S/O Beggars, Moochers and Scammers

[Twik]

Here's the link to the tale (tail?) of the Yorkie Jerky purveyor: http://www.scamorama.com/rayburn_long.html. (Be warned: although no Yorkies are actually harmed, the discussion gets a little ... surreal ... at the end.)

[Softly Spoken]

So this was interesting:
I screened a message for the millionth time on my answering machine about how I have a "I've fallen and I can't get up"-type of system ready to be delivered to me. I snapped and picked it up. The voice said to press one. I pressed one...and was treated to classical music.  Really? Start off by putting me on hold? FanTAStic. So after a few seconds of violins, a guy answers and gives me his name and i.d. number. He asks if this is the best number to reach me at if we get disconnected. Steeling myself, I say "yes but I want you to take me off your list, I do not need your product."
He says "Okay, we can do that. That's all you need to say." And then there is a click and dead air so I guess he hung up on me.
So...
yay.
I guess?

Still annoying to have to go through all that to begin with (especially since I have been on the Do Not Call List for years), but they better keep their word and stop calling me. 

[PeterM]

This is a great racket. After they take your money and run, to whom do you complain that you never got the fake passport you ordered?

The same people you complain to when your pot dealer gives you a bag of oregano, or when the hooker runs away with your cash.

"Sir, soliciting a prostitute is illegal in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. I could go with you and arrest her, if you like, but I'd also have to arrest you."

Actual quote from an actual cop I overheard dealing with an aggrieved citizen while walking to grad school one day in Boston. I'm convinced the cop saw me coming and spoke loudly so he wouldn't be the only witness to this guy's idiocy.

[WolfWay]

Just got an email claiming to be from my country's tax authority, saying I'd had a generous amount of money deposited into my account and click on the link below to continue.

Except,
1) it's a month before tax season even starts, so I wouldn't be due any money yet anyway,
2) it's from an email address with ".com" at the end and I've had official emails from the tax authority before, and they always have a different email address, and
3) if there was a deposit "into my account", if they mean my bank account, I would have received a text notification about it, and if they somehow mean I have a tax account with the tax authority, I don't, all money due to or received from the tax authority is either into or out of my bank accound directly, no intermediatary account used.

Nice try.

Well, they're trying again. This time, after tax season has started.

The really funny thing this time around is that although the sending email address is now something sensible looking, the link to the web site they're asking me to click on is for something ludicrous like "tertramateobuuzrosario.com" (not the actual address, I fudged a few vowels for safety sake).

Pity that
a) Our online tax filing takes less than a couple of hours (from the time you submit your tax return to the point it's processed by the tax authority) and you get notified by text message that it's completed, and
b) I've already got my tax rebate for this year, directly into my bank account, no "authorising of transaction" required.

[MariaE]

So this was interesting:
I screened a message for the millionth time on my answering machine about how I have a "I've fallen and I can't get up"-type of system ready to be delivered to me. I snapped and picked it up. The voice said to press one. I pressed one...and was treated to classical music.  Really? Start off by putting me on hold? FanTAStic.

Once in a blue moon we'll get telemarketing calls from the US. Those always start with a recorded voice saying "Please hold..." I always immediately hang up on them. No, you called me, I'm not going to bother waiting for you to pick up.

[veryfluffy]

I just had a new one from the "International Monitary Fund" -- offering to compensate me for having been scammed!

Dear Beneficiary,

This is to officially inform you that an ATM Card that worth USD $1.5Million (One Million Five Hundred Thousand Dollars) has been issued as a compensation payment for all the short listed 2011/2012 scam victims whose email address was recovered during the recent internet probing and investigation process.

Your email address & your name was found among the list so we are in no doubt believed that those syndicates must have collect money from you through their dubious criminal ways.

It was on these very recommendation that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in conjunction with the United State Government after series of meeting held came up with a sanction to all West African countries to compensate all the foreign victims with a payment benefit of $1.5Million (One Million Five Hundred Thousand Dollars) each in order to restore the Global Economy to the enviable standard of respectability.

Please note that upon receipt of your response we will process and send your ATM Card Payment and you will use it to withdraw your money in any ATM machine in any part of the world, so if you like to receive your fund, contact the director in charge of the compensation payment at INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND SETTLEMENT CENTER Mr.Nelson Smith on his email address: (mrnelsonsmith55@gazeta.pl) and also send him the following information;

1. Full Name:
2. Phone Number:
3. Mailing Address:
4. Age and Sex:
5. Occupation:
6. Country:

If you need an urgent attention please email Mr.Nelson Smith on his direct-email address (mrnelsonsmith55@gazeta.pl) Your immediate compliance to this will expedite actions on your Payment because here in this office, we have a lot of listed victims to be settled.

Best Regards.

Mrs Anna Cooksey

[shadowfox79]

The puppy email reminded me of my work colleague Dinah when she had just moved into her new house and decided she wanted a cat.

