Warning re Word of Mouth SCAM

If it comes unsolicited in your email, it's pretty much SPAM. Unless you ask for it specifically, just consider it garbage.

I always tell anybody that might email me to be very specific about who they are and what they want from me (ie - their real names, a project number, or some clear reference) as I routinely delete anything I don't absolutely and positively know who it's from. I've lost some legitimate mail because of that, but its not worth it to even open most of the crap, you have no idea of what's in it.

Recently I've been getting what looks like "Returned Mail from Mailer Daemon" which has an attachment, which is normal, but its a virus or worm or trojan. To me, that's the ultimate in sickness, to intentionally try to trick people into opening something that can damage their machine. I don't get it. Personally, if it was up to me, they would get the death penalty and as unpleasantly as a team of 50 experts can make it. I want to be on that team, I have been through a lot of pain and I know what really hurts. I just have no use for such critters, they are a waste of good air and space. Only purpose I can see is as entertainment fodder for incarcerated sadists.

White Lists... that's all I can say. It sucks but that's where we're all headed.

-myrkat

Dude, why would send any money to someone who's spamming you?

I just don't get it...

Unfortunately, P.T. Barnum apparently was onto something...

Wait,


So, that nice lady in Nigeria who is going to give me 10 million dollars if I send $500.00 to cover the transfer and documentation costs isn't real? I thought she was the one checking on me.

Someone one HAS to support these spammers, otherwise they woulda stopped years ago...

-myrkat

Now really, would you believe me if I prmised to sned uyo $10,000,000 if you sent me $250.00? I promise that I will absolutely follow my offer exactly as stated. Please send cash - it's easier to dispose of and leaves no "trail". Be assured that you will be "taken" care of, to the best of my ability.

That's what I don't get myrkat - who are the idiots that actually keep these spammers in business. They are the ones we need to weed out and ban from ever using computers (or at least ones connected to the Internet). Take the source of food away and the spammers will surely die out.

Not sure, aussie, even if we could take the food away, spammers would come up with something that would sucker even the sharpest among us... it happens in the business world all the time (think: Enron).

It's all about scamming people. Not sure if that's something that will ever go away from our world.

-myrkat

Who's believing them? Four people

1. The Naive
2. The Gullible
3. The Greedy
4. The Elderly (different mindset, why would someone lie to them?)

Just look at the 'Miracle Cars' scam that's a classic.
Why are Ponzi/Matrix/Pyramid scams still working?

People want to get rich quick with a minimum amount of work. Just look the most popular scam so far is still going strong and has government support. It's called the Lottery.

At least that one has been known to pay off on occasion

Umm, the scams work because of people like my friend Travis aka. Virus Boy. He never met a virus he didn't download. His computer is so full of viruses that I think they breed, and then start culling out the competition.

His philosophy on computers is, "I want the advertisers to have my personal information so they can tailor ads specificially to me." He loves spyware too. He doesn't care what they collect, why they collect it, or even what they do with it. As long as he keeps getting ads for products he wants to buy, its perfect for him.

This is the same mentality that EverCrack players have. "I know I already bought the game once, but I want to keep paying for it over and over again." You can't convince me that the number of EverClear players outnumber the number of gamers that play on the GameSpy networks playing FPS's like BF1942, CoD, CounterStrike, etc for FREE. Heck, if you really want an online rpg, just play Neverwinter Nights online; and as an added bonus, you can create your own levels for free (or download someone else's levels for free).

Btw, Travis is an EverCrack player and proudly voluteers for every beta project that is advertised in his Inbox (of which at least 1/4 are viruses).

Six months ago I got the opportunity to clean out his computer. I started with Stinger from Avert, a McAfee Enterprise Ed. scan, Spybot, and Ad-Aware 1.181 Plus. His computer stopped working afterwards and I had to reformat the HD and re-install the OS. Apparently, the only things holding his computer together were the viruses and spyware that had completely destroyed the MFT, the Registry, and most of the critical Windows files.

If you want anyone to blame for funding the scammers, blame him.

LOL SEMC, that is funny as hell. I remotely control my aunts computer atleast once a week to clean it as we share a network and i can't stand how much crap she'll bring into her computer. I still laugh at the thought of spyware holding the system together.

SEMC, that's the funniest thing I've read in ages. If it were any shorter, I'd use it as my signature

SEMC - hell, I would have STARTED with the reformat! No way I'd trust the anti-spy/virus/etc stuff to get it all. Format (long) or low-level (if the drive is old enough).

Good laugh, reading that though.

-myrkat

He made me at least try and salvage his machine. Also, for my personal work ethic, I had to at least try. Not to mention trying to save a few of his critial files.