WORLDWIDE – Regular readers of the Handy Shipping Guide will know that we have had several stories in therecent past (and a host going back over the years) concerning the scourge that is internet piracy, dealing from everything to phishing scams to hack attacks launched by government agencies. One of the main ways the internet pirates use to pick victims is via email phishing, which seeks a response from a possible target to start the con.
Some people, such as James Veitch, have fought back by replying to the scammers and playing games with them. For most of us, however, the effort required to waste the would-be criminals’ time wasn’t worth it and we settle for clearing our inboxes of the miscellaneous rubbish on a daily basis. Now a new service has come online that aims to hit back at the scammers in the most efficient way possible.
Re:scam, which is run by internet safety organisation Netsafe, is a chatbot that replies to phishing emails to give them the run around. The idea is that you forward the scam email to Rescam, which generates an email account and replies. The scammers, thinking they have a victim, start to engage in conversation which the Re:scam AI continues on as long as possible. The idea is to waste the sender’s time with false responses so as to cut the amount of time they can devote to their despicable business aimed at prospective victims. Re:scam says that:
“$12 billion is lost globally every year to phishing scams. It’s time we fought back.”
So the next time you get an unexpected offer from a Nigerian prince, asking for you to provide bank details so that he can deposit $500 million in it for you to hold, feel free to forward the message to Re:scam. There is an undoubted sense of satisfaction in forwarding the missives from Mrs. Assad, Ban Ki Moon and (our favourite) the late Colonel Gaddafi in the knowledge that one is happily wasting the time of those who are doing just that to so many individuals.
Source:-.handyshippingguide
