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Schtupid Email Scams

Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2015 2:03 pm
by TazManiac
Sometimes I click on them just for a laugh. Here is one that hit my spam filter today, It's pretty dumb, if for no other reason than it's got the wrong ISP listed.

Oh, and they cant do the maths...

Dear User,

We noticed your mailbox has exceeded the storage limit is 1 GB, which is defined by the administrator, You are running at 99.8 gigabytes, you can not send or receive new messages until you re-validate your mailbox, To Update, Please click on our validate link below: Validate Here <Link redacted> to keep enjoying our service.

Thank you!
Web mail system administrator!

WARNING! Protect your privacy. Logout when you are done and completely exit your browser.
That was nice of them, to remind me to log out and everything...

Re: Schtupid Email Scams

Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2015 10:58 pm
by scantrontb
TazManiac wrote:Sometimes I click on them just for a laugh. Here is one that hit my spam filter today, It's pretty dumb, if for no other reason than it's got the wrong ISP listed.

Oh, and they cant do the maths...


That was nice of them, to remind me to log out and everything...
yeah, while it wasn't an email scam, i did get called by "Microsoft Tech Support" guy with an Arabic or probably a Hindi accent... too bad that for their information i run only Linux computers... he hung up as soon as i said that.... lucky for me that i had heard about these guys before, as well as common sense saying that tech support wouldn't be calling ME, i would have to call THEM... even though i DO run windows...

um.. are you SURE it is THEM that can't do the math? 1GB IS less than 99.8 GB or even if it was referring to BITS instead of BYTES, that would still be 12.475Giga BYTES so you were over by either a factor of 12-ish (bits), or up to a factor of about 99-ish (bytes)...

Re: Schtupid Email Scams

Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2015 11:20 pm
by Atomic
I've occasionally been getting phone spam along the lines of:

"There are currently no problems with your credit card account! However, to help prevent future issues, call...."

Oh, joy.

Re: Schtupid Email Scams

Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2015 12:26 am
by Sgt. Howard
I typically get several phone calls a week about 'support' for my computer- I tell them I don't have one, that I am a practicing Luddite. The Email scams I enjoy are the ones where they tell me that someone has cashed my death benefit and want proof that I am alive... I tell them that I AM dead, but the beneficiary named is not who I designated... I refer them to another scam artist as my 'beneficiary' and a third scam artist as my 'soliciter'...

Re: Schtupid Email Scams

Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2015 2:19 am
by AnotherFairportfan
If you generate ten million spam e-mails and one-tenth of one percent of the marks fall for it...

That's still ten thousand compromised accounts.

I recently received an obvious phishing/scam e-mail (the second time in five years) from a friend's compromised e-mail account. (A different account than last time, i think.)

I won't mention his name, but those in the computer field might recognise it, and might even have one or more books by him.

Re: Schtupid Email Scams

Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2015 1:22 pm
by TazManiac
Scantron- They cant Math worth a damn.

Fairport - One thing too is that the compromised account might actually be a second person, whose email address book has been cloned, and is now coming in as a Third Person of record altogether. (In other words, its sometimes not the name on the letterhead who got hacked, sometimes they where just a handy name in the hacked computers' address book...)

If I wasn't pressed for time I'd make better sense of that.

Re: Schtupid Email Scams

Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2015 4:14 pm
by AnotherFairportfan
TazManiac wrote:Scantron- They cant Math worth a damn.

Fairport - One thing too is that the compromised account might actually be a second person, whose email address book has been cloned, and is now coming in as a Third Person of record altogether. (In other words, its sometimes not the name on the letterhead who got hacked, sometimes they where just a handy name in the hacked computers' address book...)

If I wasn't pressed for time I'd make better sense of that.
Nah. Both times i contacted him via the address in question and he went "Oh dammit!" and swore to fix it.

Re: Schtupid Email Scams

Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2015 7:11 pm
by scantrontb
Atomic wrote:I've occasionally been getting phone spam along the lines of:

"There are currently no problems with your credit card account! However, to help prevent future issues, call...."

