Hi,

I just received this e-mail (below). I'd like to know if it's a genuine one or a hoax.

Thank you,

E-mail text :

(Donate to SETI@home at: http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/donate.php)

Dear @nne,

SETI@home needs your help. The SETI@home team has accomplished much in the
past 6 months. We have successfully deployed the "enhanced" version of
SETI@home. The new seven beam data recorder has been installed at Arecibo (the
world's largest radio telescope) and is recording the data that will be
analyzed in the next phase of SETI@home.

But there is still far more to be done. We would like to be able to sift
through the results returned by your computers in order to identify candidates
more rapidly so we can re-observe them. This rapid response validation system
would also give you the ability to see the results your computers have/has
returned in more detail.

To keep SETI@home operating for the next year, and to provide these new
capabilities, will require approximately $540,000. Currently SETI@home is
entirely funded by donations from people like you.

We hope that you will consider making a donation to SETI@home at this time.
You can make a secure donation by credit card on our website
(http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/donate.php). Instructions for donation by
check or money order are there as well. Unless you specify otherwise, your
donation will be noted by a star icon next to your username on the SETI@home
pages and your username will appear on our list of donors. If you do not wish
to have this recognition you may indicate that as well.

You can check on our fundraising progress by visiting our main site at
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu.

Thank you for helping the search for ET, and for considering a donation to
SETI@home.

Sincerely,

Sir Arthur C. Clarke (Author and Futurist)
Dan Werthimer (Chief Scientist, SETI@home)

For more information about how to donate:
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/donate.php

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Anne

© anne schmidt - L'Humeur Bleue

I got it too. I believe it to be legit, but I don't know 100% Anyone else?

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Account frozen...

I don't know if I got this email yet or not as I'm not at home, but concidering they are doing the Fall/Winter fund raising drive now, I would say its more than likely legit. You can see on the home page here, at the top, about the Donation Drive.

Jeremy

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I don't know if I got this email yet or not as I'm not at home, but concidering they are doing the Fall/Winter fund raising drive now, I would say its more than likely legit. You can see on the home page here, at the top, about the Donation Drive.

Jeremy

The question is : "Did they send this e-mail or did someone take the opportunity to earn money on SETI's back ?"

Cheers !

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Anne

© anne schmidt - L'Humeur Bleue

Yes it's legit. It's part of the second fund raising drive.The links in the email are the same as the donation links on the SETI@HOME homepage.
Make a donation if you can!

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I don't know if I got this email yet or not as I'm not at home, but concidering they are doing the Fall/Winter fund raising drive now, I would say its more than likely legit. You can see on the home page here, at the top, about the Donation Drive.

Jeremy

The question is : "Did they send this e-mail or did someone take the opportunity to earn money on SETI's back ?"

Cheers !

As Monday said, the links all lead to SETI's donation page. There's nothing I see that would make me think otherwise. Since as I said above in my last post, they are in the middle of the Fall/Winter fundraising drive. They did the same thing with the last fundraising drive.

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If you want to donate, but are concerned the email has "spoofed" the SETI home page, simply donate through the home page from your browser, not through the link in the email.

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I donated another $100

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I don't know if I got this email yet or not as I'm not at home, but concidering they are doing the Fall/Winter fund raising drive now, I would say its more than likely legit. You can see on the home page here, at the top, about the Donation Drive.

Jeremy

The question is : "Did they send this e-mail or did someone take the opportunity to earn money on SETI's back ?"

Cheers !

It is the exact same e-mail SETI spammed us with last year, except they changed the amount they needed.

sorry flat broke...

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Scorpions - Wind Of Change

sorry flat broke...

Me too, kids need a christmas more than me donating money right now, and my bills need to be paid, and we need food to eat, gas in the cars. Sorry.

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Would love to donate money, but just can't afford it at the moment. Maybe in the future.

TOO bad We couldn't just send our Love . . .

No need to worry if anybody cant afford a donation.
I was planning a donation for some germans which hasn´t a credit card.
But my feeling now is it was only hot wind.
I will make another donation after the hollidays.
All the help is much apreciated.
Thanks all.

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With each crime and every kindness we birth our future.

I don't know if I got this email yet or not as I'm not at home, but concidering they are doing the Fall/Winter fund raising drive now, I would say its more than likely legit. You can see on the home page here, at the top, about the Donation Drive.

Jeremy

The question is : "Did they send this e-mail or did someone take the opportunity to earn money on SETI's back ?"

Cheers !

There is a really easy test for something like this:

Look at the URL.

The displayed URL is http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/donate.php.

If you hover the mouse cursor over the URL, and it doesn't change, that's a good sign. If you click on the link and the location box in the browser stays the same, that's good.

What you want to look out for: http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/donate.php?campaign@www.evilsite.org/online-fraud

Notice the "@" sign? In a URL that means that everything to the left is a "user name" and the URL basically starts over just to the right of the "@" -- this is commonly used to trick people that look at the host/domain and not at the whole URL. The URL is often "padded" to push the "@" farther to the right.

Of course, you can just go to the SETI@Home site and click on "donate" and you'll be safe.

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It's safe. I used it to donate. And my donations has updated in my profile. Took about 30 minutes for it to reflect.

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You can also click on any of the donation stars after users names to get to the donation page.

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BOINC WIKI

now ain't that a handy piece of info to have

I can understand Anne's worries absolutely. Last week I almost have been taken in a fraud mail pretending to come from my bank. Thank god I have not reacted on it, else every single detail of my accounts (including TAN and PIN) were now known to that criminal who sent me that mail.
In my opinion it's very important nowadays to take care and rather ask if the mail is legit, than been taken in to a fraud.
If you see any mistakes in vocabulary or grammar, feel free to throw them away - I don't need them anymore.

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Account frozen...

I can understand Anne's worries absolutely. Last week I almost have been taken in a fraud mail pretending to come from my bank. Thank god I have not reacted on it, else every single detail of my accounts (including TAN and PIN) were now known to that criminal who sent me that mail.
In my opinion it's very important nowadays to take care and rather ask if the mail is legit, than been taken in to a fraud.

Most people don't know how to look at SSL certificates when visiting "secure" web sites.

Certificates are not about encryption, they're about identity.

The Certificate Authority issuing the certificate checks to see if the organization behind the site owns the domain name, and actually exists. A good certificate requires some evidence that the request is genuine.

There is also a class of certificates that are "domain verified" that are pretty weak -- the certificate authority only checks to see if the name exists, and if the E-mail is valid.

You can always click on the 'lock' and see the certificate details. If you get directed to a fraudulent PayPal site, and the site is "secure" the certificate won't say "PayPal."

All of this stuff is easy to figure out once you know where (and how) to look.

-- Ned

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