The Spam Blog

Crime Alert! Beware!

2011-08-09T17:37:00.000-04:00

The following email was sent to me and I think that a lot of people would be interested to see it:

On the way to Canton , driving on Michigan Avenue , on Thursday morning, I saw an infant car seat on the side of the road with a blanket draped over it. I did not stop, even though I had all kinds of thoughts running through my head. But when I got to my destination, I called the Canton PD and they were going to check it out. This is what I was told...

"Several things to be aware of .. gangs and thieves, are now plotting different ways to get a person to "stop" their vehicle. "There is a gang initiation reported by the local police department that gangs are placing a car seat by the road...with a fake baby in it...waiting for a woman, of course, to stop and check on the baby. Note that the location of this car seat will usually be beside a wooded or grassy (field) area ...and the person - woman - will be dragged into the woods- beaten and raped- usually left for dead.

DO NOT STOP.

DIAL 9-1-1 AND REPORT WHAT YOU SAW.

"IF YOU ARE DRIVING AT NIGHT AND EGGS ARE THROWN AT YOUR WINDSHIELD. DO NOT OPERATE THE WIPER AND DO NOT SPRAY ANY WATER BECAUSE EGGS MIXED WITH WATER BECOME MILKY AND BLOCK YOUR VISION UP TO 92.5% YOU ARE THEN FORCED TO STOP BESIDE THE ROAD AND BECOME A VICTIM OF THIEVES. THIS IS A NEW TECHNIQUE USED BY GANGS.

PLEASE INFORM YOUR FRIENDS AND RELATIVES. THESE ARE DESPERATE TIMES AND THESE UNSAVORY INDIVIDUALS WILL TAKE DESPERATE MEASURES TO GET WHAT THEY WANT."

Please talk to your loved ones about this. This is a new tactic used and I would hate for anyone to fall victim to this kind of crime.

So please be on the lookout and remember to be careful out there!

"Your Wish Is Your Command"

2011-02-21T16:23:00.000-05:00

I am a very big fan of the law of attraction which simply states that you will get what you focus on.

I have mentioned the law of attraction many times in my Working From Home blog. There have been quite a few times where I have been able to successfully attract money into my life and I really do believe that it was because of the law of attraction!

That's why it's so bad when I find out information that takes away from the law of attraction because I firmly believe that it works!

Someone called my attention to a CD serious called "Your Wish Is Your Command" which is a CD series. Although this sounds like the same thing that the law of attraction and "The Secret" teaches, I decided to find out more about this CD series.

Unfortunately what I have found is that this product has received a LOT of complaints! It seems that people have been getting excess charges on their credit cards and they have been having a lot of problems getting their money refunded even if they managed to get their money refunded at all! You can read these complaints and decide for yourself by clicking here.

Another Paypal Scare!

2010-02-04T20:11:00.002-05:00

I was checking my email tonight and got this email that said that another email address had been added to my Paypal account.

Since I didn't remember doing this I decided to check this email out! The email said that a Yahoo email account had been added to my own Paypal account! (And it even wasn't any of my own Yahoo email accounts!) Since I didn't remember doing this I decided to check out my paypal account just to make sure! I did this and was relieved to see that the only email accounts on my Paypal account were the ones that I added myself!

This was really an authentic-looking piece of email and it is a good thing that I checked it out! (and by checking it out I mean that I went directly to the Paypal site and I did not click on the link that was provided in the email!)

So here you yet another example of how people are trying to get access to one's Paypal account. If you ever get email like this go to the Paypal site directly and do not click on the link in the email!

Please be sure to visit my other blogs

The Unclaimed Money Blog - for more information about unclaimed money. Are you or someone else in your family on the list for unclaimed money? Be sure to check out my blog and see!

Dentistry List For $249?

2009-11-22T18:41:00.002-05:00

Interesting bit of email came in my email box today:

New for 2009 Dentistry List in the United States

** 164,656 |>entists with City, State, Zip

** 158,803 Addresses

** 163,668 Phone Nos

** 77,066 Fax #'s

** 45,089 E-Mail Addresses

Price Only until the end of this week
$249 for all listed above

Get details by emailing here: Gxxxx@xxxxxxxxxx.info

Is it just me or could you get this same kind of information simply by looking into the yellow pages?

Google Income Library?

2009-11-16T18:51:00.000-05:00

I was just about to check my email when I saw this online news line link about a woman who was making a lot of money from working at home. I was curious about this since I also have a Working From Home blog as well! So I decided to take a closer look at the article.

The online newspaper article was about a woman who was making money at home using a program called "Google Income Library". It seems both she and her husband were laid off from their jobs and they were looking into ways of making money online. The article also said that they did get scammed by a few of those online work from home sites.

But it seems that this "Google Income Library" program was working very well for them. The article had a picture of one of their checks which was for $5,000.

This looked very interesting to me and I went to the site to find out more about the "Google Income Library" program. I was dismayed to find out that even though this program is advertised as a free program you have to pay a shipping and handling fee which means that you are going to have to give them a credit card number.

This was a warning flag for me! So what I decided to do was to look into it even further. Every related site that I went to says that this program is a scam - mainly because it is not affiliated with Google in any way. I also found out that if you are thinking about signing up for this program then you should read the fine print because when you do sign up for this program you are getting trial memberships and you will have to cancel them or otherwise you'll be charged additional money per month!

