Scam alert: [Fwd: Thank you from One Laptop per Child]

[pgf at laptop.org]

chris wrote:
 > Benjamin M. Schwartz wrote:
 > > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
 > > Hash: SHA1
 > > 
 > > pgf at laptop.org wrote:
 > >> this mail was/is legitimate, and is part of the G1G1 launch
 > >> starting tomorrow.  the links go through a redirector so that
 > >> OLPC can see statistics on click-through responses.
 > >>
 > >> i understand completely why it made you nervous, however.  we'll
 > >> consult with our mailing partner to find out what we can do about
 > >> the URLs in future mailings.
 > 
 > I'm sorry, if I get an e-mail with visible links to
 > amazon.com/xo and the hidden version not coming from
 > the amazon.com domain I will delete first and ask
 > questions later.
 > 
 > This trick is *exactly* what phishing and identity
 > theft spammers do.  I certainly would not forward
 > such a message to anyone without verification of
 > its validity.
 > 
 > If the links were instead to some scrambled URL in
 > same domain, e.g. laptop.org, that would at least
 > indicate that the link gibberish is likely valid
 > since it is in the same domain as the link claims
 > to be.

i agree completely.  one more level of redirect (from us to our
partner site then to the real destination would be far better.  i
confess i noticed it as the mail was being prepared, but my alarm
bells didn't go off.  (probably because i was on the sending end,
and not the receiving end.  :-)

we'll do better next time.

paul
=---------------------
 paul fox, pgf at laptop.org
 give one laptop, get one laptop --- http://www.amazon.com/xo