People get scammed every 22 seconds with a typo-infested email or otherwise stupid hyperlink tricks for the following reasons:
- Texting and chat have so corrupted the grammar and spelling of so many people that many don’t remember how communication skills were cherished prior to the birth of Al Gore, the Internet, and mobile devices.
- Due to #1, people actually accept and expect poor spelling and writing.
- Poor grammar and writing is also accepted because so many more people are in the workforce for whom English is not their native language (I’m writing from the USA, of course). This isn’t a slam on anyone; it’s a fact. (And when I go to South America, my Spanish is horrible and my hosts wince.)
- Many people, especially older folks (and more of the population is older) are so scared of all things electronic and networkish that they believe everything they receive (or read). Or they believe if they ignore the bad guys and the warnings, somehow they will be okay.
- In this day of everything/everyone is online, some people feel they have to respond to every phone call, email, and text they receive.
- Most importantly, too many people have lost the ability to reason and think. It takes too much time and they have more important things to do.
Spam is all about numbers (how much you send out) and people (especially gullible ones); it’s not about good grammar and communication skills. As soon as spam and the like start getting rejected in BIG numbers because of the way it’s written, spammers will hire English majors (the ones who can’t find jobs). Employment will go up, spam and attack success rates will go up, and blog rants will go up. We’ll all be happy. And yes, I did have a bad day today.
Thanks to Danny for starting me on this rant (see his comment here and my reply).
Want to argue about this? Stick out your chin, step up to the podium, and leave a comment. I dare you.
ITauditSecurity 
Interesting story relating to “typos”…A user at work clicked on a link which was “westernunlon.com” thinking it was “westernunion.com”….pwned. Honestly, when I saw the link, I thought it was also westernunion until I noticed the dot missing from the supposed “i”. I would say “honest mistake”, except it was a phishing email. Pay attention to your hyperlinks people…malware sites are getting crafty with aliases and URL shortening. More importantly, don’t curiously click on links in emails if you weren’t expecting it…seriously, no one wants to give you money.
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Danny,
I agree. Especially in today’s tight economy, we all need to be vigilant.
I would add that even when you are expecting an email or you’re chatting with your buddy, you still need to think. How do you know the email or chat really came from that person? Sure, it’s his email address or chat account, but someone else or a malicious program could have sent it. So you have to be on the alert. People should always be thinking “someone WANTS to take my money” and act accordingly.
Thanks for your input.
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