E-mail Scam - They're Getting More Professional

[Belinda Barfield]

This is the first time I've received this one. I wonder which Crown Prince, dead relative, etc., gave me all this money.:rolleyes:



Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta
International Airport
6000 N Terminal Pkwy
Atlanta, GA 30320

E-mail:mrpeterferguson@superposta.com

Attn: Consignee,

We Intercepted your Consignment Box Tagged personal effect on Transit. When
scanned it is estimated that the consignment contains valuable cash between $4.5
to $5Million Dollars. The consignment was intercepted and deposited in our
restricted bonded store because it was not properly declared.

The details on the consignment tagged.

Type: SUITCASE
Wheels: 4 wheels
Handles: Trolley handle with top & side handles
Approximate Dimensions: Height: 3.20 ft, Width: 2.50 ft, Depth: 1.90
ft.
Weight: 180lbs.

We need;
1. Your Full Name.
2. Home phone & Cell Phone
3. Home delivery address
4. Any form of Identification either Drivers license or International
Passport.

You are expected to come or assign an Attorney who will come for the
normalization of your Bill of Entry and pick up of your Consignment.

Best Regard.

Mr. Peter Ferguson.

[Jim Koepke]

If email is from someone I do not know or a company with which I haven't done business, it goes in the junk file. If it is a business that gets too persistent after buying something from them, they too will get routed to the junk file.

My mail program will not load images of mail in the junk file. This is how most of these scammers know the have found a valid eddress. If I feel like it, I can then check the mail in the junk file. Most often it gets flushed just like other things that get flushed.

My mail program also has a "bounce" feature. This sends back the email to the original sender with a notice that the eddress is invalid.

Sadly, there are many people who are not up to speed on these things.

Maybe if we had all the information requested for our elected representatives and sent that back in the reply, our elected officials might do something to put the scammers in jail.

jtk

[Belinda Barfield]

This was caught by my spam filter. I've flown out of Hartsfield many times and since the airport was the subject of the e-mail I took the time to open it. At least I got a good laugh today. :)

[Kevin Bourque]

I got a scam Email a few months ago claiming to be from Wells Fargo. They spelled bank, BANCK

[Bob Turkovich]

My MIL's first question would be "Where can I get that big of a suitcase?"

I wonder what the check-in baggage fee would be...

[Gary Hodgin]

Sounds like you've hit the mother load.

[Erik Loza]

Don't know if this has aything to do with it but here is an observation, since I deal with hundreds of personal email addresses routinely: The folks who I see get their accounts hacked or get spammed the most are those with msn, hotmail, yahoo, or aol accounts. Those must be big targets for hackers or spammers. In fact, I am pretty sure someone actually hacked the forum administrator for our Yahoo Owner's Group, recently. I had msn for years and then switched to Gmail after getting hacked, myself, and now, rarely get any spam type messages like above. It seems like Gmail has a higher level of security.

Just an interesting observation.

Erik Loza
Minimax USA

[Gary Hodgin]

Erik,
I use gmail as my secondary email account. The important stuff goes to another account and I get very traffic in it. Gmail's spam filter works pretty well though. I'd say 20-30 emails daily go into my spam on gmail and if a new one starts I mark it as spam and usually don't have any further emails.

[Bill Cunningham]

Just don't send anything private or important using gmail.. If you read google fine print, EVERYTHING you send through their system gives google full rights to use it for what ever purpose they wish.. Google gives nothing, for free..It's tracking, recording and possibly using everything in it's data mining endevours.

[Gary Hodgin]

+1, my primary email is through Mozilla Thunderbird.

[Bill ThompsonNM]

Just don't send anything private or important using gmail.. If you read google fine print, EVERYTHING you send through their system gives google full rights to use it for what ever purpose they wish.. Google gives nothing, for free..It's tracking, recording and possibly using everything in it's data mining endevours.
I just reviewed googles privacy policy. This statement is 180 degrees from what Google states in their policy.