Oh, joy.
oh, yeah... i get those A LOT... and i can't just block ONE number because they use a DIFFERENT NUMBER EACH TIME!!! ARGGGHH!!!.... and if you listen thru the automated crap to get to the real person, then as soon as you say anything contrary to the script, THEY hang up real quick, so that they never have to actually hear you tell them to NOT call anymore... therefore legally they can still call you because you haven't told then NOT TO!>

Re: Schtupid Email Scams

Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2015 8:02 pm
by Dave
scantrontb wrote:oh, yeah... i get those A LOT... and i can't just block ONE number because they use a DIFFERENT NUMBER EACH TIME!!! ARGGGHH!!!.... and if you listen thru the automated crap to get to the real person, then as soon as you say anything contrary to the script, THEY hang up real quick, so that they never have to actually hear you tell them to NOT call anymore... therefore legally they can still call you because you haven't told then NOT TO!>
If you've put your phone number on the Federal "Do Not Call" list, they aren't supposed to be making commercial calls to you at all. Commercial callers are required to check the DNC list, and filter out all of the numbers that are listed on it.

Not that this will stop them. Nor will telling them not to call, or to put your name on their own do-not-call list, or cussing at them when they do call. They simply don't care.

These are scammers. They're criminals. They're liars and thieves. Many of them operate from outside the U.S., making them largely immune to U.S. law and law enforcement.

Reportedly, the "Rachel, from Card Services" mass-caller isn't just one outfit. There's a "turn-key" package of software that can be bought which runs the bulk-calling part of this scam, and a whole bunch of different scam-gangs have bought copies and run this scam (using different call-back numbers).

From what I've heard, a lot of the actual humans you might speak with during these scams are poor and ill-educated... they've been hired to sit in "boiler rooms" and make these sorts of calls. One posting I read, said that these people are often hired on a "quota and commission" basis... with the quotas for "successful calls" set so high that the callers almost never get quota, and often don't get paid. They quit, the gang-heads hire another batch of ignorant suckers to make the next few weeks' worth of calls... lather, rinse, repeat.

The "sales slime" calls come in at home so frequently that they drive my wife into a serious state of annoyance - she often turns off the phone ringer during the day because she's getting multiple "ring, no answer" calls from scammers every hour.

The only defense I've found that helps, is an active-denial offense. Her business line comes in over VoIP, to an Asterisk PBX server I run. I've scripted it so that any calls from outside our local area codes goes to a "holding pen" and the caller has to sit there for 20 seconds or so before the server will start ringing her office phone. Most of the nuisance callers hang up before the timer expires.

I wish I could do that for our land-line as well, but I want to keep it on a standard hard-copper land line rather than switching to VoIP - it'll still work during a power outage or a bad storm, while Internet-based calling is more fragile.

Re: Schtupid Email Scams

Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2015 8:09 pm
by jwhouk
What annoys me is that Charter (my VoIP phone provider) refuses to expand the "blocked phone number" list from 10. I could easily block 35 of them.

Re: Schtupid Email Scams

Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2015 10:23 pm
by Typeminer
I telecommute. Calls to my office phone redirect to my home landline, so I always pick up in case it's work related. I get way more robocalls than real work calls during business hours.

"Windows tech support" has called at least three times this year.

They say, "This is Windows tech support."

I reply, "No it's not. This is a scam. I know better." And hang up. No point reporting it; pretty sure they're on VoIP from India.

One time, a scammer called claiming to be from the IRS, saying I owed money and could be arrested. I just said, "I don't owe any money to the IRS," and hung up. That guy called right back and got threatening, saying I had to call this other number. So I said yeah, sure, and pretended to take down the number.

I also get lots of robocalls about improving my credit card rate. I have one card, with a credit union, with a very moderate limit backed by deposit accounts, and I pay the statement balance in full every month.

Lately there are calls about benefits for geezer medical alert alarms "at no cost to you" and other shady shit, as well.

Re: Schtupid Email Scams

Posted: Thu Sep 03, 2015 9:45 am
by DinkyInky
Typeminer wrote:I telecommute. Calls to my office phone redirect to my home landline, so I always pick up in case it's work related. I get way more robocalls than real work calls during business hours.

"Windows tech support" has called at least three times this year.

They say, "This is Windows tech support."

I reply, "No it's not. This is a scam. I know better." And hang up. No point reporting it; pretty sure they're on VoIP from India.

One time, a scammer called claiming to be from the IRS, saying I owed money and could be arrested. I just said, "I don't owe any money to the IRS," and hung up. That guy called right back and got threatening, saying I had to call this other number. So I said yeah, sure, and pretended to take down the number.

I also get lots of robocalls about improving my credit card rate. I have one card, with a credit union, with a very moderate limit backed by deposit accounts, and I pay the statement balance in full every month.

