Phoney E-mails and Phishing

Anybody see anything suspicious about the e-mail I received yesterday, other than I replaced the @ with (at)?

From: virgtek(at)cox.net
Subject: MyEMBARQ Account Alert
Date: August 26, 2009 7:24:39 PM EDT
Reply-To: upgraderesponses(at)gala.net

MyEMBARQ Subscriber,

We are currently upgrading MyEMBARQ with a hard spam protector due to the incessant rate of Sca, as such all MyEMBARQ Account users must respond to this e-Mail immediately.

Failure to comply with the above instruction will immediately render your e-Mail ACCOUNT deactivated from our database.

Enter your email here:
MyEMBARQ e-Mail Address:
MyEMBARQ Password:

THE SUPPORT TEAM
MyEMBARQ SUPPORT
upgraderesponses(at)gala.net

Sincerely,
EMBARQ

Why would Embarq send from a cox.net addy instead of an Embarq one? And why would they have me respond to top a gala.net addy? Gala.net is a European e-mail forwarder used by a lot of scammers. And if they could send me an e-mail, why would they need me to put my e-mail in the reply? Except they didn't send it to me personally. Notice there's no "To" in the header?

Naturally, I checked this scam out at http://www.snopes.com. Here's their reply:

It looks like you have been targeted to be robbed. What you received was likely an attempt on the part of thieves to get you to hand your personal information to them so they could run up your credit cards, take out loans in your name, or steal your online identity. This form of fraud is called "phishing."

Do not provide any of your personal data to these people. Do not fill out any of the fields on the web page you were directed to by the email. If you are a customer of the particular business entity that supposedly sent the request, call that institution and tell them about the email you received -- they will confirm that they had nothing to do with sending it to you and that it is an attempt to steal your financial information. Or visit the business's web site to look for something posted there about this attempt to defraud that institution's customers. (If you choose this latter course of action, do not attempt to get to the real site by clicking the link you were mailed or by using any part of it -- use your already-established bookmarks or type the address in by hand or use a search engine to find the site's URL for you.)

We have a page on our site about phishing scams. Though it may not contain information about the particular come-on you received, it will help better explain how this form of theft works. The page also contains links to various phishing attempts we have debunked, which you could also look at to gain a better understanding of how this form of theft is carried out.

http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/scams/phishing/phishing.asp

Urban Legends Reference Pages
http://www.snopes.com

If you get this, uh, "Embarq" e-mail, don't fall for it.

And if you get any suspicious e-mails, always check them on Snopes—like a writer buddy of mine did with this phony e-mail virus warning he and a whole bunch of other people (including me) were forwarded (the original e-mail text is red; his comments are blue):

I got this from someone whom I trust but it had been forwarded to him. I did not personally check it out with Snopes but it seems to be worth forwarding.
Tann

Tann, whoever you are, you are an idiot. Maybe you SHOULD start checking out such mindless b*llsh*t like this before you deem it to "be worth forwarding."

Then immediately run to your bedroom and hide under the bed. Better yet, pack only what you can carry and leave the country. Your money won't be any good where you're going, so just leave it in your closet, I'll find it.

This virus was discovered by McAfee yesterday,

NO, it was discovered 3 and 4 years ago. It is no longer a threat to anybody who runs any of the leading antivirus programs...or anybody with enough brains to have the URL http://www.snopes.com/ bookmarked on his computer.

SEND THIS E-MAIL TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW!!!!!!

I don't think so. That won't do any good at all. What you must do instead is to IMMEDIATELY send $100 to [me] for [my] invaluable services in debunking these fake out-of-date virus warnings and thereby relieving enormous stress and potential heart attacks and strokes for thousands of computer owners. Maybe you should send $200.

Just verified this with Snopes and it is REAL.

You DID? And exactly what kind of recreational drugs were you using at the time?

Read the actual Urban Legend page at:
http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/osama.asp

And then, pass this message to all those unfortunate people to whom you sent the original b*llsh*t message, who are now cowering in their basements, waiting in the dark for civilization as we know it to end.

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