Cloudeight Windows Tips and Tricks

How Do Spammers Know It's Your Birthday?
All operating systems

Every single day, millions of people have a birthday. One of those days each year, it's your birthday too. If you get an email that says "You've received an E-card on your birthday from your friend" don't be ready to click that link in the email to go and view your birthday card. Spammers and malcontents know that the easiest way to trick someone is to make them think the email is personal. What better way than to send out millions of emails with the same greeting - "You've received an E-card from a friend on your birthday". Sure, it's your birthday. It's millions of other peoples' birthday too. There's only 365 days in a year and there are over six billion people in the world. Figure it out. On an average day sixteen million people are having a birthday. Your birthday included. If your a spammer or sending phishing emails, 16 million "targets" means your aim doesn't have to be very good to hit quite a few of those sixteen million. If you're spamming a few hundred sales could make you a few tens of thousands of dollars. If your goal was to infect computers with a spambot, a few hundred computers would form a nice little spamming network for you.

Spammers and Phishers don't know you have Third National Bank Account, A Wells Fargo Account, a PayPal account, or that it's your birthday. Wells Fargo has millions of customers and millions of people share birthdays.

Don't be tricked into clicking a link because it's your birthday and you get an E-card from "a friend". Don't even be tricked if it has a name like "You've received an e-card from Paul (or Susie, Linda, Andrew, Mark, David, Sissy, etc.). There are millions of people that share common first names. Don't click any links in these kinds of of emails unless you're sure what you're clicking. It's better to miss an e-card from a real friend than to get a virus, worm, or trojan from an imaginary one.

And, don't be tricked by email phishing scams that apparently came from your bank. Most likely millions of people do business with the same bank chain and its branches as you do. Remember too, that financial institutions and banks NEVER ask for passwords or other personal information by email. And legitimate e-cards seldom come as "an email from a friend" they'll have your friend's name included.

Just because it's your birthday, your bank or your financial, doesn't meant they are no one else's. Sixteen-million others share your birthday with you; millions of others probably use the same bank or financial institution as you. That's why they call it "phishing" - they're phishing for someone to take the bait. Don't you be the one to take it.