What really freaks me out is that this online article was part of an online newspaper (from New York) which looked legitimate enough for me and I was almost thinking about signing up for this program! It is a very good thing that I decided to check it out first!

Instead of providing a link to the online article, here is a link to one of the sites that discusses how this program is a scam!

The Top 10 Scams For 2008!

2009-11-05T21:08:00.002-05:00

There is an online article that is listing the top 10 scams for the year 2008!

As you can imagine some of those in the top ten include government grant schemes, mortgage foreclosure help, credit repair help and working from home jobs!

It is a very informative article and you can read it online by clicking here.

Another Paypal Phishing Scam!

2009-09-26T20:26:00.000-04:00

If you have a Paypal account be on the lookout for another phishing attempt at getting your Paypal information!

Dear customer,

We have reviewed and restored your account. To complete the process please re-login:

"http://xxxxxx.com................................."

Thank you for your patience during this process and for helping to make PayPal the safest and most trusted online payment solution.

Yours sincerely,

PayPal Account Review Department

Please do not reply to this email. This mailbox is not monitored and you will not receive a response. For assistance, log in to your PayPal account and click the Help link in the top right corner of any PayPal page.

----------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 使 1999-2009 PayPal. All rights reserved.

PayPal (Europe) S.a r.l. & Cie, S.C.A.
Societe en Commandite par Actions
Registered Office: 5th Floor 22-24 Boulevard Royal L-2449, Luxembourg
RCS Luxembourg B 118 349

PayPal Email ID XXXXXXX

Of course this is an attempt to get your Paypal information! If you click on the blue link in the email it will take you to a site that is not the official Paypal website. If someone else has your Paypal information then that means that they can withdraw money from your Paypal account!

Be Careful Of THIS Email Scam!

2009-09-12T20:29:00.003-04:00

As soon as I saw this in my email box I knew that it was a scam email! So please be careful if you receive an email similar to this one! Just so you know that you're not alone, I decided to post a copy of this email - past dated 2008!

YAHOO INTERNET AWARDS 2008
Yahoo Awards Center
124 Stockport Road, Longsight,
London M60 2DB
United Kingdom.

Dear Email Owner,

CONGRATULATIONS!!! CONGRATULATIONS!!!

This is to inform you that you have won a prize money of GBP800,000,00 British Pounds (Eight Hundred Thousand British Pounds). Only for the email users this 2008 Prize promotion which is organized by YAHOO INTERNET AWARDS 2008.

Yahoo! Collects all the email addresses of the people that are active online this 2008, among the millions that subscribed to Yahoo and few from other e-mail providers. 12 people are selected monthly to benefit from this promotion and you are one of the Selected Winners this month of October 2008.

PAYMENT OF PRIZE / CLAIMS

Winners shall be paid in accordance with their Settlement Centers. Yahoo Prize Award must be claimed not less than 3Weeks from the date of Draw Notification. Any prize not claimed within this period will be forfeited and returned to its source as unclaimed Prize/Fund.

STATED BELOW ARE YOUR IDENTIFICATION NUMBERS:
BATCH NUMBER: xxxx............
REFERENCE NUMBER: xxxx............
FILE NUMBER: YAHOO/xxxx............

You are Advised to contact your Claim Agent with the below contact details and forward your winning and personal identification numbers to him:

CLAIM AGENT NAME: DR. JAMES SMITH
TEL: xxxx............
CONTACT E-MAIL: xxxx............

You are advised to send the below following informations to your claim agent to enable him facilitate the release of your fund to you by our Paying Bank.

1. Your Full name:
2. Your Country:
3. Contact Address:
4. Telephone Number:
5. Fax Number:
6. Marital Status:
7. Occupation:
8. Sex:
9. Age:

Congratulations!!! Once again.

Yours in service,
Mrs. Susan Leonard.
(Awards Notification Officer)

I Almost Thoght That This Was Real!

2009-08-31T20:36:00.005-04:00

I got this email recently:

Your Payment Agreement

Dear customer,

You have set up a Payment Agreement to automatically pay your eBid seller fees with PayPal. The description of your agreement is shown below:

Description: eBid Seller Fees

If you did not authorize this agreement please click the link bellow:

https://www.paypal.co.uk/xxxxxxxxxxxx

Please do not reply to this email. This mailbox is not monitored and you will not receive a response. For assistance, log in to your PayPal account and click the Help link in the top right corner of any PayPal page.

----------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 使1999-2009 PayPal. All rights reserved.

PayPal (Europe) S.a r.l. & Cie, S.C.A.
Societe en Commandite par Actions
Registered Office: 22-24 Boulevard Royal L-2449, Luxembourg
RCS Luxembourg B 118 349

Now since I do belong to Paypal, I almost thought that this email was real until I looked at the provided link more closely! The link DOES NOT take you to a legitimate Paypal site! Instead it goes somewhere else.

If you have a Paypal account you have to be very careful when you get any Paypal-related email. Since belonging to Paypal means that you are doing financial transactions online you want to be very careful that no one else - besides you and Paypal - have access to your account! If you do get a Paypal-related email you should not click on any link provided! What you should do is go directly to your Paypal account and see if there are any problems with your Paypal account.

I have had the experience of talking to Paypal on the phone and so far I haven't had any problems with them yet - indeed a few of those times the people that I talked to were very helpful!

