[jambutty]

Two emails allegedly from E-Gold.

One timed and dated at 06/08/2006 00:07 with the subject that reads:
E-gold down time/security upgrades
The message:

E-gold Under Attack
e-gold was recently the target of a massive Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack, which rendered www.e-gold.com inaccessable for aprox. 7.5hrs on Aug 3, 2006. Firstly, I would like to appologize for any undue stress or concern the current situation may have caused our users.

e-gold Ltd., in a joint decition with the Gold & SilverReserve Inc. [dbaOmniPayhttp://www.omnipay.net] has been developing a strategic outlook regarding plans to update e-gold's current account security measures. We made the best use of the downtime we experienced, taking our servers offline to implement these new security upgrades. We believe our clients will see such an improvement in the overall security of the e-gold system, that it will more then make up for the inconveience that our malicious attackers have caused.

The New Account Sentinel Private Key File™
e-gold's New Account Sentinel Private Key File™(also referred to as AccSentKey™) will signifigantly enhance the security of your e-gold account.

AccSentKey further empowers you to restrict access to your e-gold account by placing a Private Key File on your primary computer(s). This prevents unauthorized computers from accessing your e-gold account, even if current security measures are circumvented, and your password is maliciously obtained/stolen.

e-gold is now beginning it's phase in of this new security measure. By October 1, 2006 e-gold's servers will verify the existence of this Key file every time you access your account. If you do not have this key file on your computer you will be unable to access your e-gold account.

These enhancements are being deployed to provide you an additional level of protection in the event your passphrase is compromised due to poor security practices (we hope this does not describe you!). However, these enhancements should not be regarded as a replacement for proper security. We urge you to read and practice all of e-gold's security recommendations, which are available on e-gold.com.

Installing your new key file
Your new key file can be generated in two ways. Within the next few days you will recieve an email from us with information about the new Private Key File Generation Wizard. Simply use this generator to create your new Key file. If, after October 1, 2006, you sign in without your Private Key File, our new interface will prompt you to generate the file from the web. The e-gold login page will be changed, to allow you to specify the location of the Private Key File on your computer's hard drive.

Dr. Douglas Jackson
Founder of e-gold

The other timed and dated at 06/08/2006 06:19 with an attachment and the subject line of:
E-golds’s Private Key Generator.
The message:

As one of e-gold's highly valued customers, you have been selected to be
part of the first group of e-gold user's to have access to the new security
feature.

You should have already received an e-mail detailing the new security
feature - the AccSentKey. In case you missed it, here is a brief overview:

AccSentKey further empowers you to restrict access to your e-gold account
by placing a Private Key File on your primary computer(s). This prevents
unauthorized computers from accessing your e-gold account, even if current
security measures are circumvented, and your password is maliciously
obtained/stolen.

e-gold is currently beginning it's phase in of this new security measure.
By October 1, 2006 e-gold's servers will verify the existence of this Key
file every time you access your account. If you do not have this key file
on your computer you will be unable to access your e-gold account.

Attached to this e-mail message, please find AccSentKey.zip. You will need
an UnZip program to open this file (e.g. WinZip, WinRAR, etc.). Inside, you
will find the E-gold Private Key Generation Wizard, which will lead you
thru the process of creating your new Private Key.

Please note, that as this is a priliminary release, being done only by
e-mail, our software development team has taken the liberty of 'packing'
(compressing) the software, to decrease the filesize. As such, some
heuristic-based anti-virus software may report that the software is
'packed', however, it should also inform that the software is otherwise
'clean' (contains no virus). The final release of this software will be
uncompressed to eliminate any potential issue.

Best Regards,
Dr. Douglas Jackson
Founder of e-gold

- e-gold security team

Both e-mails were addressed to my email address that is registered with E-Gold and appear to be genuine but in view of their email policy they can’t be.

I’ve forwarded both onto E-Gold and I await their response.

I’m betting that E-Gold did not send them. I’m also betting that they will fool an awful lot of people.