Spammo

I’m going to set up another email account to capture spammos. This time I’ll be replying, and posting the responses here.

Stay tuned spammos!

Captain John Anthony has some boxes in the US for me to take care of for him (I’m in UK you see). Apparently I’m also listed in the Trade Center Chambers of Commerce in Iraq. Quite why I’m listed here is beyond me. Also I could be wrong, but I believe there are currently no military peace keeping forces in Iraq.

This guy has also forgone any sort of basic IT training as he seems to have put his whole email into the subject line.

Barr Alan Davis

I have no idea of the intent of this one. It seems someone from the United Nations has some money to send me (as usual first I’ve heard) and someone called Comfort Peters (great name!) has contested my funds.

The email is addressed to himself as well, and his grasp of english is awesome (“NB:Reconfirm your current details very important”). The amount of grammatical errors is also astounding.

His phone number country code(+234) is for Nigeria. He was so excited about this offer that he felt the need to email this 3 times in a row. Needless to say I’ll be giving this offer a miss.

A very interesting scam.

I’m currently seeking a job, so my details were probably farmed from one of the many job sites I’ve signed up to.

The premise is a reasonable looking job offer, with no details really what the role entails. In fact this con needs your bank details to “transfer” money into.

Understandably desperate job seekers might be inclined to go with this, without really realising what it is. They just want a job.

Let’s look at the details.

Look at the return email address. Does that look like an official company address? You should expect a job offer email to come from an official address, in this case name@outsourcedlimited.com or something along those lines. Ignore job offers that use gmail or any other web address. Be aware of spoofed emails as well, also in this case (the email does not originate from gmail but from u109959@server52.neubox.net).

Look at the company name. A quick trip to Google reveals no details, no website, nothing. However adding the word “scam” to the end of the search reveals a wealth of details about this supposed company.

Look at the writing and the email. Not too bad in this case. Check for excessive spelling errors,poor diction, and grammatical errors. For example has used aboard instead of on board.

Look at the signature. He has no company logo or details. most offical emails will contain a logo or some company information, return address, postal address, or telephone. He has also signed off using his supposed surname, Olsen. How many managers do you know who would do this?

In short, if you receive something like this, read it carefully and remember Google will be your friend here.

One rule

You get nothing in life for free. If it says free, it’s a scam!

$178 to pay for $650,000 on a credit card. Bargain! Who do I make the cheque out to? James Evans Smith or James Blunt. Also I assume the second pin number is actually the cvc number. Googling the card number brings up a wealth of lucky beggars who’ve received the same card!

Um, what?

The Rev wants to help

He’s dying you know, from lung cancer. He wants to give all his money away to people who need it (not spammers though, that would be against God!)

Note this English speaking pastors wonderful grasp of the English language.

Another classic trick by changing the url. Apparently I’m in a race on youtube (first I’ve heard). I don’t even use my spam catcher email address for youtube, so good luck with that one…

Interesting take on the usual email you see. You’ve probably come across one like this before. A mysterious cancelled order from a company you potentially use, so you’d click it. Rule one, if you hover a link before you click it, your browser will show you the destination url. If it’s suspicious like the one shown in the pic, don’t click it!