These kinds of emails are sent because people are "phishing" for you account information. Once they have your account information they may be able to withdraw your Paypal funds!

So you have to be very careful!

Twitter Profit House

2009-06-28T01:17:00.003-04:00

I am a big fan of Twitter and I have my own Twitter site at:

My Twitter Page

Of course there are a whole lot of scams going on online about how one can make money using everything from Twitter to Google's Adsense Cash Cow! I came upon something called Twitter Profit House and right away I knew that it was going to be a scam but I decided to investigate a little bit further. Of course my suspicions were right when I saw a site where someone had joined this and got taken - It definitely IS a scam!

In short it seems that they say that they will only charge you $2 BUT you run the risk of them charging more on your credit card if you are not mindful of their terms and conditions! You can read more about this by clicking here.

I also have a blog about working from home and this is definitely one thing that I would NOT recommend for someone who wants to be able to work from their home!

Official Stimulus Check? - I Think Not!

2009-04-19T22:06:00.002-04:00

Here is a recent copy of a email I got:

OFFICIAL 2009 STIMULUS CHECK ADVISORY

Congratulations! You've been selected to receive a FREE Stimulus Check in the amount of 100USD

Click below to claim your FREE Stimulus Check!

The economy is in crisis and everyone is saving where they can! We'd like to help reduce your stress and financial hardships by putting money back into your pocket! Simply visit below to learn how you can claim your FREE Stimulus Check in the amount of $100! We know every dollar and cent helps! (Participation required. See below for details.)

Start it NOW! Go your check below:

http://xxxx.xxxx

SUMMARY OF PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS. To receive the reward you must: 1) be a U.S. resident at least 18 years of age or older; 2) register with valid information; 3) complete the following reward offers: 2 Silver offers, 2 Gold offers, and 6 Platinum offers (Available reward offers will vary. Some reward offers require a purchase. Credit card offers may require you to activate the card by making a purchase, transferring a balance or taking a cash advance.); and 4) follow the redemption instructions. All program requirements must be completed within 120 days of the date of registration. Allow 6-8 weeks for delivery. Limit of one (1) gift per household. No cash redemption value. Please visit our website to read the complete Terms & Conditions.

Regards,

Stimulus Check Manager

If you get an email such as this one I hope that you don't fall for it! As someone that does grant research I am here to tell you that getting a check from the government will involve much more than just sending an email!

Yet Another Email For Viagra!

2009-01-30T15:38:00.001-05:00

Here is yet another email I got concerning Viagra!

Viagra is an oral drug for male impotence, also known as erectile dysfunction. Having been around for a lot longer, Viagra has a great safety track record and proven effects that start acting in 30 minutes and last for about 5 hours.

Viagra is used to treat impotence in men. It increases the body's ability to achieve and maintain an erection during sexual stimulation.

Viagra should be taken as needed about 1 hour before sexual activity. However, Viagra can be taken anytime from 4 hours to 30 minutes before sexual activity.

Viagra is a phosphodiesterase inhibitor. It works by helping the blood flow into the penis to achieve and maintain an erection.

Help?

2009-01-23T13:13:00.000-05:00

Salute ,

I am Mrs xxxx woman bassed in bagdad in iraq,I came Accross
your email after a business search on web so i felt i should contact
you for a transaction we could do together,it is with that i wish to
contact you for a little assistance we could render to each other.

Due to the situation here in iraq, those of us in the business circle
are finding it very difficult to cope with the situation here,no stable
goverment, bomb explotion at strategic places every now and
then,sometimes people find it very difficult to go about their normal businesses
due to fear of being victim of terrorist attack,
above all the crisis in iraq now has made business activities totaly
parallised for quite sometime now.for intance,no good telephone
facilities,no adiquate security,infact,all most all the basic infrastructure
were destroyed during the recent war in iraq,ever since then the
enveroment in iraq has never been condusive business wise.

Please,why i need your assistance is that i have about (US$ 10.000.000)
Ten million united states Dollars in my custody.i inherited the
money from my late husband who was a major general in iraqi army in charge
of purchase and maintainance in the immediate past regime.My intention
is to move the money out of iraq and invest the money in stock market
or real estate in your country with the help of an honest person who
will work with me as my foreign associate, i want to invest most of the
money abroad to avoid lossing the money, because it is not wise doing
business in the atmosphere of fear here in iraq,that's why i am calling
on you.If you can honestly collaborate with me ,i am ready to pay you up
to 25% of the total amount if you can sincerely assist me to actualise
this project soon,because the situation here in iraq is very
critical,the everyday bomb explotion seems to have no end.

I wait patiently for your urgent response i am just trusting on you in
the name of ALMIGHTY ALLAH and i know you will not sit on my money and
deny me, am a Devouted mosleem woman and i respect ALLAH so pls do not
dissapoint me because i have made up my mind to esterblish the US$10m
dollars in your country of which i would want you to be my business
partner. i told my Diplomat that you are my business partner and we have
fiduciary relationship. i hope you understood me clearly. inshy allah.

waiting patiently for your immediate response to this email ( E-mail:
xxxxxx@xxxxx.com)

May the almighty Allah bless you and your Family as you help me and my
little children in truth and in spirit.

