Good news. I just read that there has been a major bust of
the infamous Nigerian email scammers. Spanish police
arrested 31O people, mostly Nigerians. That should drop my
incoming mail significantly. I am amazed that they managed
to scam 20,000 people in one year.

Dave Smith wrote:

> Good news. I just read that there has been a major bust of
> the infamous Nigerian email scammers. Spanish police
> arrested 31O people, mostly Nigerians. That should drop my
> incoming mail significantly. I am amazed that they managed
> to scam 20,000 people in one year.

I wonder if the late Pope's "widow" was among them.

--
Dan Goodman
Journal http://www.livejournal.com/users/dsgood/
Clutterers Anonymous unofficial community
http://www.livejournal.com/community/clutterers_anon/
Decluttering http://decluttering.blogspot.com
Predictions and Politics http://dsgood.blogspot.com
All political parties die at last of swallowing their own lies.
John Arbuthnot (1667-1735), Scottish writer, physician.

"Dave Smith" > wrote in message
...
> Good news. I just read that there has been a major bust of
> the infamous Nigerian email scammers. Spanish police
> arrested 31O people, mostly Nigerians. That should drop my
> incoming mail significantly. I am amazed that they managed
> to scam 20,000 people in one year.
>
>

This site http://www.419eater.com/ is put together by a guy who engages
these thieves in email dialogues, and sometimes even gets them to send HIM
money. Some fun reading.


--
TigBits
(o)Y(o)

TigBits wrote:
> "Dave Smith" > wrote in message
> ...
> > Good news. I just read that there has been a major bust of
> > the infamous Nigerian email scammers. Spanish police
> > arrested 31O people, mostly Nigerians. That should drop my
> > incoming mail significantly. I am amazed that they managed
> > to scam 20,000 people in one year.
> >
> >
>
> This site http://www.419eater.com/ is put together by a guy who engages
> these thieves in email dialogues, and sometimes even gets them to send HIM
> money. Some fun reading.
>
>
> --
> TigBits
> (o)Y(o)

One variation that my son got was "we'll buy your [name the item you
have up for auction] and we'll hand-deliver a cashier's check made out
to you for x dollars more than the selling price, and all you have to
do is give us back the difference. We can't get the check cashed
ourselves because [fill in lame excuse]." LOL. I'm amazed at the
people who get sucked in by this - some Minnesota couple, I think, lost
$7,200.

My son told them that if the check was still good after 21 days, he'd
do it. He didn't hear back from them.

Another spoof e-mail that has been bugging the heck out of me is
allegedly from Ebay, saying I sold a Pep Boys $500 gift card and now
the buyer didn't get the card, so they have reported me for fraud.
Another LOL. I'm not an Ebay seller; never have been. I've reported
it to Ebay, but I continue to get 2 or 3 of these messages every day.

N.

wrote:
> TigBits wrote:
>> "Dave Smith" > wrote in message
>> ...
>>> Good news. I just read that there has been a major bust of
>>> the infamous Nigerian email scammers. Spanish police
>>> arrested 31O people, mostly Nigerians. That should drop my
>>> incoming mail significantly. I am amazed that they managed
>>> to scam 20,000 people in one year.
>>>
>>>
>>
>> This site http://www.419eater.com/ is put together by a guy who
>> engages these thieves in email dialogues, and sometimes even gets
>> them to send HIM money. Some fun reading.
>>
>>
>> --
>> TigBits
>> (o)Y(o)
>
> One variation that my son got was "we'll buy your [name the item you
> have up for auction] and we'll hand-deliver a cashier's check made out
> to you for x dollars more than the selling price, and all you have to
> do is give us back the difference. We can't get the check cashed
> ourselves because [fill in lame excuse]." LOL. I'm amazed at the
> people who get sucked in by this - some Minnesota couple, I think,
> lost $7,200.
>
> My son told them that if the check was still good after 21 days, he'd
> do it. He didn't hear back from them.
>
> Another spoof e-mail that has been bugging the heck out of me is
> allegedly from Ebay, saying I sold a Pep Boys $500 gift card and now
> the buyer didn't get the card, so they have reported me for fraud.
> Another LOL. I'm not an Ebay seller; never have been. I've reported
> it to Ebay, but I continue to get 2 or 3 of these messages every day.
>
> N.

