Be warned, there's some nasties out there !

Ron, ever wanted to just "play along"? Especially with one where they want to meet locally? A good walloping and then an escort to the local Constabulary would be great fun.
Oddly enough, and just to prove there's a forum for everything, there are those whose mission in life appears to be baiting scammers!

If one searches the net for the term 'scambaiting' you come across, among others, this site:

419 Eater - The largest scambaiting community on the planet!

Some of their baits are legendary, both in longevity and hilarity!

Clive

 

Oddly enough, and just to prove there's a forum for everything, there are those whose mission in life appears to be baiting scammers!
If you are tempted to outwit a scammer do NOT use your current email address. Set another one up, either in Yahoo or Gmail, dedicated solely to this. The reason is that if you respond directly you confirm that the original email address (yours) is alive and active and ripe for passing on to spammers.

You also need to be fairly competent in computer matters because many bogus websites are booby-trapped with trojans.

Once you have taken basic precautions, bait away.

 

This has just arrived in my e-mail inbox

It purports to come from a close friend but is almost a dead replica of one I received on a previous occasion from another close friend !

Apart from my friend's name, shown as xxxxs here, the text below is exactly as received.

I'm writing this with tears in my eyes,my family and i came down here to Madrid, Spain for a short vacation to visit a resort and got mugged at gun point last night at the park of the hotel where we lodged.All cash,credit cards and cell were stolen off me. thank God i still have my passport ID with me, I've been to the embassy and the Police here but they're not helping issues at all,our flight leaves today and I'm having problems settling the hotel bills, we still have some money in our account but we don't have access to it right from here.

The hotel manager won't let us leave until i settle the hotel bills(€2,500 EUR)now am freaked out.Please reply and let me if can you have the money wire to me through Western Union i promise to pay back as soon as i get back home.

Here are the details needed to get it to me;

Name: XXXXXXXXXXX

Location: Avenida de la Hispanidad 2 4 Madrid Spain
Country: SPAIN
Amt: €2,500 EUR

Western Union will require a Photo Id for me to receive the cash and also a confirmation number which will be given to you as soon as the cash is sent. I'll use my passport as identification. Email me the 10 digit confirmation number and every other details which i will need to receive the cash here

Let me know once you are heading to the Western Union office.

XXXXXXX



ps
Just found the original "Help me out!" scam on my posting #179 on this very thread.

I re-post it here so you can compare the two letters:

A particularly nasty one, received personally as a direct result of a friend's e-mail list being hacked.

The message, from a previously completely genuine source, goes as follows:
Quote:
I'm sorry for reaching out to you like this, I made a trip to xxxxxxx, xxxxx , and had my bag stolen from me with my passport and credit cards in it. The Embassy is willing to help by providing me with a temporary passport to fly, I just have to pay for a ticket and settle hotel bills. Unfortunately for me, I can't have access to funds without my credit card, I've made contact with my bank but they need more time to come up with a new one. I was thinking of asking you to lend me some quick funds that I can give back as soon as I get in. I really need to be on the next available flight.
I can forward you details on how you can get the funds to me.
I await your response.
Note it was simply addressed to "HI" a dead give-away as he knows me as Ron and the message smacked of scam.

I checked immediately on the internet and found it was a well established phishing scam.

Duly reported to the authorities and I trust you are also duly warned !

Ron

 

Well aren't we a creative sort

Just received this in my inbox. Smells of scam like a bar smells of beer. Looks like a twist to the old I'll send you a bank draft/cheque, you cash it, keep 10% and send me the balance. Except this time you get to send electronics and clothing, and still get screwed.
Thought I would leave the full email in so it can get harvested and he can get spammed. I'm thinking the lad got his hands on the LinkedIn email list that got stolen several weeks back.
Classic poor English and grammar, pushing no risk to you, easy work, easy money. And of course I'll meet you in a few weeks, don't care where you are, I'll meet you.
And of course Australia is a backwards country full of feral natives, Koala bears, and kangaroos where everyone lives in mud huts. They can't possibly have clothing or electronic stores there, I have to have it all shipped in from the USA. But they do buy lots of expensive art.