Warm Regards,
Mrs xxxx-xxx

I sometimes wonder WHY I get such email and then I am reminded that there have actually been people that have fallen for this type of scam! I remember watching about it on the news.

With the economy of the United States being so bad and people looking for more easier ways to make money, I can see why some people have fallen for this type of scam.

The news report that I saw on TV was very interesting in that they followed a similar email such as this all the way to the source!

Long story short - This is a SCAM plain and simple!

2009-01-03T07:02:00.002-05:00

Here is another "spam" email that I have gotten recently:

SNOWE Edwin Jr.,

Dear Sir ,

My name is xxxxx xxxxx xx, A member of the Liberian House of Representatives and the Managing Director of the Liberian Petroleum and Refining Corporation (LPRC) under the leadership of Charles Taylor.

http://xxxx

As you may be aware my former boss is undergoing trial in the world court. And as a result we have been ban from Traveling out pending the end of the case.

http://xxxx

During my tenure as the petroleum Director, I was able to move some money, the sum of
($5,500,000.00) Five million Five Hundred Thousand United states dollars, out of Liberia.

Presently, I am contacting you because I want you to assist me in collecting the money and assist me in importation of goods.

I hope to trust you as a God fearing person who will not sit on this money when you claim it, rather assist me properly, I shall be ready to offer you 30%.

When I receive your positive response I will let you know where the country where the money is and to enable make the claim

Be assured that this transaction is 100% risk free and your participation will not bring you into any disrepute as confidentiality is assured.

Best Regards,
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Am I going to respond to this email?

Absolutely Not!

If you're interested in finding a legitimate way to see if you are eligible to receive money, I suggest that you visit my The Unclaimed Money Blog to see if you are eligible for the Millions! of dollars that are unclaimed! You or a family member may be due this money!

The unclaimed money comes from lost or forgotten bank accounts, unclaimed lottery winnings and much much more!

Paypal - Phishing Anyone?

2008-10-25T21:51:00.003-04:00

Here is another Paypal email that was received from someone:

Attention PayPal Online Client:

You have received this email because we have strong reason to believe that your PayPal account had been recently compromised. In order to prevent any activity from occurring we are required to open an investigation into this matter.

If your account informations are not updated within the next 72 hours, then we will assume this account is and will be suspended. We apologize for this inconvenience, but the purpose of this verification is to ensure that your PayPal account has not been fraudulently used and to combat fraud.

Please login into your PayPal Online account and complete verification process

We apologize in advance for any inconvenience this may cause you and we would like to thank you for your cooperation as we review this matter.

If you have a Paypal account and receive this email, DO NOT CLICK ON THE LINK IN THE EMAIL!. Instead go directly to the Paypal official website - Paypal.com - and check your account from there!

*Hint - If you put your cursor over the blue, underlined link in the email you will see that the link does NOT go to the offical Paypal site - it goes somewhere else!

Here Is YET ANOTHER Paypal-Related "Phish"!

2008-09-15T08:07:00.000-04:00

Here is yet another copy of an email that I got in my inbox:

Warning : Your credit card will expire soon.

- You may no longer be able to use PayPal

To avoid any interruption to your service, please update your credit card by following the link below :

https://www.paypal.com/~

Thank you for using PayPal!
The PayPal Team

Please do not reply to this email. This mailbox is not monitored and
you will not receive a response. For assistance, log in to your PayPal
account and click the Help link located in the top right corner of any
PayPal page.

PayPal Email ID PP-~

While the link on the email includes Paypal's legitimate website address, a quick check of the link shows that if you click on that link it will take you to an entirely different website!

So you really have to be careful! If you have a Paypal account and get an email just like the one above, then you should go directly to the PayPal Website and check the status of your Paypal account.

Do not click on a link provided in an email! Go directly to the Paypal website!

Viagra !??????????????????????

2008-09-14T16:25:00.002-04:00

Seems to be a very POPULAR choice as far as email spam is concerned!

I was just checking my spam mail today and saw that I got at least 2 emails today - junkmail really - concerning viagra!

I did a check on Google's search engine and found that there are over 81 MILLION search engine results for the word viagra!

Ringtone Advertisements!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-08-29T15:56:00.002-04:00

I have never seen so much ringtone advertisements in all my life!

I'm moderating some "comments" for one of my blogs and the bulk of these comments seem to be advertising ringtones! I mean what is up with that? Do these people get a commission or something? Are they making their own ringtones and are trying to sell them?

I have a Verizon wireless cellphone myself and I can really only use ringtones that Verizon sells itself.

I Won The Lottery?

2008-07-31T17:36:00.003-04:00

Here is another "lottery winner" email that I got:

CONFIRM YOUR ONLINE WINNING!!!

DAYZERS LOTTERY NETHERLAND
Paleisstraat 5,2514 JA Den Haag
Netherlands
Email:inforesulthouse@xxx.net
www.xxxxxx.nl

RESULTS
FOR FIRST CATEGORY

This is to inform you that your email ID has won
Euro 500.000.00 in the first dip of our computer ballot Email lottery
with the said winning numbers giving below, Award Notice!!!

