Can you spot the mistakes in this phishing email?
I was heading to work this morning when I saw an alarming email pop up on my phone:
It was of concern because I definitely haven’t purchased any $740 tickets on American Airlines lately. Especially departing from Washington, DC.
Since I am on high alert about a possible identity theft, I felt a sinking feeling in my stomach. However, the more I studied the email, the more I realized that it wasn’t a problem. In fact, by the time I got to work, I had counted almost a dozen errors in the email. So I simply disregarded it and went on about my day.
I have to say, though – to the casual eye, this looks pretty legit, don’t you think? Can you spot the mistakes in this scam attempt?
#1 – the flight number
#2 – time in CDT when departing from WAS
#3 – “America Airlines”
1. America Airlines
2. Flying to where
3. Flying class
First of all, the obvious: “America” instead of “American”. Then unnecessary spaces after # for number and $ for dollar. “WA” is a non-existent airline code. Then again, unnecessary spaces before “:” (“our website :” and “by visiting :”). The web address either says: flight lnformation (LNFORMATION) instead of INFORMATION or there’s no consistency between upper and lower case. Unnecessary comma after “below”. The email mentions “order details” and “e-ticket information” but there’s no such information in the email. Strokes/forward slashes (“/”) instead of colons “:”) in the details section. No airport code, just “Washington, DC”. That’s all I could think of 🙂
What I notice first is that email is not personalized; this always sets off alarm bells in my head. I also am guessing that if you hover over those links, there’s a different link below, which is not AA.com.
More subtle is the flight number; it should start with AA and their flight numbers are not that long.
I would have stopped after seeing “America Airlines” right at the start. It also has it lower in the email.
Typos, no doubt. How was the flight?
Mike – It was incredible. Best flight ever. Champagne and caviar, a Rolls Royce to and from the airport…you know…all the standard stuff. 😉
Any link with .jsp worries me.
I recently received something similar from an airline recently. Just checked to see if it was American as well, but the email’s been deleted (it was a couple weeks ago). gosh darn phishers.