From: michael.gordon <michael.gordon29@aol.com>
Subject: Business Supervisor Needed!

I'm looking for someone who can handle my personal and business errands at his/her spare time.
Someone who can offer me these services: Mail services: Receive my mails and drop them off at UPS,Shop for Gifts Bill payment ( pay my bills on my behalf) Sit for delivery( at your home) or pick items up at nearby post office at your convenience.
Let me know if you will be able to offer me any/all of these services. Where are you located? I would love to meet up with you to talk about this job but I am currently away on business. I am in Australia so there will be no interview.
I will prepay you in advance to do my shopping. I will also have my mails and packages forwarded to your address. If you will be unable to stay at your house to get my mails, I can have it shipped to a post office near you and then you can pick it up at your convenience.
When you get my mails/packages; you are required to mail them to where I want them mailed to. You don't have to put money out of your pocket, all you have to do is have packages shipped to your house and do my shopping. You are allowed to open the packages to reveal its content.
The content of the packages are Art Material and Painting, clothing's business and personal letters.........All expenses and taxes will be covered by me.
You will work between 15 and 20hrs a month..
How much will you charge per assignment? I will pay $300.00. per task That is not a bad offer is it? I need your service because i am constantly out of town. I own an Art Gallery here in Australia. I will return to USA in August, so this process will be on going till then.
If you don't mind, I will meet up with you when I return and then we can talk about the possibility of making this long term.
Well, let me know if you are able to handle the position.
Hope to hear I will email you the list and pictures of what to shop for when I am ready. No heavy packages is involved! You can do the shopping at any nearest stores.
You will be shopping for Electronics and clothing's.
I will provide you my personal UPS account number for Shipping.
All you have to do is provide my account number to UPS and shipping charges will be applied into the account.
I will provide clear set of instructions for each task I need done as well the funds to cover them.
If I were to mail you money to do my shopping plus upfront payment for your service, where would you want it mailed to?
How should your name appear on the money?
Maybe you can provide me with the following details

Full Name:
Full Address:
City:
State:
Zip Code:
Home Phone:
Cell Phone:
Age:
Occupation(If any):
Email address:
Bank Name

NB: This position is open to individuals 18 years and above.

Thank you!

 

Wayne,

All it takes is one sucker to make that a worthwhile effort. I seem to be getting a much higher quantity of scam offers myself lately and it could very well be the LinkedIn breach.

 

My laptop just got "frozen" by the F.B.I!

So the screen told me, in a very un-funny situation yesterday the computer was indeed frozen. Six tabs that I had been working on closed immediately & simultaneously, which set the alarm bells ringing and were replaced by a screen asking me for several thousand dollars to be wired to the FBI before they would unlock my laptop.
I tried everything I could to remove it, but failed.
In the end I managed to perform an illegal shutdown by depribing the laptop of a power source. I then re-started in safe mode, and Malware Bytes came to the rescue, a deep scan found the offending "Ransom" Hijacker and removed it. All now seems well.

 

I received a telephone call today (the number came up as zeros) from a lady with a Filipino accent and stating she was calling from 'Windows'. Because of all the error messages my PC was allegedly emitting she was kindly offering to help me through a restoration process. I wasn't patient enough to hear the rest of the scam but I can guess.

 

I got a false message through the site today which I deleted immediately. It was from "klimut" and the details were:
"Hi
You have some advice on hiding your email address for security! See replies to your post.
Regards
Barbara
---End Quote---
Hi Barbara,
there aren't strange replies to my posts. Maybe administrator removed some of them? Could you tell me what did you mean?
best wishes
Klimut"
It may be that someone has Klimut's address and is using it for SPAM. Beware.

 

My laptop just got "frozen" by the F.B.I!

