[TheForge] Watch out for this s p a m!

[Bruce .]

Malware protection is important, but my original posting was not about any
sort of attack software, but about a scam.  In a scam, it's YOU that is
affected.

The particular instance was of this (late) friend of mine telling me he was
stuck in an airport in some remote corner of the world and his money had
been stolen -- could I wire him some money immediately?!  Well, knowing my
friend had died, it wasn't real hard to figure out that this was a scam.

Usually this sort of crook (may they be suspended by their privates over a
pit of venomous snakes!) targets the elderly, masquerading as their
grandkid.  What grandparent is going to deny his grandkid some money to get
home?

If you get an email like this that sounds plausible, NEVER respond --
investigate.  Somebody you know will know where the real person (e.g., your
grandkid) actually is and whether there's any chance that this is real.
Then if it turns out plausible and you REALLY think you should send the
money, send it in his name to some third party -- maybe, for example, to
the airline to buy a ticket for him. That way he has to present ID to
benefit from it.  But resist -- you can bet your britches that any such
appeal is a scam!

Bruce
NJ


On Wed, May 7, 2014 at 7:50 AM, martin marks via TheForge <
theforge at mailman.qth.net> wrote:

> I hate when these things go around. I hope everyone has some form of
> Malware protection on your PC. If you don't you can download one at the
> address below. It's freeware and very effective. Download the free version
> and perform a full scan. If it finds anything it will let you know and you
> can remove it. Keep running scans until it comes up clean. Just a
> suggestion.
>
> www.malwarebytes.org
> --------------------------------------------
> On Tue, 5/6/14, jerry Frost <akfrosty at mtaonline.net> wrote:
>
>  Subject: Re: [TheForge] Watch out for this s p a m!
>  To: "'Blacksmithing List Sponsored by ABANA'" <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
>  Date: Tuesday, May 6, 2014, 5:29 PM
>
>  I HATE that feature and
>  have disabled it when possible, if not I dump the
>  "service." On the other side of the
>  scale our ISP "MTA" has instituted some
>  pretty draconian anti-scam and spammer
>  policies. You can't send out more
>  than
>  100 copies of an E-mail so news letters have to be through a
>  commercial
>  acct and have permission.
>
>  Something that's becoming
>  more and more true every day is the adage. Post it
>  online and it's there forever. I even got a
>  spam from Chris Ray's
>  "Sirocetar" address once.
>
>  It probably wasn't
>  Ray's acct that was hacked he's probably in
>  someone's
>  address book or someone just
>  phished the address from archives or old list
>  addresses, fora, or just drifting on the
>  net.
>
>  The more the web
>  develops the more I wish for William Gibson's novel
>  "Neuromancer" anti malware, called
>  ICE and BlackICE. ICE would hurt a
>  hacker's system but BlackICE would hunt
>  down and hurt the person behind it.
>
>  Sorry for getting off on a ramble.
>
>  Jer
>
>  -----Original Message-----
>  From: TheForge [mailto:theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net]
>  On Behalf Of Bruce
>  .
>  Sent:
>  Tuesday, May 6, 2014 12:35 PM
>  To:
>  Blacksmithing List Sponsored by ABANA
>  Subject: Re: [TheForge] Watch out for this s p
>  a m!
>
>  Jerry,
>  No, I checked.  Not there.
>  Gmail has a nasty feature that recalls email
>  addresses "for your
>  convenience."
>  Start typing a name in the "to" slot and a list of
>  names and
>  addresses comes up -- some of
>  which you don't even WANT there.  Can't get
>  rid of them.  But Ray's address is not in
>  that either.  So I figure his
>  account must
>  have been hacked after he died.
>
>  Bruce
>  NJ
>
>
>
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