Thank you, John. I’ve been meaning to say something like this, but
am probably embarrassed by two facts: one, that I, too, tend to get
short with solicitors, and two, that I’ve been one myself. Even
though I was selling something I believed in, it was a miserable,
low-paid job (even in 1968, when we were a novelty) and I doubt that
people would do it if they weren’t desperate. I try to remember that
it’s the company I’m angry at, not the poor schmuck on the phone.
Nowadays, when I get ‘cold calls’ on the phone - which you can
identify as such by the delay before anyone speaks as the autodialer
connects your phone to the operative - I let them ask for me then say
’just hold the line please’ and put the receiver down beside the
phone and leave it while I carry on with what I’m doing. After five
or ten minutes when I return they always seem to have got bored and
hung up but I was told by a friend in that ‘industry’ that keeping
your line open prevents their autodialler from connecting any other
calls. That may or may not be right but its a nice thought…
If I’m in a playful mood and the caller is a girl I’m apt to let her
babble on for a while and then say ‘will you marry me - you have such
a nice voice and I’m sooo lonely…’ This usually elicits a gasp
from the other end and the phone is slammed down.
I hardly comment on these threats if I am not very concerned.
Telling people who want to do business with you to look elsewhere in
1 minute is not very polite. You take your time with every customer
(small or big) because of common decency or is it just the “you are
toast” kinda story?
Why not give the newly merchants the time to show their products.
They don’t know you are getting flamed every hour/day/week/month
with the likes of them. I know it’s busy, but when you could make a
good deal … how busy are you?
This is an update and big thank you to those who replied to my
original post (in late June) questioning a Japanese inquiry and
request to purchase some things from my website.
I am writing to let you know that Adrienne_S was right on the mark
when she said “Magenta is the real deal”
Bolstered by her reply and Alain’s recommendation to follow through
with the email I had drafted for the NYC principal, I stepped
(carefully) with both feet into unsure territory.
Lengthy exchange short: Several delightful exchanges about the
products and potential business were followed by a request for a
sample order. Funds were promptly wired into my account and the items
sent on their way for evaluation.
My appreciation for this forum and community continues to grow.
Without the shared here I may not have come to recognize
the scope of this opportunity.
Again my heartfelt thanks to our remarkable founders, Hanuman and
Charles for pursuing their vision! Thank you to our complex,
helpful, supportive and knowledgeable community and to all who lend a
hand and heart to its continuing health and success.
Hi all, i just goat an email from US Bank asking me , as a client
…which I am not! …to confirm my personal info. I knew this was
trouble and found a number in the phone book to call when you get
these attempts at id theft. They confirmed that this is an id theft
scam. They do track these scams and would like them forwarded. YOu
can also lodge a complaint against the company, if you care to. You
can check out known scams at : Identity Theft | Consumer Advice
so, if you think you’re getting scammed you can: call 1 887-IDTHEFT
For the NIGERIA scams, there is a dedicated address: 419.FCD@uss.treas.gov
I received an email yesterday from a purported student wanting me to
bring this student to the United States for study in the jewelry
field. No last name, no address, no background, no contact other
than the email. Any good hearted but foolish person who responded
to this by email would then set him/herself up for demands for money
etc.
We must all be eternally vigilant, and unfortunately, suspicious,
when we get emails from people we don’t know. When in doubt, ask
someone else BEFORE you respond to anything. Once you respond,
you’ve put yourself in play for whatever might come.
It’s difficult for me to believe that business owners would simply
ship merchandise without doing their due diligence. However,
today’s mention of several jewelers shipping off watches shows me
that this is a very hard-learned lesson. I’m distressed to read
this kind of story over and over again.
I have been collecting the scam e-mails in a file on my computer. At
present I have 106 stored. I guess I am lucky that I am in Brasil
and only get 3 or 4 a week. I imagine the people in the USA get many
more. It is interesting to see that the message text, along with the
spelling mistakes and capitalization errors basically remain the
same while the names cited and e-mail addresses change.
‘jimmy davis’ and ‘kenneth kutimo’ sent the same exact text of the
scam letter about the Diamond Rough with different e-mail addresses:
jyvis2000@libero.it kennethkutimo18@yahoo.ie
All of the e-mail scam letters get a standard response from me - on
a different e-mail address that I use for this purpose. It is:
“Thank you for your recent 419 scam letter. Please be advised that
it has been forwarded to the appropriate Nigerian Authorities. You
should be aware that any response that you may get from this letter
will probably be a decoy attempt from the proper Nigerian
Authorities in order to take steps to arrest you. They will be
closing in on the Internet cafe you are using to send these scam
letters also. Good luck and hope to see you behind bars quite soon.”
I only received one set of responses from these return messages. The
‘scammer’ wanted to know why I thought he was from Nigeria when his
e-mail address was from another country. And he got quite upset when
I criticized his English writing skills. He proposed that I should
teach him good English composition.
