Even with all increased awareness in internet security and scams

[vi edit]

I work for an online stock broker. I'm in the tech support department answering client questions on their browser settings and general questions on internet security.

I can't count the number of times that I've had people call in with $500,000+ accounts that do the following:

1) open up browser of choice
2) in the search bar of whatever endless amount of spyware search bars they have installed on their PC they type in the name of my employer and hit search
3) they click on whatever link comes up
4) they type in their username and password
5) they can't get into their account
6) they call me
7) I trouble shoot and they aren't even signing into our site...it's a seperate one that we operate that uses different login information

It sounds fairly benign, but in reality what's to stop people from setting up phish sites that snipe search requests to my companies domain with an identical looking login page that is there to harvest usernames/passwords.

It just completely dumbfounds me that people are so lazy/careless/ignorant/whatever that instead of going to the address bar and typing www.myemployer.com they go to a search bar and type in "myemployer" and click on whatever comes up.

You really need to be able to pass some kind of online IQ test before you are allowed to use online services that can have serious repercussions on your financial well being.

 

[CKent]

Dunno what to say, I agree, it amazes me that otherwise normal people can be the mental equivalent of my toejam when you place them in front of a computer... it's baffling.

 

[vi edit]

I'm just not sure what I find more depressing.

A) the fact that they actually type the full name of my company into a search engine to pull up the site and then click whatever comes up instead of just typing the domain name into the address bar in the first place(it's the same exact name just has .com at the end)

or

B) the fact that they just blindfully trust whatever comes up on the search

*sigh*

 

[BobDaMenkey]

Or

C) That they do that with their huge arse accounts.

It's pretty amazing how untechnologically savvy some highly paid people can be. I've heard stories of a Dean of a college and his wife going on vacation. 200k+ per year salaries between the two. They called the college tech support wanting to know why they couldn't check their email in their hotel room. Tech starts asking questions, then gets more basic, as to what's plugged in. Wife says that the laptop is plugged into the power socket. Tech asks if it's in the phone line. "No. I thought it just needed to be plugged into the power socket to work."

I've heard even better stories, but yeah.

 

[The Stigenator]

dude.. this is so true.. grrr.. people are idiots.

Bobdamenkey: Do you know my ex employers? his wife did the same thing when they went to Porto vallarta. She called the US to find out from me how to get on to the internet. It took me like 45 minutes just to explain to her that first off she doesnt have high speed there, she needs to dialup. And since as a company we dont have a dialup acct, i had to find an US ISP, create a junk acct, and then set her up over the phone. God that was waste of 4 hrs.!