An Email Scam (From Nigeria)

[Bigaldoc]

Here's a story in my newspaper today:

        E-mail scam that struck Lexington woman a growing concern

[Leif]

It's fairly widespread - at least one member of Eileen's Lounge has been hit...

[Bigaldoc]

Come to think of it NOW, I guess I didn't have any room to gripe about too tight security yesterday. I accessed my Facebook account with my new Blackberry smartphone yesterday while awaiting my wife's lunch. Got in OK but it's not something I'll do much of.

When I got back home later in the day and went to Facebook on my home computer, I got asked several security questions about the access from a mobile. They knew the IP address wasn't where I "normally" come in from. I guess that's good and I hope Google, Yahoo and others are "guarding the security chicken coop" as best they can.

Scams and spam - the scourges of computer life...

[ChrisGreaves]

It's fairly widespread - at least one member of Eileen's Lounge has been hit...

That reminds me, did you receive the money? Let me know as soon as you get home ...(G&DR)

The bottom line in this, and all other matters seems to be use another channel to confirm before sending any money to anyone, anywhere at anytime.
A telephone dialogue seems to be the most secure, and well worth the cost.

[John Gray]

It's not just "ordinary people" that get scammed!
UK Justice Secretary Jack Straw has been the victim of Nigerian fraudsters who sent out hundreds of e-mails in his name asking for money....

[ChrisGreaves]

It's not just "ordinary people" that get scammed!

Quite so. Nor is it a matter that Jack Straw and I have never, and will never, meet.
Jack straw has his circle of colleagues, as do I. From my point of view, my colleagues are ordinary and Jack Straw's are extra-ordinary.

It's worth pointing out that strictly speaking Jack Straw was not a 'victim'. He was a mule, so to speak.
How do we know that not one of the "significant number of people" in his address book responded?
If any one did, then that person is a victim.
Of course, that could then rebound on Jack Straw, as does any lapse or breach of confidentiality.

Over the years I have "cut-off" four so-called friends who insisted on CCing me on a vast number of Fwd:Re: emails. The record was 768 other email addresses in the body of an email. {insert optional "that's the Last Straw" joke here}

[Samantha]

Over the years I have "cut-off" four so-called friends who insisted on CCing me on a vast number of Fwd:Re: emails. The record was 768 other email addresses in the body of an email.

You can do that when the unrestrained forwarders are just "so-called friends," What I need is a reliable way of convincing my mother that I really don't need a copy of every cute/inspirational/political (which is usually diametrically opposed to my own views) email that friends of friends of friends of my mother pass along.

[DaveA]

I just tell these people that I am going to sell the addresses that they are sending me to the spammers.

This seems to get their attention and learn how to remove them.

[Bigaldoc]

You can do that when the unrestrained forwarders are just "so-called friends," What I need is a reliable way of convincing my mother that I really don't need a copy of every cute/inspirational/political (which is usually diametrically opposed to my own views) email that friends of friends of friends of my mother pass along.

In that vein, I've tried and tried to "teach" people who insist on forwarding junk to "edit message as new" and omit all the forwards. But it's hard to convince friends AND relatives. I also try very hard to get people to use the "bcc" technique when they send stuff, any stuff, to more than one (usually MANY) recipients, but I generally strike out on that one too.

I have one friend in NY who forwards so much junk that I've done the Snopes routine on her several times, showing what she sent me to be UNTRUE but it hasn't helped. Still the junk arrives and I don't have the nerve to blacklist her since she is a long, long time family friend.

We used to say in the Army that life's a bitch!

[viking33]

We used to say in the Army that life's a bitch!

Or on Cape Cod....life's a beach

[stuck]

I also try very hard to get people to use the "bcc" technique when they send stuff, any stuff, to more than one (usually MANY) recipients, but I generally strike out on that one too.

Glad to hear it's not just me who fails on that one. Perhaps next time you strike out you can come and sit next to me on the bench

Ken

[Samantha]

We used to say in the Army that life's a bitch!

Funny, we used to say that in the Air Force, as well!

[ChrisGreaves]

... reliable way of convincing my mother ...

Obvoiously nothing you've tried so far has worked.
My mother died before internet email took hold, so I can't claim ever to have to have tried this, but think:

What would happen if you added her name to your spam-filter blacklist, AND told her that you'd done so?
Tell her, at that time, what it means, but that there is always the phone.
It maybe that the email channel isn't important to her for communicating with you.
Perhaps phone is her preferred choice of mother-daughter communication channel.
Tell her that if she has something important to say, she should telephone.
Tell her the truth - that you are too busy to manually filter out all the junk, and you don't read it anyway.

She won't stop loving you.
That's against the law in {your favorite state, province or country here}

I don't see this as any different from sons/daughters who have to tell mom/dad that these frequent drop-in visits are too frequent.
or that you don't lack the skills to buy milk at the grocery store.
or that you could clip your own coupons if you really needed coupons.

I wish my mother were still alive.
There is so much I want to ask her.

[Skitterbug]

I decided I'd had enough of those forwards coming into my personal email, so I set up a web mail client, told everyone that I'd changed my address to the web mail one and then bounced anyone who used my old <but still good> address. Now for 99.9 percent of the time, I am free of junk coming in. Works for me!

[Samantha]

What would happen if you added her name to your spam-filter blacklist, AND told her that you'd done so?

I haven't yet gone so far as to add her to my blacklist, but I do have a filter set up so that anything with more than two FW: tags in the subject line gets sent to my spam folder -- and I've told my mother that. I've told her that I don't mind her passing on something that she thinks will interest me, but she needs to edit the subject line or it will automatically get deleted unread.

I've also asked her (to no avail) to add my email in as a bcc recipient, so my email address isn't spread around to who-knows-where to be copied and spoofed whenever someone in her address book gets hacked.

And I have a firm rule that I never open an attachment unless I'm expecting it, or it is accompanied by a note with sufficient personal detail that I'm sure the sender's email hasn't been spoofed. I've actually been pretty successful in drilling that point home with my mother, but my next-to-youngest sister still hasn't caught on.

Tell her ... there is always the phone. It maybe that the email channel isn't important to her for communicating with you. Perhaps phone is her preferred choice of mother-daughter communication channel.
Tell her that if she has something important to say, she should telephone.

No, absent my driving 7.5 hours to visit in person, email is how most of our communication happens. If she answers the phone when I call, she passes me off to my dad pretty quickly. I suspect she is getting hard of hearing, but doesn't want to admit it. To give her credit, my mother is quite comfortable using her computer. She isn't a power-user, but she manages to accomplish what she needs.

Tell her the truth - that you are too busy to manually filter out all the junk, and you don't read it anyway.

Been there, done that. I think she thinks that she gets points for staying in touch with me (and all the rest of her contact list) by passing on whatever emails strike her fancy.

I've been known to pass on an email occasionally, but I usually limit the recipients to one individual at a time and I always add a personal note about why I'm sending it, even if it is as simple as it reminded me of when ...