Phishing and Phishers and Phreaks

I just got my 300+ email from a freak of nature that was phishing for my PayPal account information.

I genuinely like most people; I do not like these evil souls who have become another of the many "Phishers" (fissures) within the ethical and moral fiber of our fragile human equation.

In that light, I just penned this note to PaylPal asking them, "What can I do?"

______________________

"Good people of the PayPal team:

To date, the most basic and simple questions of life were voiced by Immanuel Kant in the 1780s: Who am I? Where did I come from? Where am I going? And, what is the meaning and value of life?

The lesser-ones among us-- those who are unethical and prey on the naiveté of the uninformed -- do not address basic questions. They are short-term thinkers. And, what may have started as mischievousness, has become a phishing industry that costs us all billions of dollars.

Those of us on-this-side-of-the-equation have to do more than just send you, the FCC and FTC a copy of an occasional phishing email that we might receive. So, please help us out. Help us to do more.

I have a thought about it. Let's find a few of them and interview them. Let's find a few who have been hurt. Let's get them together and see what happens.

Since 1994 we have done a weekly, half-hour television show, Small Business School, that airs mostly on PBS stations in the USA.

You can find us in the metro San Francisco on these stations - http://smallbusinessschool.org/webapp/sbs/States/6.jsp

The show also airs around the world on the Voice of America.

We did an episode about protecting your priceless data that almost touched on phishing:
http://search.smallbusinessschool.org/page98.html?epid=171
http://search.smallbusinessschool.org/video.cfm?clip=1603

We did episode on Intellectual Property rights that talked mostly about IP theft:
http://search.smallbusinessschool.com/video.cfm?clip=1244
http://search.smallbusinessschool.org/page98.html?epid=125

But we have not looked at the issue of phishing per se.
If you are interested, we are interested. Shall we talk?

Many thanks for your earlier response.

Warmly,

Bruce

PS. Identity is important. I think we should all follow Adobe's lead. Have you seen their products when they load? There are 40-to-100 developers names listed. When you steal from Adobe, you are stealing from these people. That's a start. I think every company should be using real names and faces. You are not some abstract entity, but hearts and minds.

So, please write or call, and identify yourself!

Thanks.

-BEC
214-801-8521

Bruce Camber, Executive Producer
Small Business School, Inc.
Private Business Channel, Inc.
http://SmallBusinessSchool.org

What can you do? Let's team up together and tell good stories about good people doing good things for each other and their communities. That is the least we all can do.