I have received emails that look like you bank, credit card company or paypal. Today I got a new kind. It was an email from a family member. He was over seas and needed money for an operation of another family member. All I can say is DON'T FALL FOR THESE SCAMS. They look so real.
My ISP sent out an alert about a resurgance of this kind of scam this morning. A word to the wise should be enough.
-- D
"A word to the wise isn't necessary - it's the stupid ones that need the advice. " ~Marx
Quote from: ACY on May 19, 2011, 02:06:29 AM
"A word to the wise isn't necessary - it's the stupid ones that need the advice. " ~Marx
Karl or Groucho?
Groucho, the same guy who provided the quote for Jim Banner.
If I had a nickel for every scam email I have received, I would be able to retire. Oh, wait. I am retired. But if I had followed up on even one of them, I would have to work the rest of my life.
That is the scary part. Even if 99.99% of the scam emails these crooks send out are ignored, that means 1 in 10,000 isn't. So for every million scam emails they send out, they get about 100 hot prospects. And if they can defraud only one tenth of those, they don't have to work for the next year or two. Their initial investment is low, their chances of being caught are low, and their punishment if they are caught is usually pretty minor. Their take, however, can be high to very high. No wonder there are so many of them. I can only hope that the good people here are never among their victims.
Jim
Not only that, but many scam emails have a link attachment to see what people have in their Windowss PC or convert the PC into a Bot which becomes part of a huge Botnet which is used to send out more Spam.
It is estimated that about 80 percent of all emails are Spam. That gives you an idea on how many clueless are using PC's.
You just cannot fix IT.
Rich
Yep, they're getting sneakier, got an e-mail a couple days ago from the "FBI", official seal & all. It said that a Nigerian lawyer was trying to find me, because a long lost great uncle had died and left me (his sole surviving relative) his estate valued at roughly $750,000.00. The problems with this are: 1) nobody in my family has ever been to, or came from, Nigeria. 2) Both of my parents, 2 brothers and a sister are still alive & kicking, no way i could be ANYONE'S sloe surviving heir ::) ::) Sad too, because I could use that cash for my dream layout.
Alan
I always have great fun with the scammers I always reply asking for more info then tell them I sent the money so they make a useless trip to the money exchange, I keep them going until they stop emailing, I have also told the ones that say they have millions waiting for me that I dont have the two thousand dollars thay ask me for because the IRS has locked my accounts until I pay $100 fine. funny non have offered to send me any cash yet :'(
NM
You should never reply to these emails. This is what Hoax Slayer says about spam emails. "By replying, you are simply letting the spammer know that you email address is active and that you actually open spam messages. This makes you a prime target, and the amount of spam you receive is likely to increase."
http://www.hoax-slayer.com/don't-reply-spam.html
Narrow-Minded's proactive approach is certainly tempting! It answers the inmost psychological need to "get that %#+!@*" and, NM says, it does seem to work. The reason that "don't even acknowledge the #@$*+s" is good advice is that not everybody has the skill and the tenacity to resist their blandishments.
Intelligent people are, strange as it seems, at considerable risk. That's because intelligent brains can consider contradictory ideas simultaneously. Which is to say, even in the face of the obvious fraud, that little tiny shred of possibility that it might be true, just this one time ... and your own secret but powerful wish to have a million dollars to build that dream layout ... is still there, and you still listen to it.
It's sort of like the notice on a piece of equipment (say, a DCC unit) that says "Do not open; no user-serviceable parts inside." If you know what you're doing, it's okay to get in there. But if you don't, you'll make a mess and ruin the unit. Or the "No Parking" sign in the space that's reserved for you ... it does apply to everybody else, but not to those who are really (not just in their own imaginations) able to qualify.
Or, as sthe old philosopher said, don't pick a fight or make a bet unless you KNOW you'll win.
Happy Rails to you...................................................
It is good advise to just delete these emails unopened, I should mention that I do this with free yahoo and gmail accounts only that I have set up[ for when a company asks for an email, I keep my family and work business very secure with spam filters, even the one I have here sends everything to the trash file first where I review it first before opening it.
lastly I never open an attachment or link from friend or foe unless I have been advised it was being sent before hand.
NM
I also have a little fun with the people who cold call trying to sell things, kind of a la NarrowMinded.
My wife and I use our own last names and our telephone is listed under her name because I had a sensitive job which meant I would have been a fool to list the phone under my name. Well, that means we get the usual telephone solicitations, despite being on the do not call list, and I am addressed by my wife's last name by the people who actually have no idea who they're calling. So I say, "Hello," and they say, "Hi. How are you today Mr. Miller?" This instantly reveals them as someone who doesn't know us and who has no legitimate reason to call us. Sometimes I just hang up but other times I exclaim into the phone in my most hysterical voice, "What! You mean there's a Mr. Miller? Holy s***, buddy, I gotta get outa here. Right now!" And I hang up hard. They never call back.
