> The scammers intention is to make you feel superior to them and
> thereby they
> con you into dealing with them. If you follow through with them they
> will
> win in the various plays of the scam. They are often very good at the
> game.
I think one thing they are depending upon is that Americans in general
trust bank checks and see them as a safe way to do long distance
transactions.
Its the guys that mimic financial institutions that I find to be very
scary. They do a very good job of looking real. I first came across
them with emails from Citibank telling me there was a problem with my
account and asking me to use their link to go onto the Citibank web
site and verify information. Luckily I had no Citibank accounts so I
knew something was quite strange.
Since then I have been hit by a fairly large number of PayPal spoofs
which I've largely learned to ignore after reporting the first half a
dozen or so. I got hit by a new (to me) two part PayPal spoof earlier
this week. The first was an email "from PayPal" verifying that I had
added an alternate email address to my account. The second was a
receipt / confirmation to a PayPal transaction I didn't make. Both had
a convenient link to use in case I thought the transaction was in
error. My immediate reaction is that someone had hacked into PayPal
accounts or got my password and that I was hemorrhaging money to
crooks. However being a long time member of the spoof of the month
club I never use links in any email that go to any site I do financial
transactions with. I logged in using my normal method and verified
that it was indeed a spoof then followed it up with a spoof report to
PayPal.
I wonder how many people got scared and hit the link? Especially
people with minimal computer savvy. The folks who appear to look like
bumbling bumpkin predators prey upon people with a warped sense of
ethics. I kinda see that as unethical people preying upon unethical
people. But the spoof people prey upon everyone who is not spoof
savvy. They are the ones that make me mad.
TeriAnn J. Wakeman
Never let anyone drive you crazy when you know it's within walking
distance.
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