Email Scam/Official Looking Web Pages

[sophia8]

Being in business for myself with the same email address for the last eight years, I receive about 2500 emails a day, all but maybe a dozen on the average being phishing requests, spam, "Nigerian" money makers and other trash. I'm even getting spam in Russian and German, though I speak and read neither.

I've suddenly started getting a lot of Russian-language spam as well. I used to get quite a lot of German-language spam, all from the same company trying to sell me nice German woollen socks.
They've stopped now; I quite miss them. Now the most interesting spam I get is from some crazed Michael Jackson fan (is there any other kind?) which is always good for a laugh.

 

[The Man]

The best (funniest) E-mail spam I’ve ever gotten had a Russian twist but it was in English. It was some years ago and basically a play on the Nigerian 419 scams. It went something like this (but a lot longer).

The Russian ambassador (or minister) is trapped on the MIR space station due to lack of funding to launch a Soyuz craft to bring him home. If you can help in funding the rescue launch you will share in the minister’s “space pay”.

I wish I had saved a copy of this because it was just so absolutely ridiculous.

 

[bigred]

Hang up, and call the firm back, and then discuss the matter, on a call that you initiated.

Once I said "can you hold on one sec, I'm having this call traced in case it's a fraud, and...."

*click*

 

[bigred]

The best (funniest) E-mail spam I’ve ever gotten had a Russian twist but it was in English. It was some years ago and basically a play on the Nigerian 419 scams. It went something like this (but a lot longer).

The Russian ambassador (or minister) is trapped on the MIR space station due to lack of funding to launch a Soyuz craft to bring him home. If you can help in funding the rescue launch you will share in the minister’s “space pay”.

I wish I had saved a copy of this because it was just so absolutely ridiculous.

...and yet as stupid as crooks are, there are always more victims out there that are even stupider. Mind-boggling isn't it

 

[Gord_in_Toronto]

The best (funniest) E-mail spam I’ve ever gotten had a Russian twist but it was in English. It was some years ago and basically a play on the Nigerian 419 scams. It went something like this (but a lot longer).

The Russian ambassador (or minister) is trapped on the MIR space station due to lack of funding to launch a Soyuz craft to bring him home. If you can help in funding the rescue launch you will share in the minister’s “space pay”.

I wish I had saved a copy of this because it was just so absolutely ridiculous.

Wait. Wait! That was a scam? I contributed 10 Rubles and got a nice message thanking me. :bugger:

 

[Boo]

Rather then start a new thread........


I haven't received a scam mail in over 5 years that I can recall, possibly longer. Today this was in my inbox.

This is to inform you that you have won a prize money of One
MillionUnited States Dollars, ($1,000,000.00) for this year 2008 Lottery
promotion which is organized by ECOWAS/SHELL DONATIONS 2008(CONTACT FINANCE DEPARTMENT)Name:Mrs.Jane Okeke Tel:+234-8060-056-926E-mail:remittance_officer04@yahoo.com,ecowasremittance@hotmail.com, To claim your prize.

Does this mean I'm somebody now?



Boo

 

[Susan Gerbic]

Inquiring minds want to know how you stopped spam for 5 years!

Susan

 

[Boo]

I still get spam but for the most part I keep a very low internet profile. I did make the mistake in researching ways to work from home of going a few places I shouldn't have but since I generally use my throw-away e-mail addy for those places it's not too bothersome.

What surprised me was this was sent to my preferred site for correspondence and was not in my spam box.



Boo

 

[rjh01]

Did you find any good ways to work from home (via the Internet?) or are they all scams?

 

[Gord_in_Toronto]

Did you find any good ways to work from home (via the Internet?) or are they all scams?

After years of research I think I can definitively say that the only way to make money on the Internet is to advertise that you have a way to make money on the Internet and then sell them the secret that the only way to make money on the Internet is to sell the secret of how to make money on the Internet.

Rinse and repeat.

 

[phrenicgermal]

I have been getting a LOT in Arabic for some reason. Strangely enough I also get a lot in English that assume that I am Muslim.

 

[Crundy]

I actually wrote an Internet Explorer add-in which will perform a lookup against the domain you are accessing and warn you if it is a spamvertized or phishing site. It only works with XP, and I haven't done any more work on it for quite a while, but if everyone using Windows and IE had it installed then it would be a massive hit to scammers and spammers the world over, as a scary looking warning message when you visit a site does tend to put people off putting their personal details into it

My MS show and tell post pointing to it is here if anyone's interested:
http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=2310683&SiteID=1

 

[phrenicgermal]

I actually wrote an Internet Explorer add-in which will perform a lookup against the domain you are accessing and warn you if it is a spamvertized or phishing site. It only works with XP, and I haven't done any more work on it for quite a while, but if everyone using Windows and IE had it installed then it would be a massive hit to scammers and spammers the world over, as a scary looking warning message when you visit a site does tend to put people off putting their personal details into it

I think there is something on my machine that does that. I have gotten warnings before. I use Opera as my default browser and I have some google stuff installed as well. I also have AVG, Avast, avira, Webroot Spy Sweeper, Norton, and Spyware Doctor running.

Yeah. I'm new to windows. I'm not used to having to be careful about virii. My first week I got this crazy spyware and I had to reinstall everything to get rid of it. I am crazy careful about virii.

 

[Crundy]

IE7 and Firefox both come with a phishing filter, but my add-in uses the real-time SURBL spam blocklists. The aim is to reduce the amount of money spammers make from spamming in the hope they will give it up due to the efford involved outweighing the benefits. It just so happens that one of the SURBL blocklists contains phishing sites as well, which is an added bonus.

 

[Mongrel]

If they don't immediately bring up the problem the email was harping about when you log in, then you can trust the email to be bogus. Simply delete it.

Rather than deleting it immediately search on your bank\phone carrier website for "Phishing". Most of them have an address that you can forward suspicious e-mails to, the sooner they know the quicker they can cut off that particular site. Then you can delete it

 

[phrenicgermal]

Rather than deleting it immediately search on your bank\phone carrier website for "Phishing". Most of them have an address that you can forward suspicious e-mails to, the sooner they know the quicker they can cut off that particular site. Then you can delete it

Gmail has a 'report phishing' link. You have to have the message open, and then it's on the pull down menu to the right where it says Reply. This is different from the 'report spam' link.

 

[rjh01]

Gmail has a 'report phishing' link. You have to have the message open, and then it's on the pull down menu to the right where it says Reply. This is different from the 'report spam' link.

Thanks. I found it.

The pull down menu refered to looks like part of the reply button, but it is not.

 

[ktesibios]

Gmail has a 'report phishing' link. You have to have the message open, and then it's on the pull down menu to the right where it says Reply. This is different from the 'report spam' link.

Hotmail has much the same thing. It's a "report phishing scam" link at the top of the page when you have a message from the "junk mail" folder open.

 

[phrenicgermal]

Thanks. I found it.

The pull down menu refered to looks like part of the reply button, but it is not.

I'm guessing that they make it slightly harder to get to then the spam button because gmail actually has people looking at the phishing messages, an they want to reduce the load (particularly of regular spam marked as phishing).