Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Might as well hand 'em the keys to the car as well...

So I got this in my mail this morning and for those of you who haven't run into the concept yet, it screams 'Scam!' 'Phishing!' 'Identity theft!' 'Account hijacking!'

DO NOT! EVER! EVER! EVER! click on this kind of link. If not sure, check with your bank, but most of them nowadays and other services such as EBay, Paypal, etc... do not request this kind of information. Instead of using the link, go directly to the services website ~ if they want you, there is usually a message on your account. (And it's more likely to be written by someone literate.)

If you're still not sure, email their security department. Paypal (for example) has an address to send this sorta stuff and they will tell you if it's a spoof. I mean, look at the email address they are using ~ does that come across as MSN to you?

Oh ~ and if you don't believe me...? It's from IP Address 4.219.251.173 which funnily enough is in Nigeria. Not exactly a hotbed of MSN corporate activity.


Hotmail Account Alert !!!‏
From: Windows Live™ Team
Sent: June 24, 2009 4:56:13 AM
To: Windows Live™ Team (lagrone45@hotmail.com)


Dear Account User

CONFIRM YOUR WINDOWS LIVE ACCOUNT SERVICES. VERIFY YOUR HOTMAIL ACCOUNT NOW !!!


This Email is from Hotmail Customer Care and we are sending it to every Hotmail Email User Accounts Owner for safety. we are having congestions due to the anonymous registration of Hotmail accounts so we are shutting down some Hotmail accounts and your account was among those to be deleted. We are sending this email to you so that you can verify and let us know if you still want to use this account. If you are still interested please confirm your account by filling the space below.

Confirm your E-mail by filling out your Login Information below after clicking the reply button, or your account will be suspended within 24 hours for security reasons.

* Username: .............................
* Password: ................................
* Date of Birth: ............................
* Country Or Territory: ................

After following the instructions in the sheet, your account will not be interrupted and will continue as normal. Thanks for your attention to this request. We apologize for any inconveniences.

Warning!!! Account owner that refuses to update his/her account after two weeks of receiving this warning will lose his or her account permanently.
Sincerely,
The Windows Live Hotmail Team

Thursday, June 18, 2009

They even litter Facebook mailboxes...

From: Justlenc Ground

Naturally, this letter will come to you as a surprise since we have not met,but please permit me to introduce myself to you.

My name is Barrister Lenc Darius, a solicitor at law, personal attorney to Engr. J. P. M****, a national of your country, who used to work as a contractor in Africa. Here in after shall be referred to as my client,who died some years ago in a fatal accident on September 2005, All occupants of the vehicle unfortunately lost their lives.

Since then I have made several inquiries here to locate any of my client's extended relatives, this has also proved unsuccessful. After these several unsuccessful attempts, I decided to search through with his name which motivated me to contact you, to locate any member of his family hence I contacted you.

I have contacted you to assist in repatriating the fund valued at USD$13,500,000.00(Thirteen
Million Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars). left behind by my cleint before it gets confiscated or declared unserviceable by the Security Finance Firm(bank) where this huge amount were deposited. Now the management under the influence of the bank Chairman and Members of the Board of directors, has made arrangement for the fund to be declared Unclaimed so that they can share the money amongst themselves.

They has issued me a notice to provide the next of kin or have his account confiscated within the next twenty one official working days Since I have been unsuccessful in locating the relatives for over 3 years now, I seek the consent to present you as the next of kin to the deceased since you have the same last names, so that the proceeds of this account can be paid to you.

Therefore, on receipt of your positive response, we shall then discuss the sharing ratio and modalities for transfer. I have all necessary informations and legal documents needed to back you up for the claim.

All I required from you is your honest cooperation to enable us see this transaction goes through.

To commence this transaction, I require you immediately to indicate your interest by a return e-mail and enclose the following information’s.

Names:..................................
Age:....................................
Occupation:.............................
Phone/Fax no:...........................
Nationality:............................
Private Email:..........................

I await your urgent response asap at legalstand_7@hotmail.com

Best Regards.

FROM BARRISTER LENC DARIUS
DARIUS (CHAMBERS) & LEGAL CONSULTATIONS.
NO 7, RUE DE GAGLI
LOME-TOGO.
TEL:+228 078 9554.


Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Lottery One Million and Two

Euros Milliones Notification‏
From: Euros Milliones Board (all0011@comission-infos.es)


Sent: June 12, 2009 3:44:19 PM
To:
Attn Web/Internet user!!

This is to notify you that this e-mail address was entered during the Euro Milliones Lottery selection Draw and has won the sum of Ђ750,000.