When they cite a Bank or Investment company in their e-mail text, I
try to find the Bank’s e-mail address and forward a copy to them.
One bank even had an e-mail scam alert right on the front page of
its web site
One should be very careful of customers proposing to purchase
merchandise from you and sending you a check, money order etc. for a
higher value than the sale and asking you to send the difference to
someone or to a shipper / agent.
There are many places to check out the ‘scams’ on the internet. Some
are listed below.
If you have the patience, Scamorama is one of the funniest if you
have the time to follow some of the ‘scams’ that are played on the
scammers.
Another idea would be to do an e-mail bomb of their e-mail
addresses. I don’t know how to do that, but it might be satisfying.
The 419 Coalition Website < 419 Coalition Fights Nigerian 419 Scams>.
This is a good resource for those interested in more detail on the
Nigerian scam and has advice on reporting instances to various law
enforcement agencies.
Scamorama < http://www.Scamorama.com> is also dedicated to spreading
the word about the 419 scam, but with humour! If you have been
bothered by the scammers, you’ll enjoy reading their replies when
they are led along the garden path by some very imaginative
“victims”. Check the column of links on the right of the index page
to follow some of these sagas. If you’ve a literary turn of mind and
appreciate fine humour you should find the time to visit.
Klass de Vries < http://www.klaasdevriesjr.nl/> (Uncle Klass) is a
Dutch prankster who enjoys confusing the spammers. Some of these
villains have taken up abode in Amsterdam so it’s good to know that
he is on the case.
Michael Kay http://internet-fraud.com/internet-fraud/contribution-mk.htm of
Australia (who seems to live an eventful life) has succinctly
presented the artful progress of the scam and illustrates the wealth
of “documentation” that can be produced in support
Here’s a scam I almost fell for that I never heard of before.
I just took a faceting workshop, so, as I’ve mentioned here, I want
a used faceting machine. I was edged out in an auction on eBay. A
few days later, I got an official-looking email offering me a
"Second Chance Offer". So far, so good-- this can happen if the
buyer backs out. I was delighted. But I was surprised and
disconcerted when the seller (whose name was now different) said
they’d just had to fly to London, but had brought “the item” and
would ship from there. Plus, I was told I had to pay by Western
Union. EBay specifically says not to do that. Western Union says the
same.
In retrospect, it is obvious that this was a scam. But it took
several emails back and forth before I realized it-- and, in truth,
my husband forced me to see it. I really wanted it to be legit, and
nearly sent off close to $600. As it is, I revealed my name and
address. The final absolute proof came when I emailed the original
seller, through the auction site, to ask whether they had sent the
offer. They were as confused as I was.
I reported it to eBay, and now I’m reporting it to you. I’ve bought
many things on eBay. A few have been disappointments, but nothing
that approached fraud (except maybe some of Thaigem’s stone
descriptions). But watch out-- it’s caveat emptor out there!
The different name of the seller should have been a warning to you.
There are so many scams committed through ebay, which is just
horrible. I receive emails often where the seller is thanking me for
sending the payment, or confirming the shipping charge - of auctions
I was NEVER involved in! I think this sort of scam is just so these
“thieves” can generate accurate emails. It really annoys me about
these scams on ebay because it makes it that much more difficult for
the legit sellers and buyers. Send all the scam emails to spoofs@ebay.com
An official eBay Second Chance offer will always be an auction
listing just for you, which you are, of course, under no obligation
to accept. A seller can send out Second Chance offers if they have
additional identical items.
Good for you that you caught it before you were out the money! Mona
A (very naive) friend of our son almost fell for the same scam
relating to something he tried to sell. The details were a bit
different, but essentially included the use of Western Union. In
his case, the person was offering to pay for an item with a business
check from a 3rd party. Our friend was to send the merchandise and
a western union money transfer with the ‘change’ from the check to
an address in UK, if I recall. Had we not heard about this and been
very blunt with him, he would have been out about $500.
Someone had referenced ebay type spams… Where so many of us
conduct business via the net, this is definitely something that
bears watching.
But the correct address to send the messages to is spoof@ebay.com
(unless there is also a spoofs@ebay.com, but I’m pretty sure
not…) It is important to include the long header and forward the
message unformatted in any way, including the subject.
I get tons of those, and ebay really does check into them. The
senders can really be quite tricky.
I don’t want to publicly discuss how it is done, or which ones have
gotten around it - but please do protect yourself, and help protect
all of us by forwarding these on for investigation.
Responding directly to or “bouncing” these messages is not a good
idea at all - for your own protection.
True for ALL spam as well!
Sincerely,
Mary Beth M.
If you use PayPal, there is also a spoof@paypal.com or spoof@paypal.co.uk for the Brits. They do check them and let you
know the outcome. It is worth noting that both Ebay and PayPal use
your name when sending genuine emails, not your User Id, email
address, or the term ‘xxx Member’, so there’s a giveaway to begin
with.
