Who do you trust online?
Your friends? Lady Gaga? The media? How about the BBC?
If you read a news story on the BBC website, would you trust what it was saying?
A reader forwarded us this interesting email which (fortunately) had been quarantined by his anti-spam defences. What’s particularly interesting is the webpage to which it links.
If you were tempted to click on the link are taken to a website which looks like this.
A pretty convincing replica of the BBC website. But, of course, it’s not the real BBC News website at www.bbc.co.uk/news, but instead a page that is copying the popular site’s graphics and style.
The URL in the address bar might be a giveaway, if you were watching carefully enough.
And see how it refers to a housewife in Abingdon – that’s because I was in Abingdon, just outside Oxford, UK, when I visited the webpage. The site has tailored its content to appear more compelling to me by determining where in the world I am.
If I had visited from Bhutan, Botswana or Bognor I would have been told the single mother lived in those places instead.
The purpose of the spam campaign, and the bogus BBC website, is to try to convince you to sign up for a working from home scheme.
As they’re using subterfuge to promote their scheme – my advice would be to keep your distance.
Hat-tip: Thanks to reader @philrandal for bringing this particular spam campaign to our attention.
