Today I received the email below. I was immediately suspicious, as we are not actually Optus customers, but I thought it might have someone else’s account that they had asked us monitor, so I looked further.

The sender address seemed a little odd, we’d expect something like this to come from notices@ or sales@

Then looked closely at the destination of the links in the message (by hovering the mouse over them) and found they linked to a page at a website called: w w w.ondainternet.c o m, (note I’ve broken up the www and .com to protect any unwary clickers. To be honest, I don’t know what is at that site, but I’m guessing it’s not likely to be good for my computer and is more than likely related to the current unpatched vulnerability in all versions of Internet Explorer see http://www.auscert.org.au/render.html?it=10198 or it may be just a Phishing Scam.

In fact, there is probable nothing wrong with that site in general, but it is likely that part of the site has been hijacked by someone for their own nefarious purposes.

Please be aware of what you are clicking on!!

please note that I’ve altered the links in the email to protect the compulsive clickers.

Subject:     Please read this important information about your account.
Date:     Wed, 17 Dec 2008 01:42:43 -0000
From:     Optus<vieri@optusnet.com.au>
Reply-To:     <donotreply@optusnet.com.au>

======================================================
You’ve used 100% of your data allowance
======================================================

Hello,

Unfortunately, you’ve reached your maximum data allowance for this month.

So, what happens now? Because you’ve reached your data allowance, your account will be slowed to 64kbps until the start of your next billing month. We do this so you won’t have to pay any excess download fees.

Don’t be slowed down

We know hitting your data allowance can be frustrating. To help you avoid this in future, we’ve made it easy to upgrade your plan without having to wait for the end of your billing month.

Upgrading increases your speed and data allowance, which gives you more freedom to do the things you want, with less worry about being speed limited.

If you would like to upgrade to another Optus Broadband DSL plan, you can change your monthly plan by logging into the Plan Change page of Member Services. You can choose an option to make your plan upgrade effective within 24 hours from the time you submit the request or to be effective from the start of your next billing period.

Remember, you can check your online usage at any time using your Internet Usage Meter. http://www.optuszoo.com.au/enforce_myusage?eml100_myacc_dmon|brand=dsl

If you have any questions or want to learn more, you can visit us online in the Help section http://www.optuszoo.com.au/help/dsl of the Optus Homepage or call Optus Customer Care on 1300 739 407.

Regards,
Optus Consumer Solutions Team

Note: This is an automated email please do not reply.