Online fraud/scam and spam, help stop it

11 years ago

I received a lovely little email telling me how I have just won a substantial sweepstakes prize from an entity that I could not find in existence anywhere.
I rarely, as in maybe two or three times a year, get any such mail.
I sent my standard reply demanding that my name and email address be deleted from any and all databases whether "owned" or purchased or gathered via what ever means, and be permanently blocked from any further useage.

A response that no such email address, nor any such domain exists.

As there are three e-addresses from three different nations traceable to the offending email, I forwarded the offending email to Italian and Australian and US federal investigative and enforcement agencies.

Should you, and I am assuming that we all get such emails on occasion, receive such emails, please do a brief run down on the offending entities and sending addresses, and report the offenders to the federal authorities in every relevant jurisdiction.

Learn about whois and traceroute and the like, and how to use them.

Also, should you receive such "notifications", NEVER EVER click on the "unsubscribe, delete me from or any other link that is included in your email.....

And, for my fellow paranoidiacs out there..... run an outgoing firewall, that will allow nothing to leave your system HDD and RAM with out your express authorization..... Go online in a sandbox, or even better never go online without doing so using a LiveLinux distro, ever, or, keep all your important person information, passwords, acct numbers, policies, whatever in a separate special content encrypted folder. And always, maintain separate administrator and user accounts, and never go on line (or IMNSHO do anything) using anything other than a user account with seriously limiting permissions.

Personal paranoia is not such a bad thing. Use your favorite search engine to find out how to find who is doing the what, where they are at, and who to and how to report offending parties. Enough people report enough offenders, and maybe, that's just a maybe folks, the volume of spam and scam can be reduced, at least very temporarily anyway....
Constant vigilance and reporting by everyone who gets scam and spam emails is all it takes.... LOL, yep that's all it takes.....

Comments (5)

zep516
11 years ago
Thanks for information!
not2bright
11 years ago
Just curious, when you say, "never go online without doing so using a LiveLinux distro," are you referring in general to using a computer with a Linux OS, or are you referring to using a Linux CD ? If the latter, (to be clear) are you suggesting always to use a "live CD" for going online instead of the computer's own operating system (whether it's Linux or not) ?

This post was edited by not2bright on Thu, Mar 7, 13 at 9:08
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kudzu9
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I am very lucky: I win lotteries and inherit money from Nigerian princes and people who died in plane crashes several times a week. If I reported them all I wouldn't have enough time to watch cute videos of dogs walking on their hind legs. Wait...when the money arrives I'll hire a personal assistant to handle all this!
Elmer J Fudd
10 years ago
This thread deserved its slip into oblivion 4 months ago. You must be having a slow day.
kudzu9
10 years ago
snidely-
You're right...it's too hot to work out in the yard right now, and this somehow was at the top of the posts this morning. Since I missed it originally, I was driven to respond. And I'll let you know as soon as my money arrives...

Online fraud/scam and spam, help stop it

Comments (5)

zep516

not2bright

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