Security Information Vulnerability Research Security Blog

Emails you will never get

February 24th, 2009 by , Filed under: Commentary, Spam

A short list of legitimate emails you will never get, if you have something else feel free to add:

* Lottery winnings – Microsoft is the big winner here, they keep sending me winning notifications, but I just don’t collect :)
* Your doctor’s prescription (probably some obscure medicine might go through, while most won’t) – to buy “cheap” fake medicine
* Your Antivirus renewal notice – trying to get you to install some form of malware
* Your bank’s security notice, and statement – of course its phishing scams
* Paypal payments being done to your name or from your name – phishing scams mainly
* Job offers – I get these money “mule” offers and get paid per call spam
Anything I missed?

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  • http://www.BeyondSecurity.com Aviram

    * electronic Postcards – yes, there really used to be something like that back in the day
    * Business offers from Nigeria! If the national Nigerian telcom company wants to buy your product you will probably never hear about it unless they call you :)

  • http://www.BeyondSecurity.com noam

    Even then when someone will call you, will you fly there?

    I can already see the new scams from Nigeria aimed at business men, you have won the THIS AND THAT RFP, come claim your money – bring the servers here as well and we will help you install your winning offer

  • http://anti-virus-rants.blogspot.com kurt wismer

    actually i do get legitimate anti-virus renewal notices by email…

    i suppose because i actually pay for my anti-virus, when my subscription comes up they email me with my name and customer number and tell me that my subscription is going to expire soon.

  • http://securityandthe.net/ Martin

    Actually, I received two of the items from the list this year:

    1) A legitimate message from Paypal that asked me to collect a payment TO ME by someone I didn’t know. I double-checked the mail, triple-checked the URL it wanted me to go to (paypal.com), and finally opened it in a separate VM.

    This actually turned out to be a real message, and the person trying to pay me had mistyped an e-mail address.

    2) Antivirus noticed: McAfee keep sending me messages about various subscriptions I’ve had with them in the past, mostly trial licenses that came with PC’s I bought, but also about renewals for corporate licenses. These sometimes include links to their website as well.

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