Ref:
Number:xx-xxx
Batch:Number:xx-xxxx
Ticket:Number:xx-xxxx
Serial:
Number xx-xxxxxx

To claim your winning, you should contact the OFFICIAL and APPROVED agency here in Holland-Netherlands urgently:-

Mr. ~
Tel: xxx-xxxx
FAX: xxx- xxx
Email:inforesulthouse@xxx.net

You are also advice to furnish them with the following information:-

Your Names:-
Telephone / Fax-
Your Nationality {Your country of Origin}-
Ticket number-
Ref- Number-

Congratulations once again from management and staff of this company,
and thanking you for being a lucky winner of our promotions program.

Regards
Mrs.~
Public Relation Officer
Email:inforesulthouse@xxx.net
www.~

NB: On contact your claims agents will issue you all further directives as regards the claims and transfer Procedures.

--------------------------------------------

What are the odds that any one of these "lottery winning emails will ever be legitimate?

Do You Have A Paypal Account?

2008-06-08T14:27:00.002-04:00

Then you are going to have to be VERY careful with the email that you get! Here is a copy of a recent email that was sent to someone:

PayPal is committed to maintaining a safe environment for its community of buyers and sellers. To protect the security of your account, PayPal employs
some of the most advanced security systems in the world and our anti-fraud teams regularly screen the PayPal system for unusual activity.

Recently, our Account Review Team identified some unusual activity in your account. In accordance with PayPal's User Agreement access to your account will be limited. This is a fraud prevention measure meant to ensure that your account is not compromised.

In order to secure your account we may require some specific information from you. We encourage you to log in by clicking on the link below and complete the requested form as soon as possible.

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_login-run

Ignoring our request, for an extended period of time, may result in account limitations or may result in eventual account closure.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. Please understand that this is
a security measure meant to help protect you and your account.
We apologize for any inconvenience.

Sincerely,
PayPal Account Review Department

PayPal Email ID PPxxx

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Please do not respond to this e-mail as your reply will not be received.

Now this email looks legitimate! It has all of the paypal logos included with the email BUT if you take a look at the link that they want you to go to you will see that it goes to an entirely different site! (Also this could be a good legal case for Paypal because whoever sent this email is using Paypal's official (and I'm guessing copyrighted) logos and Paypal could possible have a very good (and profitable) copyright infringement case againt whoever sent this email!

So please be careful when you get email like this. If you have a paypal account and you get an email like this then contact Paypal directly! Do not click on any links from the emails!

"You Have 1 New Alert Message!"

2008-05-09T22:55:00.003-04:00

You have 1 new Alert Message !

Resolution Center: Your account is limited! Click to Resolve

Thank you for using Bank of America Investment Services, Inc. !

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please do not reply to this email. This mailbox is not monitored and you will not receive a response.

Bank of America, N.A. Member FDIC. Equal Housing Lender Equal Housing Lender
© 2008 Bank of America Corporation. All rights reserved.

Email ID: xxxxxxx

The most ironic thing about this email that was in my inbox is that I don't even have an account there!

Please be careful and avoid scams (or in this case "phishing") attempts to get your personal financial information!

How do you avoid such attempts to get your personal information? Do NOT click on the links!

Here Is Another Email That I Am Not Going To Be Tricked Into Answering!

2008-04-20T15:09:00.006-04:00

Dear ~,

You were recently appointed as a biographical candidate to represent your industry in the Who's Who Among Executives and Professionals, and for inclusion into the upcoming 2008-2009 "Honors Edition" of the registry.

We are pleased to inform you that on March 21st, your candidacy was approved. Your confirmation for inclusion will be effective within five business days, pending our receipt of the enclosed application.

The Office of the Managing Director appoints individuals based on a candidate's current position, and usually with information obtained from researched executive and professional listings. The director thinks you may make an interesting biographical subject, as individual achievement is what Who's Who is all about. Upon final confirmation you will be listed among thousands of accomplished individuals in the Who's Who Registry. There is no cost to be included.

We do require additional information to complete the selection process and kindly ask that you access this form on our website by Clicking Here.

Sincerely,
Matthew Johnson
Managing Director

Madison Who's Who - ~, NY 11101

Madison Who's Who is not associated or affiliated with Marquis Who's Who or any other Who's Who.

And to make matters worsse they didn't even have the correct name!

Now if you're thinking that this could all be a mistake and that this could be a legitimate piece of email, I had a chance to look at the "link that they wanted me to click without actually clicking on the link.

The result?

I'm glad I didn't click on the link!

Do You Have A Paypal Account?

2008-03-22T00:42:00.002-04:00

Then be very wary if you get an email such as this one:

Dear Member,

Your PayPal account has expired.

You must renew it immediately or your account will be closed.

If you intend to use this service in the future, you must take action at once!

To continue click here, login to your PayPal account and follow the steps.

Thank you for using PayPal!
The PayPal Team

Please do not reply to this email. This mailbox is not monitored and you will not receive a respons(e). For assistence, log in to your PayPal account and click the Help link located in the top right corner of any PayPal page.

PayPal Email ID #

Of course the "link that they want you to click on does not go to the paypal site - it goes somewhere else.

If you have any doubts about your paypal account then you should contact paypal directly - they have a very secure website.

Cookies?

2008-03-21T01:04:00.001-04:00

Here is a copy of a recent email that I got:

Hi

A few months back, ~ was approached by an advertiser, offered lots of $$$, and asked to include a spyware cookie on all of our member sites. We refused on the spot.

You install (our service) to track visitors to your site NOT to open yourself and your visitors up to being spied upon by phantom advertising corporations.