Lately there are calls about benefits for geezer medical alert alarms "at no cost to you" and other shady shit, as well.
I had that one. Told them I'm a SAHM, but they screamed at me, so I kept them calling, while I conference called the IRS, who traced it while I was talking, and interrupted me with their own threats to the idiot. They couldn't find it as it was a burner number, but they tried to track the individual...all I cared about was that the messenger tell the scammers to not call me again, because I don't play fair..

Re: Schtupid Email Scams

Posted: Thu Sep 03, 2015 10:26 am
by Dave
DinkyInky wrote:I had that one. Told them I'm a SAHM, but they screamed at me, so I kept them calling, while I conference called the IRS, who traced it while I was talking, and interrupted me with their own threats to the idiot. They couldn't find it as it was a burner number, but they tried to track the individual...all I cared about was that the messenger tell the scammers to not call me again, because I don't play fair..
Oh, I beg to differ. "Turnabout is fair play." Nicely done. :D

Re: Schtupid Email Scams

Posted: Thu Sep 03, 2015 4:32 pm
by Catawampus
I've yet to receive a scam call over the telephone. I almost feel neglected now.

Re: Schtupid Email Scams

Posted: Thu Sep 03, 2015 8:39 pm
by scantrontb
Catawampus wrote:I've yet to receive a scam call over the telephone. I almost feel neglected now.
NOOOO, No. you should feel PRIVILEGED! you are one of the FEW that HAVEN'T gotten a spammer... i wish i could say the same., though most of the spam i get is via email, with quite a few calls from the "there is nothing wrong with your account, but..." spammer/scammer on my cell, and because i get very few legit emails that are not from forums and such that i can auto-sort, the remaining unsorted emails can almost all go in the spam/delete folder... i get tired of deleting it every week though.

Re: Schtupid Email Scams

Posted: Thu Sep 03, 2015 10:47 pm
by Typeminer
Dave wrote:
DinkyInky wrote:I had that one. Told them I'm a SAHM, but they screamed at me, so I kept them calling, while I conference called the IRS, who traced it while I was talking, and interrupted me with their own threats to the idiot. They couldn't find it as it was a burner number, but they tried to track the individual...all I cared about was that the messenger tell the scammers to not call me again, because I don't play fair..
Oh, I beg to differ. "Turnabout is fair play." Nicely done. :D
Indeed. Bad day for those guys. :D

Re: Schtupid Email Scams

Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2015 1:57 pm
by Alkarii
I got a few of those calls where they say they've detected that a virus is on my computer. When it first happened, I responded with "Really? Because I don't have internet." Another time, I told them our computer is broken, which it was. Another time, they called while I was building my computer.

"Sir, there's no way in hell that's possible. Not only do I not have internet, as I said every time you called me, the computer I have right now doesn't have a hard drive, processor, or power supply."

I haven't gotten another call since.

Re: Schtupid Email Scams

Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2015 11:43 pm
by shadowinthelight
I am so glad Sprint lets you block up to 50 phone numbers.

Re: Schtupid Email Scams

Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2015 11:37 pm
by TazManiac
Here's a new one... (Heavily Redacted btw...)

[ No Subject ]
Rec'd
from User (178.162.205.21) by 'somebody-number-one'.tin.it (8.6.060.43) (authenticated as v.'somebody-number-two'@tin.it) id 556A-no-reason-to-publish-this-number...808; Tue, 6 Oct 2015 06:11:48 +0200
From: "donotreplya@diegosax.com" <donotreplya@diegosax.com>

You are Picked! A Donation by Coca-Cola Foundation is cleared to you.
Your REFERENCE NUMBER IS :CC05

DIAL +27xxxx48974 FOR MORE INFORMATION & Email:cocacoxxxxaws@mail15.com


So much Fail in one email...

Re: Schtupid Email Scams

Posted: Tue Oct 06, 2015 6:19 am
by Jabberwonky
TazManiac wrote:Here's a new one... (Heavily Redacted btw...)

[ No Subject ]
Rec'd
from User (178.162.205.21) by 'somebody-number-one'.tin.it (8.6.060.43) (authenticated as v.'somebody-number-two'@tin.it) id 556A-no-reason-to-publish-this-number...808; Tue, 6 Oct 2015 06:11:48 +0200
From: "donotreplya@diegosax.com" <donotreplya@diegosax.com>

You are Picked! A Donation by Coca-Cola Foundation is cleared to you.
Your REFERENCE NUMBER IS :CC05

DIAL +27xxxx48974 FOR MORE INFORMATION & Email:cocacoxxxxaws@mail15.com


So much Fail in one email...
What? What did you win? What was the donation Coco-Cola gave you? You can't leave us in this kind of suspense!