Yeah, I love it when I get "Your eBay Account Will be Suspended!" emails. I
don't have an account with eBay. Sure, I've bought stuff from folks on eBay
and even sold a couple of things. I mail them a check and wait for the
merchandise. I don't have an "account" with eBay. And I'm sure not stupid
enough to give someone who sends me an email my bank information or a credit
card number. Makes me wonder about those people who *are* that stupid.
Maybe they deserve to get ripped off.

Jill

On Thu, 21 Jul 2005 11:19:22 -0500, jmcquown wrote:

> Yeah, I love it when I get "Your eBay Account Will be Suspended!" emails. I
> don't have an account with eBay. Sure, I've bought stuff from folks on eBay
> and even sold a couple of things. I mail them a check and wait for the
> merchandise. I don't have an "account" with eBay. And I'm sure not stupid
> enough to give someone who sends me an email my bank information or a credit
> card number. Makes me wonder about those people who *are* that stupid.
> Maybe they deserve to get ripped off.

I don't think they're stupid, just naive. Those emails look
legitimate so if people are not familiar with the process, they could
be suckered in. I've even gotten a legitimate looking phishing letter
that looked like it came from my own bank... the thing is, I've never
given any bank an email address.

You can protect yourself with due diligence from phishing, but what's
really scary to me are the trojans that hijack your computer and take
it to a look alike site when you type in a legitimate url, like your
bank.

PROTECT yourselves everyone! Update your current software
definations. If you don't have any or don't have enough...

find what's lurking with a free online scan for viruses, worms and
Trojans http://www.pandasoftware.com/activescan/

(free) adware/malware protection
AdAware http://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download/

(free) AntiVirus
AVG http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1/lng/us/tpl/v5
Avast! http://www.avast.com/eng/down_home.html

(free) Personal Firewall
ZoneAlarm http://www.zonelabs.com/ http://tinyurl.com/38ptm

Of course, the first line of defense is to install a Hosts file and
manager (free):
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm

sf wrote:

> On Thu, 21 Jul 2005 11:19:22 -0500, jmcquown wrote:
>
> > Yeah, I love it when I get "Your eBay Account Will be Suspended!" emails. I
> > don't have an account with eBay. Sure, I've bought stuff from folks on eBay
> > and even sold a couple of things. I mail them a check and wait for the
> > merchandise. I don't have an "account" with eBay. And I'm sure not stupid
> > enough to give someone who sends me an email my bank information or a credit
> > card number. Makes me wonder about those people who *are* that stupid.
> > Maybe they deserve to get ripped off.
>
> I don't think they're stupid, just naive.

It seems that one of the qualities that makes people susceptible to scams is their
own greed. It's been a long time since I bothered to read any of those Nigerian
scam emails but the deal seemed to be that someone of some importance, or the
family of some person who have been jailed, murdered or plain died, has a sizeable
fortune that they cannot access or cannot get out of the country. Right from the
start it is obvious that they are conspiring to do something illegal. How stupid
can a person be to trust a complete stranger who has contacted them out of the blue
and invited them to cooperate in an illegal scheme. And how stupid can people be
to buy into the scheme when there are three or four more similar proposals coming
via email every day?



> Those emails look
> legitimate so if people are not familiar with the process, they could
> be suckered in. I've even gotten a legitimate looking phishing letter
> that looked like it came from my own bank... the thing is, I've never
> given any bank an email address.
>
> You can protect yourself with due diligence from phishing, but what's
> really scary to me are the trojans that hijack your computer and take
> it to a look alike site when you type in a legitimate url, like your
> bank.
>
> PROTECT yourselves everyone! Update your current software
> definations. If you don't have any or don't have enough...

I am all for draconian measures to deal with these sorts of criminals. When the
authorities have the evidence to nail someone with internet fraud they have records
of the emails that have been sent out. They can estimate (or guesstimate) the
cost of the damage done and assume that every computer contacted could have been
affected, and then levy that cost times the number of emails sent and assess it as
the penalty for the fraud.... plus jail time. That will make some of those twits
sit up and take notice.

sf wrote:

> On Thu, 21 Jul 2005 11:19:22 -0500, jmcquown wrote:
>
>
>> Yeah, I love it when I get "Your eBay Account Will be Suspended!" emails. I
>> don't have an account with eBay. Sure, I've bought stuff from folks on eBay
>> and even sold a couple of things. I mail them a check and wait for the
>> merchandise. I don't have an "account" with eBay. And I'm sure not stupid
>> enough to give someone who sends me an email my bank information or a credit
>> card number. Makes me wonder about those people who *are* that stupid.
>> Maybe they deserve to get ripped off.
>
>
> I don't think they're stupid, just naive. Those emails look
> legitimate so if people are not familiar with the process, they could
> be suckered in. I've even gotten a legitimate looking phishing letter
> that looked like it came from my own bank... the thing is, I've never
> given any bank an email address.
>
> You can protect yourself with due diligence from phishing, but what's
> really scary to me are the trojans that hijack your computer and take
> it to a look alike site when you type in a legitimate url, like your
> bank.
>
> PROTECT yourselves everyone! Update your current software
> definations. If you don't have any or don't have enough...
>
> find what's lurking with a free online scan for viruses, worms and
> Trojans http://www.pandasoftware.com/activescan/
>
> (free) adware/malware protection
> AdAware http://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download/
>
> (free) AntiVirus
> AVG http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1/lng/us/tpl/v5
> Avast! http://www.avast.com/eng/down_home.html
>
> (free) Personal Firewall
> ZoneAlarm http://www.zonelabs.com/ http://tinyurl.com/38ptm
>
> Of course, the first line of defense is to install a Hosts file and
> manager (free):
> http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm

I think Netscape 8 warns of such hijackings before they occur,
IIRC.

--
Jean B.

jmcquown wrote:

> wrote:
>
>>TigBits wrote:
>>
>>>"Dave Smith" > wrote in message
...
>>>
>>>>Good news. I just read that there has been a major bust of
>>>>the infamous Nigerian email scammers. Spanish police
>>>>arrested 31O people, mostly Nigerians. That should drop my
>>>>incoming mail significantly. I am amazed that they managed
>>>>to scam 20,000 people in one year.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>This site http://www.419eater.com/ is put together by a guy who
>>>engages these thieves in email dialogues, and sometimes even gets
>>>them to send HIM money. Some fun reading.
>>>
>>>
>>>--
>>>TigBits
>>>(o)Y(o)
>>
>>One variation that my son got was "we'll buy your [name the item you
>>have up for auction] and we'll hand-deliver a cashier's check made out
>>to you for x dollars more than the selling price, and all you have to
>>do is give us back the difference. We can't get the check cashed
>>ourselves because [fill in lame excuse]." LOL. I'm amazed at the
>>people who get sucked in by this - some Minnesota couple, I think,
>>lost $7,200.
>>
>>My son told them that if the check was still good after 21 days, he'd
>>do it. He didn't hear back from them.
>>
>>Another spoof e-mail that has been bugging the heck out of me is
>>allegedly from Ebay, saying I sold a Pep Boys $500 gift card and now
>>the buyer didn't get the card, so they have reported me for fraud.
>>Another LOL. I'm not an Ebay seller; never have been. I've reported
>>it to Ebay, but I continue to get 2 or 3 of these messages every day.
>>
>>N.
>
>
> Yeah, I love it when I get "Your eBay Account Will be Suspended!" emails. I
> don't have an account with eBay. Sure, I've bought stuff from folks on eBay
> and even sold a couple of things. I mail them a check and wait for the
> merchandise. I don't have an "account" with eBay. And I'm sure not stupid
> enough to give someone who sends me an email my bank information or a credit
> card number. Makes me wonder about those people who *are* that stupid.
> Maybe they deserve to get ripped off.
>
> Jill
>
>
It makes it really easy when you don't have the accounts in
question. :-) I will tell you something kind-of funny
though. I got some mail from a bank whose name I didn't
recognize and shoved it aside. May even have ripped up one
missive. Then I started getting some mysterious phone calls
and mysterious messages on my answering machine. Then the
caller mentioned a name I actually recognized from my
genealogy research. Turns out I actually am getting part of a
trust fund set up a long time ago. But I was soooo suspicious
that it was just a scam that I almost didn't answer at all....

--
Jean B.

