Are the internet money scammers running out of targets?

[Jim O'Dell]

My wife is a private piano/music teacher. She got a warning e-mail from the National Music Teachers Association she is a member of warning that overseas people are targeting music teachers saying they want their kids to take lessons, and send a check. After the check arrives, but before it clears their bank, they write back saying that there has been an emergency, and they need their money back. Then stop payment on their funds. Now my wife has a good head on her shoulders, and has policies in place that would have kept this from ever happening to her. But think about the little old lady down the block that is 70 years old, and still teaches for a little extra income. I would think that music teachers would be a pretty small pool to draw from, so who is next??? Will they target the weekend woodwoker that aspires to make a little side money to further his/her hobby? Maybe the good ole days were better. At least then if someone tried to rip you off, you got a bottle of snake oil to take home! Jim.

[Joe Pelonio]

I wouldn't say they are running out of targets, just trying to maximize their return by targeting the most likely victims. I still get 2-3 scammers a week from the online ads for a vehicle I'm selling, plus the usual weekly or so unfortunate rich dead Nigerian with no will. In our little town of 40,000 the local weekly newspaper lists the crimes, and 80% of them (5-6 a week) are identity theft. People know which zip codes use their computers a lot for commerce I guess, we have a lot of Microsoft and Boeing employees living here, a lot of them do EVERYTHING on their computers.

[Robert Mickley]

I was reading an article earlier, another new tactic is to send you an email but instead of giving you a link to click thay have a phone number for you to call. You get an automated menu where they try to get your info.

Just can't remeber now where I saw it :rolleyes:

[Frank Fusco]

ANYTHING that looks unusual is 99.99% sure to be a scam. I delete almost all e-mails that come to me unsolicited and/or from people/sources I don't know. I delete cookies, history, temps, anything I don't need. On my primary e-mail account, I get maybe one spam per month. I have friends who get dozens a day. Be viglilant.

[Rick Gibson]

You're lucky Frank, I get 20 or so spam emails a day. My problem is I have a website that I set up about 10 years ago when I started doing a little web design hoping to make a few extra bucks that way "Yeah right" No longer doing that, I look after a few Christian sites for free but I found it convenient to keep the web site for all the email addresses available.
The one address for the site is public domain ie. type in my website in whois and up comes the address. Can't get rid of it because that's where they notify me when the domain name and website come up for renewal. Firefox catches most but not all. My rule is never give out credit card or any other banking info unless I initiate the transaction with a site I know is ok such as Lee Valley.
Get an email asking for any of your financial info delete and ignore or else you are setting yourself up for a lot of problems.

[Frank Hagan]

You're lucky Frank, I get 20 or so spam emails a day. My problem is I have a website that I set up about 10 years ago when I started doing a little web design hoping to make a few extra bucks that way "Yeah right" No longer doing that, I look after a few Christian sites for free but I found it convenient to keep the web site for all the email addresses available.
The one address for the site is public domain ie. type in my website in whois and up comes the address. Can't get rid of it because that's where they notify me when the domain name and website come up for renewal. Firefox catches most but not all. My rule is never give out credit card or any other banking info unless I initiate the transaction with a site I know is ok such as Lee Valley.
Get an email asking for any of your financial info delete and ignore or else you are setting yourself up for a lot of problems.

I have several websites related to my hobbies, and I found the single most important thing to preventing spam is to never, ever put your email address on a web site in a "bot readable" form. I use a little on-line script at http://www.u.arizona.edu/~trw/spam/spam2.htm to convert my email address link into ascii-type codes ... so that the "@" symbol becomes "%40", for instance ... and the email address havesting bots are completely fooled.

I haven't found a lot of problems with the whois records, but you're right, you do have to live with that unless you pay to have it "cloaked".

[Frank Fusco]

I have several websites related to my hobbies, and I found the single most important thing to preventing spam is to never, ever put your email address on a web site in a "bot readable" form. I use a little on-line script at http://www.u.arizona.edu/~trw/spam/spam2.htm to convert my email address link into ascii-type codes ... so that the "@" symbol becomes "%40", for instance ... and the email address havesting bots are completely fooled.

I haven't found a lot of problems with the whois records, but you're right, you do have to live with that unless you pay to have it "cloaked".

Yes, I understand that commercial sites are very vunerable. I have heard about dozens or hundreds of spams coming into some. A friend who is a newspaper columnist has to deal with several score per day. It cuts deeply into her available working time each day just sifting through the spam. I will be setting up my own web site in a few months. Your tip is a good one. I might use something like: Frank at Ozarkwood.com

[Rich Stewart]

I am by no means a computer expert. I am barely computer literate. I rarely get spam. I am wondering if I can attribute this to the fact that I never EVER click on anything. No banners, games, anything that I don't myself type in the address. Does this help anything or am I just lucjky

[Pat Germain]

There are numerous ways scammers and spammers will hit your in box. Often, it's nothing you did. For example, if your name is Robert Thomas and your email is rthomasATcox.net, it's likely you'll be hit by auto-mailers which just send to athomas, bthomas, cthomas, etc.