To quote a few paragraphs:
"Is Google reading my mail?No, but automatic scanning and filtering technology is at the heart of Gmail. Gmail scans and processes all messages using fully automated systems in order to do useful and innovative stuff like filter spam, detect viruses and malware, show relevant ads, and develop and deliver new features across your Google experience. Priority Inbox (http://mail.google.com/mail/help/intl/en/priority-inbox.html), spell checking, forwarding, auto-responding, automatic saving and sorting, and converting URLs to clickable links are just a few of the many features that use this kind of automatic processing.

Does Google share my email with advertisers?No. Google does not share your email address, your messages, or any other personal information with advertisers.

Can other users see how I use Gmail (e.g. when I read their messages, mark their messages as “not important,” mute a conversation, use labels and filters, etc.)?No, how you use Gmail is your own business. Personalization features like Priority inbox, Smart Labels and custom filters enable you to tailor Gmail to your needs. The way you use Gmail’s customizations and the way you handle your mail (e.g. whether you mark messages from someone as “unimportant” or set a filter to archive them) are not visible to other users."


Unfortunately, Google, being the 800 lb gorilla of theinternet is frequently accused of bad practices which they seem to work to avoid. I'm not affiliated with Google in any manner although I have spent the majority of my career developing large Internet databases and search engines.

[harry hood]

This is true for any web mail service. If you're sending something you want to keep private via email, free or otherwise, you need to encrypt it. Otherwise it's really no different than sending a postcard through the mail.

[Andrew Pitonyak]

I received an email from some pretty young Russian that claims that we were chatting on my Face Book page. Instructions are included so that I could go to a web site to see her pictures and chat.

I just can't figure out who falls for that. OK, so ignore the fact that I do not have a face book page. If I did, and I was chatting with her, why would I join a web site to chat some more? Oh, and if I had been chatting with her and I forgot, well, I probably don't care enough to go find her again.

[Rod Sheridan]

You've been holding out on us Belinda, you never said that your fabrication business was lucrative enough to generate that kind of cash.:D

Regards, Rod

[Belinda Barfield]

You've been holding out on us Belinda, you never said that your fabrication business was lucrative enough to generate that kind of cash.:D

Regards, Rod

Yeah, well, I didn't want to have a bunch of people I don't know deciding they want to be friends with me. :rolleyes::D

[Bill Cunningham]

I just reviewed googles privacy policy. This statement is 180 degrees from what Google states in their policy.

To quote a few paragraphs:
"Is Google reading my mail?No, but automatic scanning and filtering technology is at the heart of Gmail. Gmail scans and processes all messages using fully automated systems in order to do useful and innovative stuff like filter spam, detect viruses and malware, show relevant ads, and develop and deliver new features across your Google experience. Priority Inbox (http://mail.google.com/mail/help/intl/en/priority-inbox.html), spell checking, forwarding, auto-responding, automatic saving and sorting, and converting URLs to clickable links are just a few of the many features that use this kind of automatic processing.

Does Google share my email with advertisers?No. Google does not share your email address, your messages, or any other personal information with advertisers.

Can other users see how I use Gmail (e.g. when I read their messages, mark their messages as “not important,” mute a conversation, use labels and filters, etc.)?No, how you use Gmail is your own business. Personalization features like Priority inbox, Smart Labels and custom filters enable you to tailor Gmail to your needs. The way you use Gmail’s customizations and the way you handle your mail (e.g. whether you mark messages from someone as “unimportant” or set a filter to archive them) are not visible to other users."


Unfortunately, Google, being the 800 lb gorilla of theinternet is frequently accused of bad practices which they seem to work to avoid. I'm not affiliated with Google in any manner although I have spent the majority of my career developing large Internet databases and search engines.

