Scam Month?

Weird.  3 different scam e-mails have turned up in my e-mail spam folder since yesterday.  Is February International Scam Month?  At least there is some variety.  One claims to be from the UN, one claims to be from a US Army Sergeant in Afghanistan, and one from a DHL courier.  The DHL courier wants to give me a 5.4 million dollar "ATM VISA CARD."  Too bad, I don't have $245 handy at the moment to send them for the airport fee.

Cash Is King.

Yesterday I got one of those phone calls you don't want.  My bank notified me that my debit card was being locked because of a potential data skimming, and that I'd have to visit my local branch to get it unlocked and to change my PIN number.  Since I didn't find out until after local branch hours had ended I was stuck with a grand total of 13 bucks to my name that happened to be in my pocket.  In reality I wasn't really broke since I do have a credit card with another bank, but I only use that card for certain things. 

This is the kind of thing that makes appreciate cash.  When you spend actual, physical money your entire savings aren't at risk, just whatever cash you hand over.  You're also more likely to think about what you're spending, instead of simply pressing a button and worrying about it later, like at the end of the month when your bank statement comes, and you suddenly realise that you've spend a lot more money than you thought.  It's probably a good idea to leave the card in your pocket except for more pricey things, which you're likely to buy at places much less likely to be the site of a skimming attempt, and pay for the small stuff with paper money.

Oh Those Scammers!

Wow, I just got an e-mail from the IRS. It seems they owe me $109.30. Pretty neat for someone who has never filed any sort of US tax return. Of course a look at the message header shows it didn't come from the IRS, a fact I'm sure surprises no one. I would assume they're trying to get ahold of my Social Security number and that kind of thing for ID theft purposes.

UN Lottery.

Bet you didn't know the UN is in the lottery business. Me neither, but I received an e-mail this morning stating I won on the UN Lottery. It would be interesting to know if using the UN in your scam e-mail will make potential suckers any more likely to bite. All it takes is one I suppose when you send out 8 zillion scam letters every day.

While I'm here let me wish a happy July 4th to my American friends, and say hello to the Singaporeans my last post seems to have attracted here.

You Can Call Me Reverend Gueguen.

I was just checking out my e-mail, and noted a message with the subject line "GOOD DAY Dear REVEREND." It turned out to be another scam letter, this one claiming to be from the son of Jonas Savimbi. The text of the letter indicates that its not a case of the writer not knowing what the term reverend means, as it talks about the supposed money in question being used to build places of worship and winning souls to the Lord, and their desire to find a suitable clergyman to work with. Why the scammer decided to try the reverend schtick is beyond me. Is there someone out there in cyberland who has the utterly mistaken impression I'm a man of the cloth? I just hope some naive pastor doesn't let visions of expanding his congregation short circuit his common sense and end up in big trouble because of these guys.

One thing I'm surprised the Katrina disaster has yet to generate is lawsuits, or at the very least talk of lawsuits. Its a target rich enviroment for potential litigants, with the federal government, the Louisiana government, the city of New Orleans, various US government agencies and more all being potential respondents in lawsuits. Of course it may simply be the case that lawyers are having trouble getting in touch with potential clients because the disaster is ongoing. Until the displaced have found permanent or semipermanent places to live it will be nearly impossible to have consistent contact with them.

I would guess that con artists are already working to exploit the charity angle. If you're interested in donating money to the relief efforts it would be best to donate to a well established charitable organisation like United Way or the Red Cross. I'm sure the Nigerian scam crowd and their emulators will soon be sending out letters claiming to be from some poor victim of the disaster who really needs your help to get that 20 million bucks out of his bank account, and he'll share 10 percent with you to thank you for your help.

Many New Orleans residents will not be returning to the city, including many of its poor. And some people in the city are saying good riddance to the latter. They see this as an opportunity to get rid of the lower classes who they say cause crime and hurt the city's image. The fact that the city's underclass is heavily black of course leads one to suspect racism plays a role in some of these attitudes, although I would suspect you'd find such thinking amongst some of the city's well to do blacks as well. As is often the case with such attitudes those who hold them apparently have no problem with these people continuing their supposed evil ways, just as long as they do it in someone else's backyard.

Speaking of racism those idiots at the New Order, who I mentioned in a previous post as a source of some of my e-mail spam, have been more active of late. They see the disaster as a perfect excuse to spew more of their poison. I would imagine their fellow travelers in other such groups have been doing the same thing.

And some responses to the Katrina disaster are just silly and tasteless. Some writers of fanfiction are already using the disaster in their stories. Take this example, courtesy of the Godawful Fan Fiction Forum, of a Harry Potter story where evil Chinese wizards cause Katrina. Riiiiight.