PSA: New eBay phish in the wild

There's a new eBay phishing spoof in the wild.  It's not too badly done, and quite convincing at first glance; I'm guessing they're relying on you thinking "This is bullshit!  This idiot hasn't bought anything from me!" and clicking the "Respond" link before you think to actually examine it and see if it's legit.  Social engineering.  If you do stop to examine it, there's several flaws.

• "Your registered name is included to show this message originated from eBay."  Well, actually, now that you mention it ... no, it isn't.  Not anywhere in the message.  "Oops."
• That "Respond" button doesn't go to an eBay URL.  As a matter of fact, it goes to 62.193.212.56, which is vds-381430.amen-pro.com, registered in Paris, France.
• Oh, and all the links in the right-side sidebars, and the "learn more" link?  They aren't.  Links, that is.  They're faked and don't connect to anything.  There's no anchor tag.  Mouse over them and see.
• And did you notice that the "Thank you for using eBay" URL is to ebay.com, but all the other eBay links on the page are ebay.co.uk links?  A little bit inconsistent there, neh?
• And of course, there's the minor problem that it doesn't come from an eBay address, and isn't even convincingly spoofed.  Mine came from "eBay <qezzobvasze@pisem.net>".  The X-mailer header is oddly curious, too:  "pig pen 3095 guardian angels"
• And then there's the actual, non-HTML message body:  "When over marzipan takes a coffee break, cough syrup related to parking lot starts reminiscing about lost glory.When behind ski lodge procrastinates, from movie theater gets stinking drunk.toothaches remain nearest.pocket living with graduated cylinder reads a magazine, but bubble bath from short order cook learn a hard lesson from about pine cone."  Whoa!  Lay off the glue, dude.

Here it is, in all its phishy stench:

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eBay sent this message to you. Your registered name is included to show this message originated from eBay. Learn more. Question from eBay Member -- Respond Now eBay sent this message on behalf of an eBay member via My Messages. Responses sent using email will go to the eBay member directly and will include your email address. Click the Respond Now button below to send your response via My Messages (your email address will not be included).

Question from jell     I have not received any item from you, what happend, I've sent you the money, now were is my item ? If you don't Respond Now I will contact ebay and I will report you, I will also go to the police !Lett me know, I am not a fool !  Thank you ! Respond to this question in My Messages. Thank you for using eBay http://www.ebay.com/ Marketplace Safety Tip If this message is an offer to sell an item without winning it on the eBay Web site (including Second Chance Offers sent through My Messages) please do not respond to the sender. These external transactions are unsafe and not covered by eBay purchase protection programmes. Never pay for your eBay item through instant wire transfer services such as Western Union or MoneyGram. These payment methods are unsafe when paying someone you do not know. Is this email inappropriate? Does it breach eBay policy? Help protect the community by reporting it. Learn how you can protect yourself from spoof (fake) emails at: http://pages.ebay.co.uk/education/spooftutorial This eBay notice was sent to you on behalf of another eBay member through the eBay platform and in accordance with our Privacy Policy. If you would like to receive this email in text format, change your notification preferences. See our Privacy Policy and User Agreement if you have questions about eBay's communication policies. Privacy Policy: http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/privacy-policy.html User Agreement: http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/user-agreement.html Copyright © 2005 eBay, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Designated trademarks and brands are the property of their respective owners. eBay and the eBay logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of eBay, Inc.

Holy Martian crap, Batman!

Our global warming problem has gotten so bad even Mars is warming up!

 

 

 

OK, just kidding.  But it does look as though CO₂ subliming from the Martian ice caps in the Martian spring is causing unexpected levels of erosive activity.

"To see new gullies and other changes in Mars' surface features on a time span of a few years presents us with a more active, dynamic planet than many suspected," said Nasa's Michael Meyer, Nasa's Mars Exploration Program chief scientist.

One double whammy ... do you want fries with that?

Yup, Mama Nature's pissed all right.  Rita just made Category 5, with sustained winds of 165mph, and a lot of Gulf still to cross before she makes landfall.  As of 1455CST today, Rita was about 300 miles across, 755 miles ESE of Corpus Christi, TX, moving west at 13mph, eye pressure estimated at 944 millibars, 140mph winds.  An update as of 1528CDT puts the eye pressure at 914 millibars and dropping at 6 millibars per hour, which may be a record, with surface winds of 165mph sustained and gusts to 185mph.  (Thanks to greyman for pointing me at the update.)

This has got to be hell for the New Orleans folks who've already been evacuated once, and now have to evacuate again.  And you know what's worse?  What'll you bet me some hate-filled fundamentalist bastard is going to stand up on a pulpit somewhere and declare that some of the godless sinners of New Orleans escaped Katrina, and this is God trying to finish the job?

