Another "creative" scam

[Bob Rufener]

I received an email allegedly from E-ZPASS saying:





Dear customer,


You have not paid for driving on a toll road. This invoice is sent repeatedly,

please service your debt in the shortest possible time.

Interesting how the sender's email address was from NL which I assume is the Netherlands.

The letter has a button which I am supposed to click on to get my invoice. Hmmm! I don't think so..

[ken masoumi]

I have been receiving the same phishing emails from EZPASS and I just keep blocking them,I have not driven in the US since 1990 and we don't have EZpass up in Canada but that doesn't seem to matter to them!

[Chuck Wintle]

I received an email allegedly from E-ZPASS saying:





Dear customer,


You have not paid for driving on a toll road. This invoice is sent repeatedly,

please service your debt in the shortest possible time.

Interesting how the sender's email address was from NL which I assume is the Netherlands.

The letter has a button which I am supposed to click on to get my invoice. Hmmm! I don't think so..




Its easy to detect these scams as the english grammer is of poor quality and is often phrased in a way that is seldom used. when in doubt delete!

[Mike Henderson]

Yes, I have gotten email from "UPS" telling me the package was "dispatched" and the tracking information is in the attached file. They don't seem to realize that the word "dispatched" is UK usage and not USA usage (USA would be "shipped"). So even if the rest of the spelling and grammar was correct, the word usage is a tip-off.

Mike

[ray hampton]

Yes, I have gotten email from "UPS" telling me the package was "dispatched" and the tracking information is in the attached file. They don't seem to realize that the word "dispatched" is UK usage and not USA usage (USA would be "shipped"). So even if the rest of the spelling and grammar was correct, the word usage is a tip-off.

Mike

this mistake is easy to understand since the word "dispatch are still being use for other things , UPS trucks are dispatch every day , police cars are dispatch , animals that get hurt by a car get dispatch

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

My rule of thumb with these things is to never click anything. If my bank or phone company or some business I have an account with, or paypal or something, needs my intervention, I should be able to sign into their website and do it. Same principle as my bank - when there's an issue with my credit card, they don't call me and ask for my number, they tell me to call the number on the back of my card. You don't give your social to someone who called you, only someone you called. Same idea.

[ray hampton]

My rule of thumb with these things is to never click anything. If my bank or phone company or some business I have an account with, or paypal or something, needs my intervention, I should be able to sign into their website and do it. Same principle as my bank - when there's an issue with my credit card, they don't call me and ask for my number, they tell me to call the number on the back of my card. You don't give your social to someone who called you, only someone you called. Same idea.

I do not give my social to anyone except when they are facing ME , I do not know who I am talking to on the phone unless I know their voice

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

I do not give my social to anyone except when they are facing ME , I do not know who I am talking to on the phone unless I know their voice

That's a good point- I meant to write account number and not social - I don't know how I messed that up.

[Garth Sheane]

The bad boys seemed to ramped up their game this year. Back in March I got an email from my service provider saying that my web mail account was about to be purged for inactivity. To stop the purge, "click here". Since I hadn't looked at my web mail account, and it was from the service provider, I clicked. Wrong thing to do, and I nearly panicked. I called the SP who assured me that they would never send such an email. I had my password changed. In the end, after weeks of fear, nothing really seemed to happen. But, since that time, I have received a ton of spoof mail. "Spoofing" is spam masqueraded as an email from a legitimate source. Now, I am getting spoofs from other "legitimate" sources as well, and I click nothing anymore. I sort of think that when I clicked that first one, my email address was confirmed to someone who probably sold it down the line to other spoofers. What the end game to all this nonsense is, I can't really tell.

[ray hampton]

The bad boys seemed to ramped up their game this year. Back in March I got an email from my service provider saying that my web mail account was about to be purged for inactivity. To stop the purge, "click here". Since I hadn't looked at my web mail account, and it was from the service provider, I clicked. Wrong thing to do, and I nearly panicked. I called the SP who assured me that they would never send such an email. I had my password changed. In the end, after weeks of fear, nothing really seemed to happen. But, since that time, I have received a ton of spoof mail. "Spoofing" is spam masqueraded as an email from a legitimate source. Now, I am getting spoofs from other "legitimate" sources as well, and I click nothing anymore. I sort of think that when I clicked that first one, my email address was confirmed to someone who probably sold it down the line to other spoofers. What the end game to all this nonsense is, I can't really tell.

Buying a new computer may help or replacing the component that other computers check for a I D number when you come on the internet

[Erik Loza]

+1... We're all joking about this stuff because of how obvious it seems but even if only one person out of a hundred actually clicks that link, they can do something evil.

