Security by Stupidity

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Airtel sent me this email today, with subject "Your Airtel Bill for Account XXXXXXXX, For the Period 26/03/2009 to 26/04/2009, Airtel Number 080XXXXXXXX"

Dear Customer,

Please find attached your Airtel Bill for,

Airtel Number: 080XXXXXXXX
Account Number: XXXXXXXX
Bill Number: XXXXXXXX
Bill Period:26/03/2009 to 26/04/2009

Please save it for your future reference. You need Acrobat Reader installed on your computer to view this bill.

Further down the email, I see this.

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Your Airtel e-bill is protected by a unique password, please enter your account number as password to open your e-bill. Password remains the same for every e- bill sent month on month.
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Who are they trying to fool? What is the point in password protecting the bill, when the password is provided in the email? How does one deal with such morons?

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3 Comments

Where's the password (acct no) provided in the email? I thought the account number digits are mostly masked out with 'X's!

The account number is present in the subject as well as the body of the email. I replaced the actual numbers with 'X's in this post.

-balaji

This has changed now. Now you have to send something like ebill to 121 from the phone in question to get the password.
_
Rishi

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This page contains a single entry by balaji published on April 29, 2009 8:29 PM.

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