It appears, however, that other players in the world of webstats were happy to take up this offer.

We were shocked to discover just today that another well known stats provider is allowing up to 9 cookies to be installed in the browser of every visitor that hits one of their member websites. This means that the provider is making money by transmitting data on you and your visitors to a third party advertiser. Not only that, but to add insult to injury, the cookies are causing the member websites to load very slowly too.

In light of this, (we) wants to assure you that we track your visitors for you, only you and not any one else.

Foreclosure101: Be Careful Of Spam!

2008-03-16T17:53:00.002-04:00

Here is a recent blog post that I posted to my blog about foreclosures:

Foreclosure101: Be Careful Of Spam!

Be Careful of Spam

We Suspect Unauthorized ATM Activity On Your Account!

2008-03-06T13:36:00.000-05:00

Here is a copy of a recent email that I received:

Dear ~,

We recently reviewed your account, and we suspect an unauthorized ATM based transaction. Therefore as a preventive measure we will temporary limit your access to sensitive Abbey features.

To ensure that your account is not compromised, please login to your Abbey Online Banking and verify your identity to prevent deactivation.

SERVICE: Abbey Online Banking.

What you need to do:

- Go to: Abbey Online Banking

- Login to Online Banking.

Thanks for your patience.

Sincerely,

Abbey National Centre

****************************************************************************

For any inquiries, contact Customer Service.

****************************************************************************

Of course I have never heard of this place before!

But I post it here so that you can see that this is just yet another example of attempts to get one's account information.

If you get any kind of email like this and you DL have an account with the company in question - DO NOT RESPOND BY CLICKING ON ANY OF THE LINKS THAT ARE PROVIDED!

Call the company itself and find out for sure whether or not there is something wrong with your account - whether it be your banking account or some other company that you have a financial account with!

Ebay Scam!

2008-02-27T19:59:00.000-05:00

I am a member of Ebay and so far I haven't had an problems with it. But I recently became aware of someone else's experience that really should "raise a warning flag" when it happens.

A bidder put in a bid for a certain, specific item but lost the bid to a higher bidder - which of course can happen.

BUT the bidder then received an email from the person that placed the item (or so they said they were the person that placed the item) asking him if he still wanted the item. Of course the bidder said yes and plans were made to get the information about payment and shipping. Then the bidded gets a second email from someone who wanted to give them different information about where to send the payment. (The second email came with the information that now the item was available at a lower price.) This raised a "warning flag" with the bidder and he decided that he no longer wanted the item.

Unfortunately the bidder has been receiving email after email about the item and whether or not they still want it or not - which is becoming quite a nuisance.

Now there are some things that I could say here about how this was done but I don't want to give anyone any ideas on how they can do the same thing.

Why Do People Spam?

2008-02-23T11:48:00.000-05:00

Why do people spam?

They want to get their message across to as many people as possible! I'm at a message board now that has to do with people having problems with there blogs and there are a lot of spam messages - particularly one from some kind of escort service located outside the United States.

I'm assuming that they are spamming this particular message board because the message board has a lot of traffic so that means that their spam messages about their escort servie / dating service has the potential to be seen by a lot of people.

You may laugh or be generally irritated by these tactics but the fact of the matter remains that the more number of people that read the spam the more the potential of someone actually wanting to find out more about it! It's a "numbers" thing!

The Junk Mail Seems To Be Getting More Sophisticated!

2008-01-04T20:52:00.000-05:00

There seemed to be a time - way back when - when you got junk email the messge was included in the email.

Now I am seeing more and more junk mail that has "eye-catching" subject lines like "reduce your debt" or "free money" - please see my Grant Basics 101 Blog - but the body of the junk email sometimes just includes a line or two prompting one to "click here".

Of course this means that the junk email wants you to go to their website.

You just can't be too careful these days! Legitimate-looking clicks could be not-so legitimate!

When these kinds of emails show up in my inbox - I delete them!

2007-12-16T19:36:00.000-05:00

Here is a clear, cut case of spamming one's blog! The following was posted as a comment to one of my blogs. The comment had nothing to do with the subject matter of the blog.

I wanted to let you know about our company. We sell 3 day 2 night travel certificates that are used by many companies as incentives.

The cost is only 0.35 cents each and they come with your company name and website imprinted on the certificates.

http://www.~.com

Think about using these for referrals or give them to customers/clients. You can sell them for a profit to your down-line.

The end user of the certificates has a choice of over 20 destinations to pick from. Take a look at the destinations at the website. http://www.~.com

They pay a processing fee of $12.00 and the taxes on the room which is about $7.00-$12.00 a night depending on the location.

http://www.~.com

Of course I "rejected" the comment

"If You Can't View The Image Click Here"

2007-12-09T19:42:00.001-05:00

I got one of those emails today. At the top it said if you can't view the image then click on the link that was provided.

It is always a very good idea to run your curser over the link just to see where that link goes to. If you're not familiar with that link then you should beware and not click on the link if you're not comfortable doing so.

Of course the email itself didn't show the image and personally I think it was some kind of ploy to get me to click on the link.

I didn't click on the link! And I deleted the email!

Have You Gotten An Email Like This One?

2007-11-08T22:11:00.000-05:00

DEAR FRIEND,

I am Mr ~ Executive Director of the Hang Seng Bank Ltd,Sai Wan Ho Branch,171 Shaukiwan Road Hong Kong.