My dad, for example, is basically not allowed to use email without myself or my brother reviewing the content. It's not that he's not an intelligent man. It's just that he's not internet-savvy and my brother and I want to keep him from getting phished. It was funny: Dad told me about a year ago that he was "had email now" and would write me. Huge surprise: Never got any emails from him. A year later, the first and only email I got was a spambot who hacked his Yahoo account! Many folks out there who just do not know any better.

Erik Loza
Minimax USA

[ray hampton]

+1... We're all joking about this stuff because of how obvious it seems but even if only one person out of a hundred actually clicks that link, they can do something evil.

My dad, for example, is basically not allowed to use email without myself or my brother reviewing the content. It's not that he's not an intelligent man. It's just that he's not internet-savvy and my brother and I want to keep him from getting phished. It was funny: Dad told me about a year ago that he was "had email now" and would write me. Huge surprise: Never got any emails from him. A year later, the first and only email I got was a spambot who hacked his Yahoo account! Many folks out there who just do not know any better.

Erik Loza
Minimax USA

I never talk to your father , if you say that your father smart then he must be smart AND THIS is the type of person that the scam will harass , school teachers, doctors ,cops and lawyers are being taken in by the con people, these people may not be the only ones that got con , some people will not file a report , the gangsters and mob may be taking care of the con men that targets them

[Rick Potter]

I was feeling left out of these situations, in a weird way, but I finally got my phone call telling me there was something wrong with my computer. I listened for a while, then told him I had to go into the house to turn it on. Then I set the phone down and checked back in 5 minutes. He was gone, but when I hung up, I got three quick phone calls with no one on the line. Guess he was not happy.

Rick P

[ray hampton]

I was feeling left out of these situations, in a weird way, but I finally got my phone call telling me there was something wrong with my computer. I listened for a while, then told him I had to go into the house to turn it on. Then I set the phone down and checked back in 5 minutes. He was gone, but when I hung up, I got three quick phone calls with no one on the line. Guess he was not happy.

Rick P

OH FOR PETE SAKE get caller ID installed on your telephone TODAY , then you can call them back often

[Dan Hintz]

Buying a new computer may help or replacing the component that other computers check for a I D number when you come on the internet
Buying a new computer will have zero effect on receiving spam emails. And there is no one component in a computer that has a unique ID... several components have that, and none are used to identify you when you're on the net (that's what cookies are for).


OH FOR PETE SAKE get caller ID installed on your telephone TODAY , then you can call them back often
Caller ID is (practically) useless for such tactics. The majority of spam calls will be using robocallers (where no one is at the other end of the line to pick up) or via IP forwarding (where the number displayed is completely random/fake).

[Larry Browning]

Well, I had a new one (for me anyway) Saturday I was having trouble with my internet service which was being very spotty, it was working, then it wasn't, then it was.... We had just had a thunderstorm move through and a rather loud thunder clap had shaken the house and the power had gone out momentarily. It just seemed that some things were working while others were not. I was scratching my head to figure out what was going on. My wife kept bugging me to call Cox Tech Support to at least verify that it wasn't them. I was not ready to do that just yet, so you know how these things go, yada, yada. I finally said "fine, but can you at least look the number up for me please?" (well, I might have not said please) So she gets on her computer to look up the number...... Hmmm. Well, somehow she comes up with a number and I call it.
This was the weirdest call to "Cox tech support" I have have made. Now I was assuming that since I called them, that I really was talking to Cox, but it became pretty evident he was not employed by Cox. He started out asking me things like where I worked, and even about my family. I answered a few of his questions, but got suspicious quickly. He was trying to tell me that the reason my service was so spotty was that my IP address had been hacked by international terrorists. I said, so you don't thing the thunderstorm had anything to do with it? He said that he didn't think so, but he could help me get rid of it. He want me to go to logmein1234.com (or something like that) I did try that, but I think my internet was not working properly and just go the standard server not responding. I thought this is the strangest Cox Tech support call ever. Anyway, I finally hung up on him. So I guess the lesson here is that now the bad guys are posting fake links to Tech Support site in hope you will call them.
BTW: My service started working properly about 30 minutes after that, but I am sure this guy had nothing to do with it. My wife couldn't remember the search criteria she used or what the web site looked like either, The phone I was using didn't have a last number dialed feature either. I suppose I should research this a bit more, but not sure of the value in that anyway.
Just a warning to others who might fall into this trap too. I really don't think I gave him any info that wasn't already available about me before I realized what was going on. I don't even think I gave him my name, but he could have gotten that from my phone number.

[Paul Hinds]

Buying a new computer will have zero effect on receiving spam emails. And there is no one component in a computer that has a unique ID... several components have that, and none are used to identify you when you're on the net (that's what cookies are for).

