Phishing with Screwtape

If any of you have ever enjoyed reading C.S. Lewis's Screwtape letters and enjoy reading an occasional Phishing e-mail, there is a great piece on the Times Online.

For those of you who don't know, Phishing is when someone tries to get you to give out your financial information so they can steal money from you. Examples of this are the Nigerian 419 scams where someone tells you they need your bank account to transfer a billion trillion dollars and you can keep 25% of it. Another is where they claim to be your bank and send you to a website to change your password when in reality the website is fake and you give them your password.

So anyways, someone has written a spoof of the Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis about an experienced phisher instructing a neophite in the art of tricking people into revealing their sensitive information. A good read.

By the way, don't ever reveal your information to everyone. No one is just wanting to give you money. Also, no one will EVER contact you by e-mail asking you to change your password or verify something, especially banks. Always go directly to the bank if you are in doubt. Don't follow the links in the e-mail.