Donaldon,
That is a great one to use, I can't wait till the next sells call. When I get bored and the mood strikes me I lead sale people on, asking questions like I am interested then when they try to land the "big Fish" I simply say "Oh no thanks I was just tieing you up so you couldnt bother the next guy.
I think I get it from my Dad, back in the days before caller ID when a crank caller would dial our number instead of just slamming the phone down he would mess with them until they hung up on him...
Oh well Back to installing decoders...................
The last time I got a cold call I told them I didn't have a phone but my dog did. They went quiet and then hung up. I wonder why? ::)
The only thing wrong with the do not call list is two exemption. Political and charital. The charities call all the time and the political really click in about 3 months before an election. One trick I have is to never pickup the phone until after the 3rd ring.
I think we better get back to our layouts.
I fell for a scam, but it was called Wall Street and i had no recourse...
Here's another fun idea:
After a little conversation to verify that the boiler-room caller is trying to reach *this* person, at *this* number, you cover the phone just enough to muffle, but not enough so the caller can't actually hear what you're saying, and you shout to an imaginary co-worker, "Hey, Charlie, alert the chief .... we've got a guy on the line trying to contact Al-Qaida"
(That oughta hold the little $@&*%s)
Happy Phony Phoning to ya!
railsider-
So. Your telephone tricks go beyond merely fun to truly evil. I like it!
-- D
Quote from: termite on May 19, 2011, 08:29:25 PM
Yep, they're getting sneakier, got an e-mail a couple days ago from the "FBI", official seal & all. It said that a Nigerian lawyer was trying to find me, because a long lost great uncle had died and left me (his sole surviving relative) his estate valued at roughly $750,000.00. The problems with this are: 1) nobody in my family has ever been to, or came from, Nigeria. 2) Both of my parents, 2 brothers and a sister are still alive & kicking, no way i could be ANYONE'S sloe surviving heir ::) ::) Sad too, because I could use that cash for my dream layout.
Alan
THE FIRST TIME THAT I GOT AN E-MAIL THAT SAID THAT IT WAS FROM THE FBI, I CALLED THE FBI AND THEY ADVISED ME THAT THEY NEVER CONTACT PEOPLE BY E-MAIL! OTHER AGENCIES OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT DO NOT DO SO EITHER. THEY USE REGULAR MAIL. An easy way to tell whether an e-mail is coming from a person in the federal government is that the e-mail address has to end in ".gov". If it doesn't, it's a fake.
Assume that any e-mail correspondence coming from overseas is a fake. Anything that tells you that you have "won" anything is a fake. If you have any doubt, do a google search for the author and "scam" or "complaint" and you will usually find out that it's a scam letter. You aren't the first. The same scam has always been tried before on someone else before they try it on you.
E-mails from United Nations agencies and overseas barristers are also fakes. Likewise for e-mails from foreign subsidiaries of well-known companies that do business in the United States.
Anytime that someone asks you for your bank account number, social security number, date of birth, etc....assume that it is a scam. Reputable businesses do not ask you for this kind of information in e-mails. The way that the scammers work is to tell you that they need this information in order to transfer the funds into your bank account. Once they have this information, they can either go after what's in your bank account or go on an identity theft rampage in your name...or both!
Remember...if it seems too good to be true...IT IS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE! I hope that this information helps you to avoid these crooks.
IT'S A SCAM!
P.S. - Everything that comes out of Nigeria is a scam.
The 'from' in email addresses can easily be forged, so even if it does end in .gov doesn't mean it's real.
The scammers out there are very good at their craft! They even make the false website look like the real thing, but there is one too many or one too few letters in the false website or email address, so it goes to the wrong place!
Another one that is somewhat new is, to send emails about cashing checks or money orders from somebody and forwarding the money! THE CHECKS or MONEY ORDERS ARE FAKE!!!!! Take it to the place it is suposed to be wrote on, like the bank it is written from or the US Post Office if a money order.
The oldest scam that still works is the bank manager scam checking the tellers for accuracy!! People over 65 fall for this one quite often and even more often than most people think.
Some of the con artist are the smoothest talkers you will ever meet!! They could sell freezers to polar bears at the North Pole, that's how smooth they are.
Lee F.
RAM-
There are actually three things wrong with the Do Not Call list: way too many boiler rooms tell their callers to ignore it and call anyway. The only thing that will make it truly effective is the Feds vigorously enforcing violations (meaning we have to do our part by reporting them) or if the phone companies are forced to render our numbers unreachable from telephone marketers.
-- D
Thanks all for the great ideas, by this time next week I should have all the train money I need!
;D ;) ;D