Really? There is a new book out about google, and their use of your content. I heard the interview of the author on a Toronto radio station, but can't google the information about it(Maybe they filter it out) In any case, read this one lawyers opinion(below)..A lot of people consider Google to be the 'Skynet' of the future!.. Nothing is ever free, and that includes your email privacy. They already tell you they 100% scan it. If the government was reading your private mail, would you believe they were only doing it to 'help' you? Why would you believe a private for profit company when they tell you the same thing?

By submitting, posting or displaying Content on or through Google services which are intended to be available to the members of the public, you grant Google a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to reproduce, adapt, modify, publish and distribute such Content on Google services for the purpose of displaying, distributing and promoting Google services. Google reserves the right to syndicate Content submitted, posted or displayed by you on or through Google services and use that Content in connection with any service offered by Google.

You can read more here:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-9768298-16.html

[Curt Harms]

For Thunderbird users - and I assume other email programs - you can look at the 'guts' of suspect emails. For Thunderbird it's either view -> message source or <Ctrl>U. There'll likely be a LOT of gibberish but eventually you find the url where the "click here" link really points. It's a good bet that the link that says Chase or Bank of America etc. doesn't point to any servers associated with the stated destination. I forward the phishing attempts to
http://www.us-cert.gov/nav/report_phishing.html
as well as the bank the message claimed to be from.

[Bill Cunningham]

Just put your cursor over the link, and the real address comes up in the little window at the bottom.. No need to list the source

[James Heisbert]

I received multiple of this kinds of scams. At first, I replied out of curiosity and the sender of the email replied back. He told me to open an account, which I never did. My friend told me it is called a “Nigerian scam”. That was 2 years ago. When I receive emails like this today, I totally ignore them!

[Jason Roehl]

By submitting, posting or displaying Content on or through Google services which are intended to be available to the members of the public, you grant Google a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to reproduce, adapt, modify, publish and distribute such Content on Google services for the purpose of displaying, distributing and promoting Google services. Google reserves the right to syndicate Content submitted, posted or displayed by you on or through Google services and use that Content in connection with any service offered by Google.


E-mail is generally not considered to ever be intended to be available to members of the public, and that's what we're talking about--e-mail, not other services, so they are not claiming the right to publish it or use it elsewhere. If they did that and word got out, it would be the end of Google. Imagine if the Post Office said they reserved the right to open, photocopy and publish your private letters--they'd never see another letter through their doors. Auto-scanning, while annoying, is also not that big of a deal IF it is ONLY used as they are now--to do simple word associations to deliver targeted ad content.

The bottom line is that people don't like to pay for information. That fact was overwhelmingly demonstrated here at SMC when there was a funding drive to keep all of SMC ad-free--it didn't even come close, so now there are ads for non-contributing users.

[Curt Harms]

Just put your cursor over the link, and the real address comes up in the little window at the bottom.. No need to list the source

I did not know that, thanks!

[Bill Cunningham]

E-mail is generally not considered to ever be intended to be available to members of the public, and that's what we're talking about--e-mail, not other services, so they are not claiming the right to publish it or use it elsewhere. If they did that and word got out, it would be the end of Google. Imagine if the Post Office said they reserved the right to open, photocopy and publish your private letters--they'd never see another letter through their doors. Auto-scanning, while annoying, is also not that big of a deal IF it is ONLY used as they are now--to do simple word associations to deliver targeted ad content.

The bottom line is that people don't like to pay for information. That fact was overwhelmingly demonstrated here at SMC when there was a funding drive to keep all of SMC ad-free--it didn't even come close, so now there are ads for non-contributing users.

It depends on how you interpret the statement: "posting or displaying Content on or through Google services which are intended to be available to the members of the public" This can be read as it's the "services which are intended to be available to the members of the public" and therefore anything you post or mail can be used by google for any purpose they want.. This is far more ambiguous than your 2nd amendment and look at the way some people interpret that! Google will interpret it the way it suits them best with zero regard for how it affects you, or what you may 'think' is your creative or private property.