The most common scam these days is people saying they want to buy your goods or services and sending a check or money order for twice the amount. They ask you to cash the check or money order and send the rest back. They get cash and you're stuck with a bad check/money order. This is so prevelant, there's a sign warning about it at the bank where LOML works: "WARNING: Have you been contacted by someone asking you to cash a check and return half?..." Even a doctor got taken by one of those scams.

[Joe Pelonio]

I am by no means a computer expert. I am barely computer literate. I rarely get spam. I am wondering if I can attribute this to the fact that I never EVER click on anything. No banners, games, anything that I don't myself type in the address. Does this help anything or am I just lucjky
I never click things either, but where most of these come from is having a commercial website, and from running an ad selling something on a web site.
I know because I have a personal e-mail that never gets spam, they always come to me at my business one, and I got scams like crazy when selling a car with ads online.

Even now, after all the warnings, people do still fall for it. :confused: Some local woman fell for the old "fake cashier's check for more than sale price, send the difference to my agent for shipping" scam just a few weeks ago. She was selling a boat and lost several thousand (still has the boat) and the police can do nothing since it came from another country.

[Kevin French]

I just found an interesting option in my email, (no computer geek either), it's called 'Bounce'. When you get a questionable email you can "Bounce" it back to the sender as if your email no longer exists, (provided of course the email senders address is good.)

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

My wife is a private piano/music teacher. She got a warning e-mail from the National Music Teachers Association she is a member of warning that overseas people are targeting music teachers saying they want their kids to take lessons, and send a check. After the check arrives, but before it clears their bank, they write back saying that there has been an emergency, and they need their money back. Then stop payment on their funds.


Did the article explain how any one would make money by stopping payment on a check? It costs the party that utters the check money to put a stop on a check.

[Joe Pelonio]

Apparently the banner buyer scam is alive and well, I was sent that e-mail
back in September:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=65368

and today I spoke to two other sign guys that had gotten very similar ones in the last few days. Different Yahoo users, both with some English errors but they only asked me for one banner, these last two were for orders of 50 and 300. Also talked to a supplier that showed me one he'd gotten that was traced back and an article written:

http://www.usgnn.com/newsScams20080115.htm

Here's one that was forwarded to me as a warning (name Xd out):

Subject: ORDER



HELLO THIS IS REV.XXXXXXXX AND I AM CONTACTING TO KNOW IF YOU CAN ORDER A CUSTOM MADE 3'X 8' BANNERS FOR ME WITH THE LETTERS "SAVE THE CHILDREN".KINDLY GO AHEAD AND QUOTE TO ME THE TOTAL COST FOR 50 PIECES OF THAT AND ALSO ADVICE ME ON THE FORMS OF PAYMENT THAT YOU ACCEPT.

NOTE:I WILL LIKE YOU TO DESIGN AN ART-WORK FOR MY APPROVAL ON "SAVE THE CHILDREN"

REGARDS
REV.XXXXXXXX

[Tom Veatch]

...The most common scam these days is people saying they want to buy your goods or services and sending a check or money order for twice the amount. They ask you to cash the check or money order and send the rest back. They get cash and you're stuck with a bad check/money order....

The last few times I've been approached with that, even though the probability is vanishingly small that it's a legitimate offer, my reply has been that my fiduciary fee is 10% of the gross amount and that no funds will be forwarded, no services will be rendered, nor will any merchandise be shipped until after the issuer honors the instrument. Surprisingly :rolleyes:, no one has yet accepted those terms.

[Joe Chritz]

Did the article explain how any one would make money by stopping payment on a check? It costs the party that utters the check money to put a stop on a check.

I send you a check for $5000 for some service that is forged/stolen or drawn on a closed account. Before it is discovered I get you to send me a partial refund through any number of means. After the check doesn't clear you are on the hook for the cash with your bank.

That is one of the simple ones. There are many out there, including buying legit items over a period of a few days and closing the account before the checks clear. Then I resell the items at 100% profit. Forging payroll checks to a false ID (that one was big).

I get to see all kinds of scams at work. Some are pretty ingenious but most are variations of ones that have worked in the past.

TANSTAAFL (There ain't no such thing as a free lunch)

Joe

[Michael Gibbons]

I don't see how you could get scammed if you have even an ounce of brains. Let's suppose I open a savings account to see what happens with the scammer and keep the bare minimun in it, whatever it may be,let's say $200. The scammer sends me a check for $5000. I deposit it and wait. Usually a check, even an out of state one, will be cleared in a week and the electronic transfer is completed and you have 5 G's in your account. Or the check comes back uncashable because the account was closed or non-sufficent funds were available. How did I get scammed? Did they somehow manage to take the money ( the 200) out of my account?

[Ed Breen]

Got an interesting one this morning, puported to be from Experian. I logged on and then up came a request to double check my social security number at which I hit the by-by button.
I wonder if that scam is working??
Ed