An Iraqi named H~, a business man made a numbered fixed deposit of (139,513,102.50 HK) for 18 calendar months, this is valued Seveteen million Eight Hundred and Sixty Thousand United States Dollars only in my branch. Upon maturity several notice was sent to him, even during the war, three years ago (2003). Again after the war another notification was sent and still no response came from him. We later found out that H~ and his family had been killed during the war in Gunfire that hit their home at Mukaradeeb where his personal oil well was.

After further investigation it was also discovered that H~ did not declare any next of kin in his official papers including the paper work of his bank deposit. And he also confided in me the last time he was at my office that no one except me knew of his deposit in my bank. So, Seveteen million Eight Hundred and Sixty Thousand United State Dollars is still lying in my bank and no one will ever come forward to claim it. What bothers me is that according to the laws of my country at the expiration five years six months the funds will revert to the ownership of the Hong Kong Government if nobody applies to claim the funds.
My proposal, I am prepared to place you as the next of kin in a position to
instruct HANG SENG BANK to release the deposit to you as the closest surviving relation. Upon receipt of the deposit, I am prepared to share the money with you in half. That is: I will simply nominate you as the next of kin and have them release the deposit to you. We share the procentange 50/50. I would have gone ahead to ask the funds be released to me, but that would have drawn a straight line in my involvement in claiming the deposit. I assure you that I could have the deposit released to you within a few days. I will simply inform the bank of the final closing of the file relating to H~ I will then officially communicate with my Bank and instruct them to release the deposit to you. With these: all is done. I am aware of the consequences of this proposal.

I ask that if you find no interest in this project that you should discard this mail. I ask that you do not be vindictive and destructive. If my offer is of no appeal to you,delete this message and forget I ever contacted you. Do not destroy my career because you do not approve of my proposal. You may not know this but people like myself who have made tidy sums out of comparable situations run the whole private banking sector. I am not a criminal and what I do, I do not find against good conscience, this may be hard for you to understand, but the dynamics of my industry dictates that I make this move. Such opportunities only come ones way once in a lifetime. I cannot let this chance pass me by, for once I find myself in total control of my destiny.

These chances wont pass me by. I ask that you do not destroy my chance, if you will not work with me let me know and let me move on with my life but do not destroy me. I am a family man and this is an opportunity to provide them with new opportunities. There is a reward for this project and it is a task well worth undertaking. I have evaluated the risks and the only risk I have here is from you refusing to work with me and alerting my bank. I am the only one who knows of this situation, good fortune has blessed you with a name that has planted you into the center of relevance in my life. Lets share the blessing.

If you give me positive signals, I will initiate this process towards a
conclusion. I wish to inform you that should you contact me via official channels; I will deny knowing you and about this project. I repeat, I do not want you contacting me through my official phone lines nor do I want you contacting me through my official email account. Contact me only through the numbers I will provide for you and also through the email account that i will provide therein in this email.

Further more be informed that the fact that you are a foreigner give you the privilege to stand in as my deceased client beneficiary as my deceased client had no relation all his family died with him during the war and I can not use my relation because its not accepted here in Hong Kong. Also I am very confident that we will be able to establish the trust that is needed to complete this deal and all that I need from the time been is your willingness and commitment so that we can end this in the nest one weeks.

What you need to understand about this transaction is that I will make sure that it passes through all international banking laws regards to this I will take care of all the expenses and the cost of retaining the service of my Attorney to give the transaction the proper documentation that is required to perfect the finishing. Your only obligation in this transaction will be to set up two offshore accounts that can accommodate these funds and I will give you more light later once you agree to partner with me.

Like I said before there is no risk involve as it will pass through
international banking laws and all documents related to this transaction will be sent to you by post for your perusal and trust.

I do not want any direct link between you and me. My official lines are not secure lines as they are periodically monitored to assess our level of customer care in line with our Total Quality Management Policy. Please observe this instruction religiously. Please, again, note I am a family man, I have wife and children. I send you this mail not without a measure of fear as to what the consequences, but I know within me that nothing ventured is nothing gained and that success and riches never come easy or on a platter of gold. This is the one truth I have learned from my private banking clients. Do not betray my confidence. If we can be of one accord, we should plan a meeting, soon. Should you be interested I will prefer you to reach me
on the email address below.

E-mail:s~@yahoo.com.hk

Your earliest response to this letter will be appreciated.

I await your response.

Mr S
s~@yahoo.com.hk

2007-11-02T22:37:00.000-04:00

Greetings from Amazon Payments

Your bank has contacted us regarding some attempts of charges from your credit card via the Amazon system. We have reasons to believe that you changed your registration information or that someone else has unauthorized access to your Amazon account Due to recent activity, including possible unauthorized listings placed on your account, we will require a second confirmation of your identity with us in order to allow us to investigate this matter further. Your account is not suspended, but if in 48 hours after you receive this message your account is not confirmed we reserve the right to suspend your Amazon registration. If you received this notice and you are not the authorized account holder, please be aware that it is in violation of Amazon policy to represent oneself as another Amazon user. Such action may also be in violation of local, national, and/or international law. Amazon is committed to assist law enforcement with any inquires related to attempts to misappropriate personal information with the intent to commit fraud or theft. Information will be provided at the request of law enforcement agencies to ensure that perpetrators are prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

Click to verify and update your informations on our secure website

Of course the link goes somewhere other than an official site of Amazon's

You really do have to be careful about what links you click on when you get email!

