if this is legit, SW needs to protect their servers Re: southwest airlines sends out their own phishing email

[Michael Scheidell <sc...@secnap.net>]

from other that have see this email from other airlines:
(and, sw needs to protect my PPI by using SSL servers, not plain text 
servers that belong to a marketing company)



Is the TSA “trying to scare me into providing personal information”?

June 2, 2009

Secure Flight. Just the mention of those two words is enough to confuse, 
frustrate or frighten the average air traveler. As in, “The 
Transportation Security Administration’s new Secure Flight program will 
require you to … (insert name of ridiculous new policy here).”

The question now isn’t what is Secure Flight. It’s, “what isn’t it?

Frank Perch got the following email from AirTran the other day, for example.

    Recently, the Transportation Security Administration announced 
changes to their watch list matching process called Secure Flight. The 
mission of Secure Flight is to enhance the security of domestic and 
international air travel through the use of improved watch list 
matching. Another benefit will be greatly reduced incidents of 
passengers being misidentified with names on the TSA’s watch lists.

<http://www.elliott.org/blog/is-the-tsa-trying-to-scare-me-into-providing-personal-information/>

He thought it was a scam.

    The email does not exactly say, but strongly implies, that if I goof 
up — if my name on the reservation does not exactly match the format on 
my ID — that my ticket will not be valid.

    My first reaction to this email was actually that it must be a 
phishing email of some kind. Some crook is trying to scare me into 
providing personal information. Yet the email seemed to pass many of the 
usual phishing tests. I couldn’t find any spoofed hyperlinks for instance.

    I was still suspicious though because none of the other airlines I 
deal with was contacting me about this alleged requirement, which the 
email says is effective TODAY, and also usually when there is something 
important like that one would expect a bit of advance notice.

As it turns out, the email is legit, and so is the requirement. But 
Perch’s note underscores the fact that there’s so much misinformation 
about the new TSA policy, it’s amazing that air travel hasn’t ground to 
a halt.
_________________________________________________________________________
This email has been scanned and certified safe by SpammerTrap(r). 
For Information please see http://www.spammertrap.com
_________________________________________________________________________