Customer Service Disaster 1: DSL Warehouse

IanFogg | May 27, 2008, 11:45 AM

I've started receiving emails asking for my bank details that are being sent to an email address I have only ever used to buy something from DSL Warehouse.

The email address the phishing emails are being sent to is:
dslwarehouse @ [mypersonaldomainname] . org

i.e. a very very specific email address!

Apparently, it's not just me.

I don't think the problem is anything at my end as I'm not receiving these phishing emails to my normal email addresses. Nor do I think an email using this email address could have been intercepted -- email is very easy to eavesdrop on -- as I haven't used the problem email address for four years and the phishing activity only started a couple of months ago.

So, my conclusion is that either the DSL Warehouse customer database has been hacked, or that a person working for DSL Warehouse has leaked their customer database.

I've emailed DSL Warehouse and received a read receipt so I know my problem report arrived. I didn't hear anything from them after a week, so emailed a follow-up, still nothing. This morning I tried phoning them. Rang without answer.

Not sure on next steps. Is it worth reporting this to my banks or the police?