+1 on that.

[Pat Barry]

OH FOR PETE SAKE get caller ID installed on your telephone TODAY , then you can call them back often
Hey Ray, I don't think caller ID helps - these folks always block their number or give a number you can't call.

On a related, kind of, note: I missed a call the other day that went to our answering machine. They said they were form AARP and calling because my doctor told them to. They said he recommended a LifeAlert system for me and that I was qualified to get it free of charge. Then they went on to say I also would also get $3000 in cash, no strings attached (or something to that affect). All I had to do was press 1 to agree to receiving the LifeAlert or I could press 5 to cancel. Unfortunately I wasn't there to press 1. I'm hoping they call back soon as pressing 1 on my answering machine doesn't work and I could sure use the $3000.00

[Andrew Pitonyak]

Caller ID is (practically) useless for such tactics. The majority of spam calls will be using robocallers (where no one is at the other end of the line to pick up) or via IP forwarding (where the number displayed is completely random/fake).

You are correct. The caller-id means absolutely nothing when you receive those fake spam calls.

[ray hampton]

I received phone calls from a certain number from a distant city in KY [for the past 4 or 5 years ] that are claiming to be collecting money for the fire stations and I ask my local fire station about the call who claim that the local stations are not involve with them, the number that they are using if you call will answer and when I type the number into Google search , I will get the information

[Scott Shepherd]

I started getting calls about 2 years ago from a blocked caller ID number. When I'd listen to the voice mail, it said it was for me (used my name) and that I needed to contact them immediately. I had no idea who it was or what it was for, so I called the number left in the voice mail. Sorry, that number isn't in service. To this day, I still get about 5 calls a week from that number. I can't make it stop because I don't know who it's from and the number is no good that they leave me. I actually answered the call a number of times and it's just an automated message, telling me to call that number that's not in service.

I finally blocked them on my phone, but I can still see in the logs where they call about 5 times a week.

[ray hampton]

I started getting calls about 2 years ago from a blocked caller ID number. When I'd listen to the voice mail, it said it was for me (used my name) and that I needed to contact them immediately. I had no idea who it was or what it was for, so I called the number left in the voice mail. Sorry, that number isn't in service. To this day, I still get about 5 calls a week from that number. I can't make it stop because I don't know who it's from and the number is no good that they leave me. I actually answered the call a number of times and it's just an automated message, telling me to call that number that's not in service.

I finally blocked them on my phone, but I can still see in the logs where they call about 5 times a week.

computers DO NOT MAKE MISTAKES except when they are program to make phone calls

[Roger Feeley]

Dan, not to pick nits but your computer does have some hardware numbers in it. In the network adapter, there is the Media Access Control (MAC) address which is hard coded into firmware and is different. There are a limited number of MAC addresses but the number is quite large. 248 or 281,474,976,710,656 possible MAC addresses




Buying a new computer will have zero effect on receiving spam emails. And there is no one component in a computer that has a unique ID... several components have that, and none are used to identify you when you're on the net (that's what cookies are for).


Caller ID is (practically) useless for such tactics. The majority of spam calls will be using robocallers (where no one is at the other end of the line to pick up) or via IP forwarding (where the number displayed is completely random/fake).

[Michael Weber]

:eek:Oh Oh. I received this and did click on the link because I recently was in Fl driving on their toll roads. My daughter said if I didn't have the pass then the state would send a bill so I was actually expecting something like that. Stupid me didn't think to consider how they would know my email address.:( When I clicked it took me to a supposedly zipped invoice file which I tried to unzip without success. Still seem to have money in the bank:confused: at least so far. I've run my Norton internet security and it doesn't find anything. Advice???

[Chuck Wintle]

:eek:Oh Oh. I received this and did click on the link because I recently was in Fl driving on their toll roads. My daughter said if I didn't have the pass then the state would send a bill so I was actually expecting something like that. Stupid me didn't think to consider how they would know my email address.:( When I clicked it took me to a supposedly zipped invoice file which I tried to unzip without success. Still seem to have money in the bank:confused: at least so far. I've run my Norton internet security and it doesn't find anything. Advice???

Run spybot and malwarebytes...not sure norton is that good.

[Dan Hintz]

Dan, not to pick nits but your computer does have some hardware numbers in it. In the network adapter, there is the Media Access Control (MAC) address which is hard coded into firmware and is different. There are a limited number of MAC addresses but the number is quite large. 248 or 281,474,976,710,656 possible MAC addresses

I never said there are no unique IDs (or close to it), I did say there were several... but they are simply not used in identifying you to spammers. Spammers don't care about unique IDs, they only care about unique email addresses that result in a percentage of sales.