Spoof e mails
@thebeaddoodler (4262)
Lubbock, Texas
May 18, 2008 11:02am CST
I'm always receiving e mails wanting my name address and phone number, because I've won a lottery that I didn't enter, or somebody has left me a million british pounds and it's in a bank somewhere just waiting for me to claim it etc. These are obviously frauds aimed at either stealing my money or my identity or both.
Today I got one with a twist. It said it was from the government of Nigeria and they were trying to track down all the people that had been defrauded by such e mails in an attempt to pay the money back.
HaH! They wanted my name, address, phone number, and bank account # in order to "direct deposit" my refund.
Yeah! Right! Since I hadn't been defrauded out of anything, it was obviously just a random email list they were working from.
1 person likes this
2 responses
@aplaza (630)
• Netherlands
18 May 08
Funny I was just thinking the same thing. I just call them spam. Either I've won the prize in a lottery, I'm being offered a couple of million to pick up a fedex package or whatever. The contents change but I always report the filthy you-know-whats.
I do want to say one thing though. It's not always your own fault. Okay I can imagine signing up on a website that promises to keep your details private but goes belly up at some point. What irks me is that apparantly that email addy is being sold on and on and on...(I wish I knew where to sell cuz I got a bucketload of addy's used by the filthy spammers for sale!) but also ...and this is really a lot creepier....getting spammed on the addy of a domain I bought like two seconds ago.
YET the very very worst is that I almost blocked myself on my own email list when it turned out the *&^%$heads had used MY email as the sending address! THAT really got my goat!
I'd like to ask everybody who gets those stupid emails to report them for what they are. Yes it takes a minute (especially if you are reporting some sickko who abuses the yahoo groups) and yes it never quite stops but I hope that if more people would actually report this bad behaviour it will help in the end.
2 people like this
@thebeaddoodler (4262)
• Lubbock, Texas
18 May 08
Could you tell us where to report such things? I know if it's a Paypal fraudulent e mail it goes to spoof@paypal.com, but I don't know where to send the others.
1 person likes this
@aplaza (630)
• Netherlands
19 May 08
The very fact that there are people who actually do reply to those spammers gives those morons an incentive to keep doing it.
Today in The Netherlands a couple of spammers were hit with a charge of half a million euros because they'd sent zillions of spams. (which by the way were reported otherwise they wouldn't have been able to slap on those charges!) That should teach them! And be a warning to all who think they can get away with it that crime doesn't pay in the end.
2 people like this
