Has Your Ning Account Been Hacked! Phishing Alert

Phising Attempts on Social Networking Platforms

This week the social community Ning, has been on the attack of people trying to pull scams. Here is what happened to me on Smaller Indiana.

Being in the New Media biz, I know better than to put an email on anything that bots can crawl.
However, I did reply to someone and included my email on a public thread on SI.

In case anyone was unaware, bots will scour the web looking for email addresses to send chain letters, scams etc… If you send an email to someone, use a contact form or PM the person you’re trying to contact.

If anyone else received this letter, please do not reply as it is a phishing attempt!

Thanks!
Justin

“Hello….dear good day,
I wish you long life and prosperity How are you doing i hope you are feeling fine?My name is Susy i saw your profile today at (smallerindiana.ning.com) and became intrested which really gave me a nice pleasure to communicate with you,i feel you are the only one missing in my entered life,Remember all the darkness in the world, can-not put off the light of a single candle as long as the light of love shines bright in your heart,i will also like to know you the more, so i can send you my picture for you to know whom i believe we can move from here to next leve I am waiting for your mail,Remeber the distance or colour does not matter but love and understading matters alot in life one love for us, and If you look at what you have in life, you have everything in life.please reply to my email.(susylovejohnson@yahoo.com) so we can know each other my lovely one i wish you best of all of good luck and have a nice day as i am waiting to hear from you soonest.God bless you
From Susy”

From Wikipedia:

“In the field of computer security, phishing is the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Communications purporting to be from popular social web sites, auction sites, online payment processors or IT Administrators are commonly used to lure the unsuspecting public. Phishing is typically carried out by e-mail or instant messaging,[1] and it often directs users to enter details at a fake website whose look and feel are almost identical to the legitimate one. Even when using server authentication, it may require tremendous skill to detect that the website is fake. Phishing is an example of social engineering techniques used to fool users,[2] and exploits the poor usability of current web security technologies.[3] Attempts to deal with the growing number of reported phishing incidents include legislation, user training, public awareness, and technical security measures.”