PSA -- Bad UPS II : The Sad Mac

OK, folks.  It's time to stop using UPS to ship anything breakable.  For the second time this year, a someone shipped me a computer via UPS ground, this one coming only the few hundred miles from New York City; and for the second time this year, with it only in their hands for a single day, UPS severely damaged it.

FedEx Ground is out there, it frequently costs less than UPS Ground, and they seem to take much more care with packages.  Give'em your business.  UPS is dropping the ball (and your packages).

Got UPS?

If you need a good UPS, Power Protection Partners just got a big shipment of new-in-box APC SU2200RM3U rack-mount UPSen, and they're pushing them out the door for $399 shipped.  I'm assuming this means APC just discontinued this model.

They're good folks, and have always dealt squarely with me.  If you're looking for a UPS, you might do worse than look'em up.

(Update:  I've just confirmed that provided you retain the invoice showing it was purchased new, APC will honor the full factory warranty on these.)

1900CDT update posted, and it's bad

Rita has now passed Katrina's intensity in terms of eye pressure, which directly drives wind speeds:

...CATEGORY FIVE HURRICANE RITA CONTINUING TO DEEPEN... ...NOW THE THIRD MOST INTENSE HURRICANE IN THE ATLANTIC BASIN ON RECORD...

REPEATING THE 7 PM CDT POSITION...24.5 N... 86.8 W. MOVEMENT TOWARD...WEST NEAR 13 MPH. MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS...165 MPH. MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE...898 MB.

As dmmaus just observed, if Rita continues to intensify at this rate, about two hours from how it will be the most intense Atlantic hurricane ever measured.  See also this commentary:

The thermal eyewall temp difference is an astounding 21°C

I freely admit to not knowing enough about hurricanes to know why a 21°C eyewall temperature gradient is astounding, but it doesn't bode well.  He also comments that Rita's 10-millibar pressure drop in one hour is a record.

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(Oops .... I've had this post sitting here for an hour and forgot to actually post it.)

Firefox bug

There is a bug, or a set of bugs, such that attempting to load a large image in Firefox causes Firefox to do something that hoses my X server badly enough to hard-wedge my graphics card, freeable only by a reboot.  Not to put too fine a point on it, this is fucking annoying, because I don't know before loading it whether a URL contains an image big enough to trigger the bug.

Hmmmm.... I wonder if this could mean some recent change broke compatibility for the Image Zoom extension?

Maybe it IS targeting Crawford after all ....

(I need a more fitting usericon for stuff like this.)

Dr. Jeff Masters writes on the Weather Underground:

The latest runs of two key computer models, the GFS and GFDL, now indicate that the trough of low pressure that was expected to pick up Rita and pull her rapidly northward through Texas will not be strong enough to do so.  Instead, these models forecast that Rita will make landfall near Galveston, penetrate inland between 50 and 200 miles, then slowly drift southwestward for nearly two days, as a high pressure ridge will build in to her north.  Finally, a second trough is forecast to lift Rita out of Texas on Tuesday.  If this scenario develops, not only will the coast receive catastrophic damage from the storm surge, but interior Texas, including the Dallas/Fort Worth area, might see a deluge of 15 - 30 inches of rain.  A huge portion of Texas would be a disaster area.  The models are not suggesting this at all, but is also possible that Rita may not make landfall on Saturday as expected, but pull up just short of the Texas coast and pound it for days as it waits for the next trough to pick her up.  We'll have to wait for the next set of model runs due out by tomorrow morning to know better.

The 7:09 pm eye report from the hurricane hunters found a 897 mb pressure and flight level winds of 161 knots (186 mph).  This pressure makes Rita the 3rd strongest Atlantic hurricane of all time.  Tonight, Rita will be passing over the Loop Current, a warm eddy of water in the Gulf that aided Katrina's growth to a Category 5 hurricane.  Fueled by this pool of deep warm water and an almost ideal upper level wind environment, Rita should continue to intensify until Thursday morning, when she will pass beyond the Loop Current.  The eye has shrunk to 20 nm diameter from 25 nm earlier this afternoon. By the time the eye shrinks down to 10 nm, the eyewall will collapse and an eyewall replacement cycle begin, putting an end to this intensification cycle.  With potentially another 12 hours to go before this happens, Rita could challenge Gilbert's 888 mb pressure record.

(Emphasis mine.)

That last note there is hair-raising.  Katrina grew from a medium Category 4 to a monster of a Category 5 over the Loop Current; Katrina is going INTO the loop current as the third most intense Category 5 ever recorded.