.....We've got real problems.

Most of the poor schmucks out there surfing the net have little idea of which addresses are "real" or forged to resemble the real McCoy. They probably don't know that they're being redirected at all when they click on a link. It's not their fault, it's just outside of their sphere of knowledge. Unfortunately, we sell people computers, encourage them to surf the web, buy things online, and to bank online, but they are never given even the most basic training in how to operate their computer in a safe manner and to lock it down from online predators.

Until we get better training for the masses, this kind of misfortune will perpetuate.

I see these types of scams as technical comic relief. Sadly... waaaaay to many people fall for it. You can even fall for it by sheer accident.. I was sitting with an employee of mine who was showing me that their computer was locked... clicking around the screen... when the process that locked his system freed up.... it clicked right into a scam... We both bursted out in some freakish laugh... he still gets hammered with spam from that one.

"Insanity is repeatedly trying the same action with the expectation of a different outcome."

And the scary thing is that with my XP box I DO get different outcomes...

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...firstpeter is using XP.

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