I don’t have the time or the lung-capacity to rant on about how stupid this idea is. I’m just fortunate that other people are doing a great job on voicing concerns that are very very similar to my own.

Drazen Drazic’s numerous posts on the topic:

• Australian Internet Filtering….I can’t wake up from the nightmare!
• Australian Internet Censorship – Talk to your non-IT Friends
• Australian Internet Filtering – Priceless
• Internet Censorship – Which Country is Next?

God there’s so many more, just read Drazen’s BorB, it might be easier that way!

Simon Harvey’s post on the topic is also worth a read.

Australian’s, please don’t ignore this. Talk to your friends and family about it.

nocleanfeed.com

The phishers out there are spreading their nets wider and wider. First it was the McPhish, where scammers were offering $75 credit if you filled in a survey about your McDonalds eating habits, and then it was the Phish Day Out (Big Day Out phish).

For all you non-Aussies asking yourself what the Big Day Out is, well the BDO is one of Australia’s largest music festivals that tours around the country around the end of January finishing up here in Perth early February. The past few years I’ve seen some terrific bands at the BDO, including some of my all time favourite acts, Tool, Rage Against The Machine, The Mars Volta, The Killers and a whole bunch more. From the BDO press release:

Big Day Out has become aware of an internet phishing scam whereby individuals have received an email claiming to be on behalf of Ticketmaster and Facebook, stating that the recipient has won VIP passes to the Big Day Out.

The email then requests that the recipient provide personal identification information including passport, birth certificate, drivers licence, health care card, Medicare card or bank statements.

This email is fraudulent and should not be responded to.
It is not authorised by the Big Day Out, Ticketmaster or Facebook.

What disturbs me about this is that to my knowledge this has been one of the first targeted phishing scams in Australia that focuses on a single event and is solely interested in gathering Personally Identifying Information (PII). They’re not looking to directly take your credit card details (although I’m sure they’re looking for that too), but to gather all the other information they need in take over your identity and therefore allow them to open bank accounts and all sorts of other nasty ID theft things (wiki).

Whether it’s consumers wising up to scams and not divulging their credit card information over the Internet, or the scammers are making better money on-selling PII as opposed to CC numbers, these types of scams will continue to increase. Not just in the information they’re trying to pilfer, but their use of current events.

For all you people out there who don’t know this already (I’m not entirely sure who you are, but there’s no harm in repeating the message):

You should NEVER give out your personal or bank account details to somebody you don’t know and trust.

Don’t be fooled by an email that looks legitimate or appears to link to a genuine website.

Please take care with your personal information!

For all you Aussies, check out www.scamwatch.gov.au.