"Nigerian" Email Scam

2007-10-27T22:09:00.000-04:00

Good day, I am R~, a staff of BROWN SHIPLEY PRIVATE BANK UK.I am Contacting you in respect to US$15 Million deposited with our private bank whose original depositor died in mid 2003, In line with our internal processes for account holders who have passed away, we instituted our own investigations in good fate to determine who should have right to claim the estate. This investigation has for the past years been unfruitful. We have scanned every continent and used our private investigation affiliate companies to get to the root of the problem all to no avail. The bank will by the end of its financial year in 2007 broadcast a request for statements of claims, failing to receive viable claims they will revert the deposit back to BROWN SHIPLEY PRIVATE BANK accounting system.If you are familiar with private banking affair you will agree with me that the world of private banking especially is fraught with huge rewards for those who occupy certain offices and oversee certain portfolios. As a matter of fact, my present official capacity as the Executive Director Audit sector dictates that I am the only party to supervise the investigation in relation to the deposit and the beneficiary of the deposit. My proposal: I am prepared to norminate you as the next of kin and have them release the deposit to you. We share the proceeds 50/50.There is a reward for this project and it is a task well worth undertaking. I have evaluated the risk and the only risk I have here is from you refusing to work with me and alerting my bank.if you find yourself able to work with me, contact me through this email account. If you give me positive signals, I will initiate this process towards a conclusion. I wish to inform you that should you contact me via official channels; I will deny knowing you and about this project. I repeat, I do not want you contacting me through my official phone lines nor do I want you contacting me through my official email account. Contact me only through the numbers I will provide for you and also through this email address. I do not want any direct link between you and myself. My official lines are not secured lines as they are periodically monitored to access our level of customer care in line with our Total Quality Management Policy. Awaiting your immediate response.

Thanks for your co-operation.
Kindly send your response to s~.com
Sincerely, R~

My first thought was to paste the entire email including the actual name and email address that appeared in the email but I decided not to do it.

I saw a segment on television where this news team tried to track where this kind of email was coming from. They got all the way to talking with the actual person that was "handling" the deal.

Would it surprise you to know that a lot of people have fallen for this type of email scheme?

Are You An AOL Member?

2007-10-06T09:47:00.000-04:00

Here is a recent email:

Welcome to AOL Customer Support
Dear AOL Member

It has come to our attention that your AOL Billing Information records are out of date. That requires you to update the Billing Information. Failure to update your records will result in account termination. Please update your records within 24 hours. Once you have updated your account records, your AOL session will not be interrupted and will continue as normal. Failure to update will result in cancellation of service, Terms of Service (TOS) violations or future billing problems. You must click the link below and enter your login information on the following page to confirm your Billing Information records..

Thank You

The last line of the email provides a link to "customer support" only that link does not go to an AOL page, it goes to another site! You can tell this by positioning your cursor over the link but not clicking on it!.

Of course this email is an attempt to get your AOL sign-in information! Once you type it in there is no telling what kind of damage can be done to your AOL account!

AOL themselves have said that they will never ask you for your password. So if you get an email like this do not click on that link! Instead get in touch with AOL yourself!

Grant Funding

2007-09-18T19:37:00.000-04:00

Here is what the email said:

Don't miss your chance! If you can't read or see this e-mail. Click here or enable image viewing on your browser.

I guess these people don't know that I do grant research for a living so there is really no need for me to click on their link. I wouldn't have done it anyway - who knows where that "click" would lead to?

Since the email didn't say anything about grant funding in the email itself - this is probably another clever ploy for you to click the link to go to their website.

I know that a lot of people don't know the "ins and outs" of grants and the whole grant program process. That is one of the reasons why I started my Grant Basics 101 Blog. If you visit my grants blog you will find some general information about grants and the grant process in general.

Since I didn't visit the link on the email I really can't tell you too much about them since the link was all that was provided in the email.

"If You Can't Read This Email.........."

2007-09-17T21:07:00.000-04:00

Ever get the annoying email that you open and it says if you cannot view the images or see the links then "please click here" - this is supposed to be a clever ploy to get you to click on their link and go to their site! The problem is that you don't know what you will be getting yourself into if you click on that blue link!

Do You Belong To A Yahoo Group?

2007-09-16T16:56:00.000-04:00

Do you belong to any of the many Yahoo groups?

I do. Some of the Yahoo groups that I belong to I have chosen to get the posts by email. Of those Yahoo groups that I belong to - not all of them are moderated which means that anyone can post to them which means that anyone can post spam posts to them - and they do.

I'm deciding whether or not to get rid of my memberships to those Yahoo groups that I belong to that are not moderated because the spam email that I get just clogs up my inbox.

I'm sure its easy to say that one should just delete the junk mail but when it is so much junk mail it becomes very annoying!

The Spam Blog

2007-09-14T13:09:00.000-04:00

I decided to start this blog after an annoying session with my email box. About 50% of it was either spam mail or junk mail and some even had my real name on it.

It is just so very annoying to get so much junk mail and I didn't find a website that talked about it exclusively so I decided to start this blog.

Now who would want to read a blog about spam? How about the people that hate it!