Asia United Bank Phishing

Another phishing scam targetting Philippine bank Asia United Bank (but the assholes behind the scam said Asia Union Bank) with the sample letter below:

From: no_reply@aub.com.ph [mailto:no_reply@aub.com.ph]
Sent: Tuesday, June 26, 2007 5:15 PM
To:
Subject: Regular verification of Internet Bank Accounts!


Dear Asia Union Bank member,

During our regular verification of Internet Bank Accounts, we could not verify your current information. Either your information has been changed or incomplete, as a result your access to use our services has been limited. Please Update your information.

· Login to your Asia Union Bank Internet Account

· Confirm your identity as a Asia Union Bank Customer

https://ebanking.asiaunited.com.ph/eBanking/

Please fill in the required information. This is required for us to continue to offer you a safe and risk free environment.

Thank you,
Asia Union Bank.

~~~~~

I didn't receive this email scam; this was forwarded to me by a friend

the website led me to this website: http://ec-veda.org/b1/eBanking/index.php
and as of this writing (july 13, 2007). It's been almost three weeks and the phishing site's still up with.



I wonder if there're really people tricked by this email when it's so obvious it's a scam...but you'll never know.

Related Post:

Asia United Bank (AUB) Bank Code = 011020011

ATM History: The Day the ATM was Invented

Today, June 27th, marks the 40th birthday of the device that has a large impact on the world: the ATM.

The Inventor of the cash machine (ATM), John Shepherd-Barron, installed the first automated teller machine, known then as cash machine in Enfield, North England in a Barclays branch.

The cash machine installed used a check authenticated by a four digit PIN, also another invention.

Why four digit when now the industry is moving into 6 digit to improve security? Because John's wife said she can only remember a four digit PIN.

(image from BBC)

Test Drive of Safari on Windows

I downloaded and installed the newly-released Safari on Windows (available here in order to see for myself how Apple's venerable browser looks and feels like on my notebook.

The slick interface still has the same look and feel of the MacOS with these claimed features

1. Blazing Performance
2. Elegant User Interface
3. Easy Bookmarks
4. Pop-up Blocking
5. Inline Find
6. Tabbed Browsing
7. SnapBack
8. Forms AutoFill
9. Built-in RSS
10. Resizable Text Fields
11. Private Browsing
12. Security




After opening a few tabs of a news site, Safari crashed and generated Application logs I appended below.

Now, that's normal behavior for a product still i beta stage. Unlike the vaunted Windows Vista that I found too slow on my brother's new Toshiba Satellite notebook running on Intel Core 2 Duo.

For now, I just content myself on my Firefox browser that currently use MacFoxII add-on to look like it's on MacOS X :)



Application error log generated when my Safari crashed:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Application Error
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1000
Date: 6/14/2007
Time: 9:48:57 AM
User: N/A
Computer:
Description:
Faulting application safari.exe, version 3.522.11.3, faulting module ntdll.dll, version 5.1.2600.2180, fault address 0x0003426d.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

The Prudential Life: Selling Insurance Shameless Way

This is a pathetic and unscrupulous attempt of some group on trying to sell you insurance by Prudential Life, not sure if officially sanctioned by Prudential Life
but the way they trick people in coming to their office is something that should never be done by normal people.

I'm publishing this as another friend of mine asked me if this modus operandi that she won something and must come to the same office (my friends know of the kind of work I do that's why they consult me about things like this)

You people behind this trick should be ashamed of yourselves.

I sent an email inquiry to the helpdesk of Prudential Life but fell on deaf ears and got no reply...I wonder why

to all readers, beware and spread the word!
the shenanigans behind this act use Social Engineering by declaring to come to their office and file within 24 hours plus the dubious and absurd requirement of presenting credit card as identification.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

we received a call informing us that we still file for a claim on a dead brother's Prudential life insurance.

our brother died in an accident several months ago.
this was a surprise as earlier inquiries told us that the policy had lapsed.

the caller said that:
- the claim must be filed within 24 hours;
- any relative may file the claim but must have valid IDs (company ID, sss ID, any CREDIT CARD);
- we must proceed to Prudential Life's RELEASING OFFICE at the 6/F RCI Bldg, Rada St., Legaspi Vill., Makati

at the supposedly RELEASING OFFICE, although the glass doors and wall had the the Prudential Life name/logo, the room didn't feel right:
- there was only a single office table with several chairs, a sofa and some side tables and a tv (several young men/yuppies were watching tv);
- the carpeting was dismal;
- very prominent was a stack of large gift-wrapped boxes (maalala mo talaga yung 'family first')

we became really suspicious and finally withdrew when, despite our insistence that we were there to file for a claim:
- they did not ask for any detail about the policy holder (not even the name);
- instead they filled out a green Prudential Life Personal Information Sheet with my info.
- they insisted on requiring that we present at least one CREDIT CARD for verification of our identity.

we were lucky to get out unscathed (we never presented a credit card, got back my IDs and the information sheet before leaving) pero ang masakit, namatayan na nga kami ay naisipan pa nilang gawin yun - sana multohin sila ng kapatid ko!