I had suggested a few shelters where she could adopt either a cat or a kitten, but she told me she wanted to buy a purebred Ragdoll and was searching online lists for one. The next I heard, she had been in contact with a bree-der from one of these lists and had made arrangements to buy a kitten, but they had told her she needed to send them five hundred pounds for all the travel and care costs. I bit back the voice that was screaming "HOW MUCH?!" and asked her if she was sure it wasn't a scam - yup, she was sure.

Right up until she had already sent them the money, when they then phoned her and told her if she wanted the kitten she had to send another three hundred pounds or it would die from lack of care.

She got the police involved at that point, but I don't think she ever got her £500 back. She did, however, manage to find a Ragdoll elsewhere.

[Slartibartfast]

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Got this one today - that's the entire text of the email, with the header "th garden ownstone unit wd in unit act quick hoboken fee".  (None of those place names are anywhere near me, by the way.)  It reads like someone copied and pasted the list of Craigslist headers or something.

[Twik]

I presume that's from someone who wants to be a rental scammer, but doesn't know exactly how computers work.

[Cami]

The head of one of our departments, let's say the Beverage Department, lost the person in charge of the Tea Division shortly after her arrival. She CHOSE not to re-fill that position, but use the money to hire a go-fer for herself, saying that she would learn all there was to know about Tea and handle it herself.  Note that there are many of us here who have a good bit of expertise with Tea -- not enough to run the division, but enough to know what we're talking about and to be able to spot a lie a mile away.

Well, she then decided she didn't want to learn all about Tea. For reasons that elude all of us, except that we remind ourselves that we must be living in the prototype organization for Dilbert, TPTB decided that was fine and gave the Beverage Department additional monies to hire an outside consultant to handle the Tea Division.  She hires said consultant.

The rest of us quickly realize that the Tea consultant is a scammer who knows little about Tea, but can sell a good line of schtick like no one's business. The department head refuses to listen to us because scammer is a self-proclaimed expert and she trusts him.

We are now in a position where this scammer's incompetence has shut down Beverage operations for the entire organization every week for at least a year and beyond that cost, has recommended unnecessary purchases in the thousands.

But none of us know what we're talking about. We're all "Meanies" who are "jealous" of the scammer's "expertise."

And this folks, is how scammers keep on keeping on. There's a sucker born every minute.

[nutraxfornerves]

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That a rather inept attempt to evade mail server spam filters. They fill the message with lots of unrelated words or passages from books or something, then stick their URL in the middle. One way spam filters work is a complex system where known spam and unknown messages are compared. Wikipedia describes it (I removed a word that would probably trigger unwanted ads):  "Particular words have particular probabilities of occurring in spam email and in legitimate email. For instance, most email users will frequently encounter the word [pharmaceutical product] in spam email, but will seldom see it in other email. " By loading the message with crud, the spammer hopes ot evade the filter.

If you read your email in HTML, the URL will stand out & maybe you'll click on it. Could be an ad, could be a link to get you malware. Either this spammer forgot the URL or your email viewer didn't pick it up. It would look like this (the link I created goes to Google.)

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[gramma dishes]

...    modern pets ok   ...

But ... but ... what if you have an old fashioned pet?   

[Twik]

Sorry, we're an up-to-date rental. Persian cats are soooo last year, and we can't have that. We will, however, accept a Sphynx.

[gramma dishes]

Sorry, we're an up-to-date rental. Persian cats are soooo last year, and we can't have that. We will, however, accept a Sphynx.

 

[Slartibartfast]

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That a rather inept attempt to evade mail server spam filters. They fill the message with lots of unrelated words or passages from books or something, then stick their URL in the middle. One way spam filters work is a complex system where known spam and unknown messages are compared. Wikipedia describes it (I removed a word that would probably trigger unwanted ads):  "Particular words have particular probabilities of occurring in spam email and in legitimate email. For instance, most email users will frequently encounter the word [pharmaceutical product] in spam email, but will seldom see it in other email. " By loading the message with crud, the spammer hopes ot evade the filter.

If you read your email in HTML, the URL will stand out & maybe you'll click on it. Could be an ad, could be a link to get you malware. Either this spammer forgot the URL or your email viewer didn't pick it up. It would look like this (the link I created goes to Google.)

ondado del mar fabulous studio furnished including electricitywater condadoashford avepuerto ricoadvanced learning home schooling homework esl  st catharinesbedroom apartment in mission hill  alleghany st  modern  pets ok mission hill  alleghany sttownhouse westsidecharming concrete block house with option of  month lease st IMPROVE YOUR LIFE NOW!!! augustine shoresatp catless downpipe dodge neon srt  bostonreliable phpmysql web development  open source customization affordable  free estimatesthe very eloquent wedding man available

I suspected it was something like this - I always restrict my email to text only, so I don't have to deal with the periodic security holes that pop up every once in a while with HTML emails.  (You *usually* won't get viruses from HTML-enabled emails . . . you *never* will with just text, unless you click on something.)  I figured either there were some pictures/HTML that got stripped out, or the scammer forgot the attachment.

The filter evasion worked, though - it did arrive in my regular inbox!