One Little “G” Can Make a Big Difference

It doesn’t matter who you are, how educated you, even if security is your profession it’s still possible to failure.  Yesterday, everyone was talking about the cool Google Home Page created to celebrate the birthday of guitar genius Les Paul. Today, I will admit how stupid even I can be.

Naturally, I followed my own advice and instead of clicking on one of my friends links posted on Facebook, I manually typed in the Google URL. The only problem is I screwed up big time and typed
G-o-g-g-l-e-.-c-o-m instead of
G-o-o-g-l-e-.-c-o-m. 
Well, unlike Google, the folks at Goggle are anxious to do evil.

Normally, the first screen would have given me a clue but I wasn’t paying full attention. I figured, “it was Google, one of my partners so it must be legit”.

I still never noticed the misspelling.  I knew they would be getting extra traffic due to the Les Paul screen so I figured they’d use this day to run a special promotion.

After a few simple questions I received the following screen.

Again, I figured, Google already had my phone number and Email so what’s the big deal giving it to them to validate my information. Since I was multitasking at the time, I still didn’t notice the obvious misspelling of the main logo.

Ironically, I appreciate that these scammers at least verified I was entering a valid phone number. If not, anyone could use their site to harass unsuspecting cell phone users around the country.

 

Finally, I woke up.  As soon as I started to see mentions of a bank card and other companies I knew something was wrong.  Yet, I still never thought to check my spelling. My first thought was to check my HOST file and scan for malware.  I even copy and pasted the URL into another browser to verify the address without noticing the spelling error.

The next slap in the face came when my cell phone rang with a call from 877-729-0716.  The caller identified himself as “Education Experts”.  They obviously were connected to this scam so instead of listening to their sales pitch I encouraged the telemarketer to find a job with a reputable company.

It still took my brain a couple minutes to realize my typo. I don’t remember ever doing this before but I hope I’ve learned my lesson.  Watch your typing and give your browser your full attention so this doesn’t happen to you.  ;)