Hoax E-mails

[Hagar]

Just a warning to be very careful giving personal details online, even if it appears genuine. We've all seen the badly spelled letters from suspicious addresses somewhere in Africa asking for money but these are different. I don't usually get much in the way of spam these days but I received both the following today. The first is supposedly from AOL. Before clicking any links I checked this with Online Help who confirmed my suspicions that it's a hoax.

[center]AOL Billing Center ** Last Notice **

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

Dear Member:

Thank you for choosing America Online. Unfortunately there has been a
problem processing your billing information for the month of October,2007.

Please review our billing requirements at KW: Billing. You will be able to
update your billing information quickly and easily using our secure server
web form. Please understand that without promptly updating your billing
information, your America Online Internet service may be discontinued. To
update your billing at this time, please visit our secure server web form by
clicking the hyperlink below.

America Online Billing Services.

We appreciate your business and hope to keep you as a customer for life.
America Online is so easy, no wonder it's number 1 !

Sincerely,
The AOL Billing Services Team

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How can I restore my account access?

Please update your billing here: America Online Billing Services. and complete the web form.

[Craig.]

they were doing so well up to this point.

America Online is so easy, no wonder it's number 1

Although the only reason this point is true, is because cancelling AOL, is harder than astrophysics

We appreciate your business and hope to keep you as a customer for life

[john_uk]

[quote]t
Although the only reason this point is true, is because cancelling AOL, is harder than astrophysi

LoL! canceling most internet services is harder than astrophysics to be fair, pipex are rather bad from what ive heard

[DONTREADMYUSERNAME]

reminds me of a prank AIM thing i did to my friend, I im'ed him saying i was AOL support and he was using too much bandwidth and that for him to continue to use AIM he had to pay $24.99 to such and such PO box. I had him going for quite awhile, I even made a fax aol support screen name.


That one had me laughing for hours.....  ;D

[MattNW]

Those look like pretty standard phishing attempts. The first one is probably looking for AOL accounts to hijack. The second is likely aimed at identity theft. There was a website where you can enter the URL of a phishing site that would automatically give them thousands of false logins. It wasted hours of a scammer's time as they would have to wade through all the false logins to find the few legit ones. Unfortunately the site isn't online anymore.  


Edit: Canceling AOL is really easy. I did it in one phone call. The lady told me a bunch of things I was supposed to do and I simply told her that I wasn't going to pay anymore, end of discussion. Now trying to cancel Reader's Digest is another story.  ;D

[Apex]

The IRS doesn't send out e-mails.  "After the last annual calculations of your fiscal activity" - What is that supposed to mean?  Strange way to word things, (to me, anyway), the IRS doesn't use language like that.  And "Regards".  OK, that's what my relatives say.  The IRS uses reg mail to notify us of whatever.  I've seen 'em many times.

Be careful.  It's your money.  Make sure you keep it.

[Mushroom_Farmer]

Here's a tip: If there is a clickable link in the message, right click and then choose "copy shortcut" and paste it in Notepad. This will show the actual web address.

[MattNW]

Another thing you might want to look at is the originating email address. Scammers usually use a free email service. Not many legit companies use free email services to contact customers. They usually have their own email server and companies like AOL or a government agency like the IRS would definitely use their own servers. So one good tip off that the email is a scam would be an email address like: IRSGov@yahoo.com or such. Of course Apex is also correct. The IRS will never contact you by email but this is just another way to spot a scam.

Some sources of info on spotting email and internet scams:

http://www.419legal.org/

http://forum.scampatrol.org/index.php?sid=b200bfce188e45fdb0001fd7d08497f7

This is a really fun website. Check out the Letters Archive. The forum is currently down because of a DDOS attack from the scammers but it should be back up sometime soon.

http://www.419eater.com/index.htm

Now for some real fun you might want to try scambaiting. Get yourself a free email account that doesn't reveal your IP# like Gmail and pretend to go along with the scammers but throw in delay after delay. Reading the Letters Archive on 419 Eater will give you some ideas. Make sure you don't give out any personal info that could allow a scammer to  identify you. They are criminals and can be dangerous but as long as you maintain anonymity you should be OK.

I once sold a scammer a partnership in the first supersonic business jet based on an FS2004 add on. I was posing as the CEO of a large air charter company. Since the scammers know almost nothing about flight sims I was able to convince him with screenshots that the jet was still in the design phase and only existed on computer. After simulation testing was confirmed we would build the first prototype for certification and real world testing.