For claim please contact the below agent for immediate process of your claim; Rememebr to quote these numbers below for verification by the company. REF: ESP/WIN/008/02/10/MA and BATCH: EURO/1007/444/606/09 you should include Your Name, Address, Sex, Age, Occupation, Nationality, Phone Number and Fax Number.

Mr. Patricio carlos (Claim Personnel)
Email: libertygroup@hotmail.es
Tel: +34 634-138-556
Fax: +34-911-414-291

Best regards,
Dr. Maria Jose Muyor.
Euro Milliones Lottery

This does not compute...

One thing about all these lottery prizes that keep rolling in is that I don't seem to sign up for 'em. Apparently all this largesse is going to fall into my lap with absolutely no effort on my part ~ a lottery lotus land. If I had known all this wealth would have been accrued so easily I wouldn't have put so much energy into working for a living.

Anyhoo, the badly written tripe below is more of the ecrap cluttering up mailboxes ~ anything in red is information from the actual Acer UK site and, as you can see, it differs somewhat from the usual scam phone numbers, etc...


RE: PAYMENT RELEASE NOTICE‏

From: Acer Computers UK Limited (info@acer.org.uk)
(For all Technical Service related support, please see the http://support.acer-euro.com website or email euro_mail@acer-euro.com )
Sent: June 17, 2009 5:26:55 AM

Acer Computers UK Limited
Head Office
Acer House
Heathrow Boulevard III
282 Bath Road
West Drayton
Middlesex
UB7 0DQ
England

Dear Lucky Winner,

Thank you for participating in the 2009 Acer Computers UK Limited lottery program. The 2009 Acer Computers UK Limited lottery program selection has been performed at our United Kingdom Corporate headquarters here in London. The Acer Computers UK Limited lottery program is registered and organized in accordance with the British Gaming Board (B.G.B.) and the World Lottery Regulation Act (W.L.R.A.).

We are therefore pleased to officially notify you of the status of your Winning. An official notification of winning is hereby issued to you as your email ticket number; ACER-09-0-96-09, with serial number; ACER /01/2009, and ref no; LV /0012/2009 in batch A /6183 randomly drew for the lucky numbers 000-31-0584 which selected your email address as a winner of our End of Year lottery program. You have therefore consequently won the Acer Computers UK Limited, 2009 lottery promo in its first batch.

As regards the above, we have officially approved a sum payout of ? 500,000.00 POUNDS only to you as our lottery winner. This amount is from the total prize cash of ? 2,500,000.00 POUNDS randomly distributed among our five (5) International winners selected by our Lottery Random System Selection (L.R.S.S.).

The Acer Computers UK Limited 2009 lottery program's Organising Commitee (L.O.C.) will immediately commence the immediate dispatch of your cheque of ? 500,000.00 POUNDS as soon as you have contacted them. You are therefore adviced to contact the Acer Computers UK Limited lottery program's Organising Commitee (L.O.C.) immediately as stated below;

================================================================
Contact Person: Richie Mccathy
Dispatch Officer in Charge
Acer Computers UK Limited 2009 lottery program's Organising Commitee (L.O.C.)
Email: <>
Phone & Fax: +44-703-1741-647

(Commercial and Product Information
Please call 0870 853 1005

Technical Helpline:
Calling from UK : 0870 853 1000
Fax from UK: 0870 853 1004)

================================================================

Please provide them with the underlisted informations below as soon as possible;

1. Names in Full
2. Delivery Address
3. Nationality / Present Location
4. Occupation
5. Phone Number(s)

Hearty congratulations from my humble self and all members of the 2009 Acer Computers UK Limited lottery program's Organising Commitee (L.O.C.)

Your's Sincerly,

Engr. Allen Anderson
Chairman
2009 Acer Computers UK Limited lottery program's Organising Commitee (L.O.C.)
For and on behalf of Acer Computers UK Limited.

Copyright© 2009 Acer Inc. All Rights Reserved

So How Come?

My photo
I have two blogs at the moment - Here Be Dragons which is devoted to rental scams primarily sourced through Craigslist although the proliferation of free ad sites has widened the hunting grounds. Many additions come from other sources (ie: blogs/anti-scam sites/online community ad sites) or are provided by people who want to share their experiences. There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch is for copies of scammail that I find in my mailboxes ~ sometimes I can't resist the odd acerbic comment but for the most part I post 'em because the more that people do, the fewer fools they get to gull. Dunno what to say about me that would be very interesting ~ I'm a granny who reads, gardens and crafts as the mood strikes me. :) I don't particularly care for the social predators on this planet and this blog is part of my way of saying so.