Never click on a link in any suspect email, reply to it or do
anything but delete it permanently (after reporting it if
appropriate). Don’t even ask to be taken off their list. At the
least, you will verify that the email has reached a valid email
address, and open yourself up to a deluge of spam but the
consequences could be much worse.
One of our customers (we run a small IT company) recently did
respond to a spam email, and I am now getting on average 200 emails a
day bounced to my Email Administrator account.
Also messages purporting to be from your/a bank- I’ve been getting a
dozen a week telling me to update my info at Citibank or my account
could be suspended. I don’t even HAVE an account there. I’d be happy
to forward them to the bank at their site but it is a 5-7 step
procedure even to find out where to contact them, much less get them
a copy of the false messages. Not sure they would do anything about
it- I have never heard back about the ones I did manage to send them.
Betsy
Also messages purporting to be from your/a bank- I've been
getting a dozen a week telling me to update my info at Citibank or
my account could be suspended.
Never, Ever, Ever…
Again NEVER…NO…NO…NO…!
No matter how offical looking…
“Update” or prevent “Suspension” or whatever for your account with
anybody…though an email web link…
NO…NO…NO…!
Do a new browser, and check in securely if you have any qualms about
yer account with anybody…
It’s a new sport, called “phishing”…
These dirtbags feel that if you’re stupid enough to do
this…they’re entitled to your money…your identity, and whatever
else they can get out of it…
Furthermore…if you’re tempted to reply that you’re John Carter of
Barsoom or something else as frivolous…just inputting at the
link can hit your system with nasty stuff…that you might have to
scrub your system for, or maybe scrap the whole thing and
reinstall…
These are not good people at all…
I look forward to the day when I can meet one of
them……You’ll read about it in the papers…or on line…
Also messages purporting to be from your/a bank- I’ve been getting a
Be Careful with those emails you are getting from “banks” and loan
companies. Do not even preview them in your email they usually have
virus’ attached. The best way to handle them is to change your
outlook box to non preview, if you see something that you don’t
recognize delete it immediately and don’t keep it in your deleted
folder —move it on out asap. there are plenty of virus there. I
work for a very large corporation and that is what they tell us
regarding the virus and worm situations.
Furthermore...if you're tempted to reply that you're John Carter of
Barsoom or something else as frivolous.......just inputting at the
link can hit your system with nasty stuff...that you might have to
scrub your system for, or maybe scrap the whole thing and
reinstall...
Definitely possible. Any time you send (or reply to) an email, your
IP (Internet Protocol) address goes along with it. The only thing a
person needs to understand about their IP in this regard is that it
can be traced. And not only by an experienced hacker, there are
freeware IP tracers that can locate your computer easily. Find out
the spam/scam reporting address for your ISP (Internet Service
Provider) and report it without opening it.
Do not even preview them in your email they usually have virus'
attached. The best way to handle them is to change your outlook
box to non preview, if you see something that you don't recognize
delete it immediately and don't keep it in your deleted folder
---move it on out asap.
Very good advice, especially for Microsoft Outlook users.
Unfortunately, that doesn’t keep them from sending more. If you find
out who the reporting agency for your provider is and report it, the
provider will block their IP from sending you any more. It’s worth
spending a phone call to find out.
Another way to avoid these problems with Outlook is to get a better,
less vulnerable email application. Eudora, by Qualcomm, is a
powerful email application that is downloadable. It’s also free in
“sponsored mode” but is also available with no advertisements for a
very low price. Pegasus Mail is another excellent, more secure
package.
An even better way is to get a browser-based POP mail account. With
them, you can check for, and delete any mail from unknown sources.
Most of these also have spam filters and virus scanning capabilities
that scan before you ever look at them. Setting up a (free) Yahoo!
email account enables you to also set up a POP account with them.
There are also plenty of others, just Google search “POP mail” in
quotes.
Microsoft Outlook is one of the most capable email apps ever.
Unfortunately, it has long been wide open to exploitation by hackers
and worm/virus authors. Unless you’re required to use it for some
reason, chances are your machine will be open to them for a long
time to come.
No association with Qualcomm, Eurora, Yahoo! (and obviously not
Microsoft), just a happy, virus/worm/spam-free customer.
P.S. I also keep Symantec’s Norton SystemWorks with Firewall and
Anti-Virus currently subscribed, with anti-virus definitions
regularly updated. No affiliation with Symantec, either.
Just wanted to share that the Nigeria scam has added a new twist.
Over the past 2 - 3 days I have been getting a lot (5+)TTY calls.
Having had clients who are legitimate I took no alarm. But here’s
the catch. The caller id himself as James Bernard and wanted to
purchase wristwatches and gold chains. Since I do not offer these it
was easy! but alas today a “James from Nigeria” called wanting same.
I ended the call. My apologies to any person on this list who is
legitimate.
Barb
Barbara Smith McLaughlin - Handcrafted Jewelry
PO Box 793
Stratham, NH 03885
603-772-2633 www.barbarasmithmclaughlin.com @Barbara_Smith_McLaug