So the screen told me, in a very un-funny situation yesterday the computer was indeed frozen. Six tabs that I had been working on closed immediately & simultaneously, which set the alarm bells ringing and were replaced by a screen asking me for several thousand dollars to be wired to the FBI before they would unlock my laptop.
I tried everything I could to remove it, but failed.
In the end I managed to perform an illegal shutdown by depribing the laptop of a power source. I then re-started in safe mode, and Malware Bytes came to the rescue, a deep scan found the offending "Ransom" Hijacker and removed it. All now seems well.

Check the Scheduled Tasks in your Control Panel, you may have a start up file hidden in plain sight there.

 

Thanks Za, I'll do that.

 

Web Browser Grand Prix: Firefox 15, Safari 6, OS X Mountain Lion : The Top Four Browsers, Tested And Ranked

Tom's Hardware site is the very best.

 

Speed

Not quite related to Peter's comment, but I was surpised at the difference in general overall speed an SSD hard drive and a better processor made when I had new computer assembled by NCIX. Everything was just faster. What I thought previously was an occasional broadband slow down just vanished when it came to browsing.

 

The SSD drives make a huge difference, access speed is increased, heat is decreased. Nothing like taking away the moving parts and letting electrical impulses do the work
They do work differently though from a read/write perspective.
Pricing is down to a very reasonable level per GB as well.

Just watch out for the firmware updates!

Solid-state drive - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wayne


Speed

Not quite related to Peter's comment, but I was surpised at the difference in general overall speed an SSD hard drive and a better processor made when I had new computer assembled by NCIX. Everything was just faster. What I thought previously was an occasional broadband slow down just vanished when it came to browsing.

 

This one came with a very impressive Inland Revenue logo at the top of the page.

Tax return 2010
Recalculation of your annual activity fiscal.


Dear applicant

TAX REFUND NUMBER: UK381716209-HMRC/2010

After the last annual calculation of your fiscal activity we have determined that you are

• eligible to receive a tax refund of 980.79 GBP, In which you have to claim it as soon as possible.
• Failure to claim your tax refund within 48 hours will result in cancellation of your tax refund, Kindly click the below link to proceed in claiming your tax refund
• CLICK HERE ........DODGY LINK REMOVED !
• Please fill the form and allow us 3-5 business days in order to process it.
• NOTE: Any inaccurate information filling will result in cancellation of your tax refund.
• Thanks
• HM Revenue & Customs

 

apologies if already posted.

detail here of how to clean it off
Virus alert - "Metropolitan Police" virus

 

apologies if already posted.

detail here of how to clean it off
Virus alert - "Metropolitan Police" virus
I see that it begins like this:1. Disconnect PC from Hub or web router.
2. Reboot in safe mode
3. Use system restore to restore registry settings to an earlier date
....
3. Using System Restore whilst still infected is a dangerous step, unless you know the precise time and date when your PC was compromised. Otherwise, to remove any malware, you must first disable System Restore, then scan the system with up-to-date antivirus software - allowing it to clean, delete, or quarantine any viruses found. After the system has been disinfected, you may then re-enable System Restore.

Unless you are very competent, the safest way is to use Malwarebytes, Spybot, or a similar program.

 

Skype users should check for latest version and update:

Skype worm chats up victims - then holds PCs to ransom • The Register

 

A

Thanks for the warning.

Working on the "just in case" syndrome, I've now un-installed Java from my Windows 7.

Ron

 

Java 7 update 11 (secure until the next time!) is now available.

However, unless you're a gamer you probably don't need a Java plugin anyway. I only use the JRE for some functions in OpenOffice and the only thing I find I need the Java plugin for is the crossword in The Independent. Oracle have now increased security in Java and it seems that - unless you set security to low - all Java apps now need to ask permission to run.

The fixes in this Alert include a change to the
default Java Security Level setting from "Medium" to "High". With the
"High" setting, the user is always prompted before any unsigned Java applet
or Java Web Start application is run.