We interupt this holiday weekend to bring you the following public service announcement.
If you have an e-mail account long enough, you will start to receive spam – unwanted e-mails soliciting your attention for all sorts of things. One in particular has hit me several times in the past few months ... the sad plea for money from someone saying they live in a foreign land.
Lately I've been responding to these e-mails with something along the lines of: "Ha! I've already gotten this e-mail from someone else!" or "Does anyone still fall for these scams anymore?" The last time I did this, I got a response.
Dear Texas T-Bone,
thanks for your reply and sorry for any inconvinience you most have gone through, we find our self in these problem that was when we came to see that fake people whom tells people about having problems without really having and at the end extourt money from them, that is really bad.
Well our situation is quite different, because i could prove every bit of it and am ready to send full documents as regards these funds and moreover, these only need your accounts where this money will be sent to, nothing more i guess. Because when i spoke to lawyer about it, i and my family was advise that if we could get an account where the funds will be sent to, he can arrange every legal documentation for getting the transfer done and with this, we are seeking for help from people like kind heart and trust worthy which we could trust and relly on for this transfer to get to it final destination.
So sir T-Bone, we are seeking for your help in this matter, because really is like what you siad you have encounter, but sincerely, i have prove of my own story if that is how you see it. I hope that you will reply to my mail.
Regards, hoping to haer from you.
Fizzol Ahmmed.
This is the actual response, although words in bold replace my actual name used in the original. I have sympathy for this story if it is correct. But not enough sympathy to respond a second time.
Does this make me a bad person or a rightly cautious one? I have a feeling people like these steal other people's credit card numbers and go to Home Depot. But maybe it's just me.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend! Watch out for falling spam.
See if he'll cut you a check! Tell him you'll deposit it yourself! ;0) I've heard that in Nigeria, (where most of these come from), thy have a cultural more that if you're not only stupid, but also greedy, it's morally ok to steal from you! Hard to argue, huh?
I wouldn't say you're being overly cautious at all! if they had your account numbers, yes, they could deposit it, however, they could also clean it out!
I rarely reply to spam...but I'm shocked you got a reply! lol
Now, if you had said Jen@BarelyLegalBlondesxXxXx.net replied to you, saying she could provide documentation for her claim that she was, in fact, "Hot, wet, and ready for you to cum on over now xJk82Efdhq20", I'd really be impressed, T-Bone.
I usually just press Delete. That usually solves the problem.
Remember chain latters that were circulated before the days of e-mail, and if you didn't pass it on to all your friends and family what was supposed to befall you? And they now have the equivalent on e-mail also. Delete again.
Luckily I have an ISP that allows me to have several aliases. I recently changed my e-mail address (added another alias) and haven't gotten any spam yet.
I wouldn't say you are being overly cautious. If you really want to try it, go to a bank that will let you have an account with no minimum balance and put $1 in it. Check the balance daily. If the account suddenly has a large deposit, close the account (be Steve Miller - take the money and run). If they clean you out, no big deal, it's only $1. If it were me, I'd "be afraid, be very afraid".
It was very nice that Fizzol took the time to reply to you (he also apparently has the power to Knight you..."So sir T-Bone").
There is no reason to have sympathy for a fake story.
I would never have responded to one of those in the first place! If anything, I would say you're not rightly cautious enough! I think we all know by now that you are not a bad person!
To help real poor people in Nigeria, you could donate money through "Save the Children" or UNESCO or through your church.
Be afraid, be very afraid. Good old Mr. Fizzol probably tapped into your records using your e-mail and is preparing to take on your identity.
Will a Mr. T. Bon’Fizzol please rise and address the court
RUN
I get one of those type emails daily it seems ~ I'm so sick of spam ~ my email seems to be bombarded with it for the past few months ~ this is as bad as telemarketing phone calls. We have managed to be able to stop them can we not stop the overload of spam mail?
You mean....you didn't give him your account information???!!!?!?!?!? Do you think this is a scam or something? See if he'll sign a code of ethics first....then, you should be safe!
My vote is for rightly cautious. I don't trust *anything* sent through email, and no one's sob story is going to move me enough to give them my account info. I find it interesting that they even responded - that stuff is usually all spam/mass emails. You're right in not responding, T-bone.
I'm with Sara on this one. Give to a reputable organization. There are many places to give charity and have less chance of being scammed.
I've also heard that it can be dangerous to deal with some of these spammers. Once they have too much of your personal information, things can go awry.
Don't play with spammers. It's like talking to strangers. What would your mother think?
The Nigerian Scam is one of the oldest scams around..evolved from the Spanish Prisoner scam (there's a rich guy in prison, you just have to provide some $$ up front to get him out, and then he'll give you part of his fortune, etc.). It's just recently been adapted for e-mail, that's all.
It's of great concern to the U.S. Secret Service, because Americans have actually been killed - ones who journeyed to Nigeria to get their $$ back. Check out: http://www.secretservice.gov/alert419.shtml.
I have no sympathy for people who send those kind of emails. I get about one a month. I have read some funny correspondences people have had with these Nigerian scammers on the web, but I don't have links right now.
Forward them to the Federal Trade Commission at uce@ftc.gov
They actually *want* all of your spam so they can track down the spam organizations, expecially the ones who are committing fraud (about 90% of spam is fraudulent).
You've given me an idea - the next time I get one of those type, I'm going to email them back and tell them I reported them to the Federal Trade Commission, FBI and Secret Service.