Last but not least: The suspended credit card
According to the EU, global losses from cybercrime amount to 350 billion francs per year. A letter from GE Money Bank that landed on the desk of the Werbewoche.ch editorial team is unlikely to significantly increase that figure.
Under the title "Urgent - Your card is suspended!" we received this e-mail today on behalf of GE Money Bank:
Your credit card will be suspended due to GeMoney key terms being changed. To activate your card you need to download the attached document and fill in the GeMoney security file to verify the legitimate account holder. Your card will be activated automatically after the security check details are confirmed. We would consider terminating your access to your stored funds if you failed to verify the legitimate holder of this account.
It almost makes you wistful when you think back to the original adventure stories that the internet mafia used to come up with. There was talk of missing uncles, fugitive generals, frozen assets and tempting investments. Lottery winnings had to be collected in Spain and wood-burning stoves had to be financed in the Russian provinces. The whole thing was written in a language that was recognizable as such. In the example above, probably not even Google Translate was asked for advice. That would probably be too much to ask when sending a supposedly lucrative scam to millions of recipients. Nevertheless, there seem to be people who are unsettled by the amateurish letter. GE Money Bank warns on the Website"At the moment, some of our customers are receiving a phishing email request for account verification. Please ignore this email and delete it unopened".
Thomas Häusermann