And I got a letter from some fulfillment center, sent it to the spam
dump, and when I called to find out about my towel rebates, found out
that they had tried to contact me about the address--they only ship to
streets, not po boxes! Dang! That one cost me $50 bucks!

maxine in ri

On 21 Jul 2005 08:54:06 -0700, wrote:

>
>
> TigBits wrote:
> > "Dave Smith" > wrote in message
> > ...
> > > Good news. I just read that there has been a major bust of
> > > the infamous Nigerian email scammers. Spanish police
> > > arrested 31O people, mostly Nigerians. That should drop my
> > > incoming mail significantly. I am amazed that they managed
> > > to scam 20,000 people in one year.
> > >
> > >
> >
> > This site http://www.419eater.com/ is put together by a guy who engages
> > these thieves in email dialogues, and sometimes even gets them to send HIM
> > money. Some fun reading.
> >
> >
> > --
> > TigBits
> > (o)Y(o)
>
> One variation that my son got was "we'll buy your [name the item you
> have up for auction] and we'll hand-deliver a cashier's check made out
> to you for x dollars more than the selling price, and all you have to
> do is give us back the difference. We can't get the check cashed
> ourselves because [fill in lame excuse]." LOL. I'm amazed at the
> people who get sucked in by this - some Minnesota couple, I think, lost
> $7,200.
>
> My son told them that if the check was still good after 21 days, he'd
> do it. He didn't hear back from them.
>
> Another spoof e-mail that has been bugging the heck out of me is
> allegedly from Ebay, saying I sold a Pep Boys $500 gift card and now
> the buyer didn't get the card, so they have reported me for fraud.
> Another LOL. I'm not an Ebay seller; never have been. I've reported
> it to Ebay, but I continue to get 2 or 3 of these messages every day.
>
How about Phishing? I've gotten phishing schemes supposedly from EBay
saying they need to update my information. Yeah, right - I've got a
bridge to sell on EBay too.

sf
who can't get off EBay's legitimate mailing list, so I'm just sending
it all directly to the trash now

On Thu, 21 Jul 2005 15:41:42 GMT, "TigBits" >
wrote:

>
>"Dave Smith" > wrote in message
...
>> Good news. I just read that there has been a major bust of
>> the infamous Nigerian email scammers. Spanish police
>> arrested 31O people, mostly Nigerians. That should drop my
>> incoming mail significantly. I am amazed that they managed
>> to scam 20,000 people in one year.
>>
Ok folks a free tip here and you don't even have to send money first.
Never ever ever respond to those and other money scam emails. What
happens when you respond (no matter how mad you get at them) is you
confirm that the email spider has found a live inbox and your email
address will be spred to all the maggots pushing these criminal acts.

I hope they did not mistakenly arrest the guy who is going to forward
$120,000,000 to my bank account to hold for his uncle. I will get 10
percent of that.

To prove that I am honest and that I would give them all their money,
he requested and I sent $25,000 of my own money up front. That was
three weeks ago. He is supposed to send it back once he visually sees
the bank check. I guess their mail is slower than ours.

Man, I can't want till I get my millions!!


Mark
Click here eveyday to feed a rescued animal:

http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/

Dave Smith wrote:
> Good news. I just read that there has been a major bust of
> the infamous Nigerian email scammers. Spanish police
> arrested 31O people, mostly Nigerians. That should drop my
> incoming mail significantly. I am amazed that they managed
> to scam 20,000 people in one year.
>
>


There's one born every minute. Now if they would
disable the Paypal and Ebay email scams, that would
halve my email. (

"Final notice, your account is about to be canceled."

Ummm, I've never HAD an account....

gloria p

Puester wrote:

> There's one born every minute. Now if they would
> disable the Paypal and Ebay email scams, that would
> halve my email. (
>
> "Final notice, your account is about to be canceled."
>
> Ummm, I've never HAD an account....

Funny thing about that. I have been getting mail Paypal <?> and
eBay <?> for many months, all threatening to cancel the accounts
that I never had. I have also had email from my bank asking me to
update my personal information. I even had one from the Ontario
Ministry of Transportation telling me that if I didn't update my
personal information my drivers licence would be cancelled.
Having worked for that ministry for 28 years I know there is no
way they would conduct business by way of email, and I knew who
to forward the email to for investigation :-)

Sadly, there are too many people out there who do not realize
that the internet is not secure enough for banks and government
to use for personal information. Nor do they realize that offers
that are too good to be true are frauds.

"Dave Smith" > wrote

> Sadly, there are too many people out there who do not realize
> that the internet is not secure enough for banks and government
> to use for personal information. Nor do they realize that offers
> that are too good to be true are frauds.

I feel badly for the growing number of elderly people who
believe those 'you have won a prize' just send us $500 via
Fedex or some such, then oh, we need more for blah blah.
Then they finally write to troubleshooter in the paper to see
how they can get their money back because they're starting
to think it's a fraud. Inevitably they are living having to mouth
on social security. When younger people fall for these scams,
I have less sympathy because it's just stupid.

nancy