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by SturgeonsLaw 1296 days ago
I am another data point that would agree with you on this. I would classify myself as a sophisticated computer user (if I don't say so myself), and I fell for a phishing page once. They recreated a pixel-perfect copy of the Steam login page in a fake browser window with a pretend address bar etc. I entered not only my creds, but also my 2FA code, before realising that it was not legit.

Got an email shortly afterwards about a login from Russia, however I was able to change my password and kick out all other sessions before any damage was done.

The worst part was that I was doing a favour to a Steam "friend" who asked me to vote for his clan in some kind of competition. I will give him the benefit of the doubt and assume it wasn't really him, but someone who had hacked his account, but either way, Steam support were utterly disinterested in doing anything about it when I reported it. As were Cloudflare. I checked on the site a few days later and the safe browsing list had flagged it, so at least those maintainers still seem to give a shit.

2 comments

Yeah, actual credential phishing attacks can be sophisticated and well put together. The ones where they will make mistakes on purpose to weed people out are the ones where they are REALLY looking for a target to squeeze. They will keep some of these people on for extended periods of time and get loads of money from them.

I have a friend that got a message from a "girl" over the summer. It was like "Hello Dear Joseph, I would like to no if you can help me with to practice English. I find you profile today and I have a work visas starting in 90 days to come to your city for work and I am wanting to make new friends and practice my english!! Sorry if this bothered to you. ~~EMOJIS~~~ - Signed Brazilian Model.

So far I think he's 8 grand into helping her. I'm sure it's more now because that was like before Halloween and it's impossible to convince him that it's a scam.

"So far I think he's 8 grand into helping her. I'm sure it's more now because that was like before Halloween and it's impossible to convince him that it's a scam."

Scams work, because people want to believe in them.

Likewise. It’s scary how easily you can just fall into a phishing trap. I almost gave an attacker my GitHub login due to a (Very very good) phishing email impersonating CircleCI.

The email was really good (not in junk), the domain was close, pixel perfect UI and is just finished a reformat so entering in my feeds again made sense. Unfortunately for them, they sent the email out prematurely because after pressing the button I got a JS error.