Wizard Spam

Email spam is one of the many banes of our modern existence. In simpler days, we might have been inundated with USPS-delivered junk mail or telemarketing calls that while irritating, are relatively benign. Much more, we had the ability to simply hang-up, throw junk in the garbage and move on with life. Email spam, however, opened the door to enterprises of much more malicious intent, whether it be the introduction of viruses, identity theft, not to mention preying upon the unsuspecting with promises of, well, certain augmentations, cheap software, cheap pharmaceuticals and watches. Information technology, in particular many internet service providers, are keeping up with such trends with ever improving filters that keep such junk from getting to our inboxes. Every now and then, stuff slips through, but on the whole we are spared from much of the worst.

Yesterday, however, our IT director sent out a warning against the latest spam trap. The text of this indeed gives one pause, insofar as those of us who work as government contractors are sensitive to communication that purports to come from government sources:

Hello,

This message is to inform you that your email address was recently discovered to be sending spam emails to government computer systems. In order to prevent your email account from being deactivated we need to you to verify that you are in fact the owner. Please visit this site to verify that it is an active email address and not a part of spamming activities.

Your prompt compliance with this notice is appreciated. No action will result in your email address being disabled.

Obviously, there are lots of red flags in the text above that would tip a smart user off that this is a phishing expedition. Anytime you receive an email that says "please visit this site" to correct some grievous banking or identity issue with an account you may or may not have, you should avoid it. The link will not take you where you think it will. Further, basic common sense would have you think of how such people (say a bank) would actually contact you - most likely via phone or USPS mail. At any rate, the great thing about this particular example is not the body of the email, but rather WHO sent it:

Thank you,

H.J Granger, CPWP, CHP
Compliance Manager
HSWW Government Services

Innocuous, right? Just some other big government agency you've never heard of trying to get you to verify that you have a legitimate email address? Not this time. Because unless our beloved Hermione Jean (H.J.) Granger of Harry Potter lore truly serves in the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry (HSWW) Government Services division of the Ministry of Wizard Spam, I think we can safely delete such an email. Besides, Hermione, as the brightest witch of her age, can certainly do better than chasing wizard spammers. Although, she does like following the rules.

I haven't figured out what CPWP represents, but one can infer that CHP stands for something-Harry-Potter. Nevertheless, I had a great laugh last night, the kind of laugh that only a Potter fan (geek) can appreciate.