Having fun with a Phish

As a part of running a website, I am always amused at the attempts made by scammers to part me from my money. Here is one of the more humorous messages.

The main reason that I am posting this is to warn other folks out there of the phishing scam that this really is. The best thing you can do is to simply delete this message. Of course, if you want to troll the scammer, you can do what you please. Just be sure to never include any identifying information in your trolls.

Here is the message that I received through the online contact form on fortypoundhead.com:

From: kathiekearns@gmail.com
Sent: 10/25/2013 9:29:56 AM
SUBJ: One of your employees...!!!

Hello, I am writing in an unusual case ... Some time ago, I used your services, and one of your employees face was familiar to me. At dinner with my wife, it turned out that he was a burglar, who 5 years ago broke into our home!!! This is ridiculous!!! How you can hire criminals? I found at least 3 bad entries for him at website for background check!! I am sure there are more!!! Please do something about it, things like that are ridiculous!!!

There is much hilarity in this message, trust me. Let's run down the list.

This message looks to be from someone named Kathie Kearns. In the message, she purports to be at dinner with her wife. In this day and age, it's not unusual for people to have same-sex partners. What makes this stick out to me is that most members of a same-sex relationship refer to each other as partners, rather than husband/wife. Just my opinion, though.
FortyPoundHead.com has no employees, unless you count myself. And if you count me as an employee, I've never received a paycheck. Guess I better call the Department of Labor to file a complaint, eh?
I've never been arrested, or much less committed burglary.
FortyPoundHead.com does not provide services to individuals or companies. The only service that this site provides is this website, which is completely free. There are also links to all the necessary disclaimers, terms, etc., on every page of the site.

There was no link included in the email or a demand for money, which almost made me think the message might have been legitimate, but simply a case of mistaken identity. Then I got to thinking, this person had to come to the site, go to the contact form, and fill out the form, then hit send.

Why didn't Kathie Kearns contact me directly, if she has done business with me in the past? I'm sure she would have my phone number, address, at least an email address.

So a quick web search on the first seven words of the message turned up a ton of results. Some of them had a reference to a website, which is offline due to a terms of service violation. So that was the clincher.

Now it's time to have some fun.

I am not recommending you do anything like is described below, unless you are sure of how and what you are doing. And NEVER give out any personally identifiable information. You have been warned, and I won't be held responsibility for any repercussions of any trolling activities you undertake.

I sent the following response to "Kathie":

Kathie -

My sympathies are with you and your wife regarding the burglary of your home.

As CEO of Bangkoks Finest Gay Escorts, I am willing to fully investigate the situation, and take the appropriate actions in order to provide satisfaction to you, our customer.

If you can tell me which of our escorts you recognized at dinner, and in what locality this dinner took place, it would provide me enough information to proceed with the investigation.

It is our top priority to ensure that the customers of Bangkoks Finest Gay Escorts receive the utmost satisfaction, not only those that are currently using our services, but past customers as well.

Please feel free to contact me any time, at the email address below.

Thanks,
Jack MeHoff
jackmehoff@thicken.net

I can't wait to see Kathies response to this, if there is one.

About this post

Posted: 2013-10-25
By: dwirch
Viewed: 1,583 times

Comments

dwirch posted this comment on 2013-11-14:

Update -

I heard back from "Kathie" this morning. The only thing in the email was that "the employee name is not important", and that I can find what I need to know by going to the website and looking up my company name.

I sent her a message back mentioning that I did sign up on the site (I didn't), but I did not find any listings for my company. I went on to ask her if she had the right person, and I would be more than happy to help her find the right person.

dwirch posted this comment on 2013-12-23:

"Kathie" failed to bite any further. No further communication has been received from the phish.

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