I sent him a contract so full of traps and pitfalls he had to rewrite the whole thing by hand to remove the clauses. Of course that just wouldn't do to have a legal document hand written so he then had to type the whole thing on a manual typewriter, scan that and email me the image (a very large image because the scammers are usually working from an internet cafe so they pay for all the time they are online). It's amazing how bad the internet connections are between Nigeria and the US. I think he had to resend the image four or five times as pieces of it kept getting cut off (just a few seconds work in MS Paint). He's currently still waiting on his first $1,000,000 dividend check.  ;D

Phishing emails can't be baited very well but the next time you get an email from the widow of some assassinated dictator or are asked to stand in as next of kin to share a few million dollars of someones estate you might want to give baiting a try. It's a lot of fun and wastes the scammers time that he could be spending on real victims.  

[Sir_Crashalot]

It's true that those scammers usually work from internet cafes. They have to pay per period of use (mostly 20 or 30 minutes). It's not cheap (about 2 or 3 Euro per hour, which is expensive in Nigeria) but that's not the problem. Most of these guys are really making a lot of money on their victims. You're not the only one they try to scam and you're one of the few who doesn't fall for their tricks. I've been in Nigeria, I've met a few of them and I can tell you that they live a very luxurious life. Expensive houses, cars, the lot. The Nigerian government tries to deal with them but since it's very hard to proof they do illegal business, it's not easy. Most of these guys (and girls) also have a legit business besides their internet fraudes. With some imaginative bookkeeping your (not so good) legit business becomes very succesful.....

Crash

PS my wife is Nigerian so don't start calling every Nigerian a thief or something like that. It's true that most of these scams originate from Nigeria, a lot also come from other English speaking West-African countries.

[MattNW]

PS my wife is Nigerian so don't start calling every Nigerian a thief or something like that. It's true that most of these scams originate from Nigeria, a lot also come from other English speaking West-African countries.

Good point. These scams originate from a lot of different countries including the USA and Canada. Also even though a lot of these scams come out of Nigeria it's only a tiny fraction of a percent of the population who are involved in them. Most Nigerians are good honest people who are just as appalled by these criminals as the rest of the world. In fact some Nigerians actively help in the fight against internet scams by reporting email addresses of potential victims so they can be warned. These people put themselves at great risk to do this. Scammers have lured people from Europe and the US for the purpose of kidnapping and even murder (in one case they burned a European businessman alive). What they would do to someone from their own country is too terrible to imagine.

It's also true that the scammers live a very comfortable life compared to most people in West Africa. Just like dope dealers in America the fancy cars, expensive houses and jewelry makes an impression on young people in their countries. Who wouldn't want a job where it's possible to make enough money from a couple hours a day to keep you comfortable for six months? Thus there's always a fresh crop of hopeful young people ready to hit the internet cafe to hopefully make that big score at the local WU or Moneygram office.  

[machineman9]

serious, but ive seen better hoaxes and rubbish emails

'there are only 500 hotmail accounts left' *cough* on @hotmail.co.uk there are enough email adresses for the world's population times something like 1000 i think my friend and i worked it out to be.

'this is amazon.co.uk, thankyuo' something like that, but lots of typos

[Hagar]

Another thing you might want to look at is the originating email address. Scammers usually use a free email service. Not many legit companies use free email services to contact customers. They usually have their own email server and companies like AOL or a government agency like the IRS would definitely use their own servers. So one good tip off that the email is a scam would be an email address like: IRSGov@yahoo.com or such. Of course Apex is also correct. The IRS will never contact you by email but this is just another way to spot a scam.

Thanks for the advice Matt. One reason I posted this is that both came from what looks like a genuine official address. Xxxxx@aol.com & xxxxxxx@irs.gov
Both above examples have a direct link to a website which also looks genuine. I can't post them here for obvious reasons. I'm sure these are good enough to fool plenty of unsuspecting people. I didn't click the links to find where they lead to.

[Mushroom_Farmer]

...........I didn't click the links to find where they lead to.

You don't have to. Just do what I posted earlier: right click the link and then choose "copy shortcut" and paste it in Notepad. This will show the actual web address.
Often times clicking the link normally will take one to a page that will be a copy of an official page just to fool the recipiant. There will usually be a second link to click after giving requested info that will deposit all info on the spammers computer.

[Hagar]

...........I didn't click the links to find where they lead to.

You don't have to. Just do what I posted earlier: right click the link and then choose "copy shortcut" and paste it in Notepad. This will show the actual web address.
Often times clicking the link normally will take one to a page that will be a copy of an official page just to fool the recipiant. There will usually be a second link to click after giving requested info that will deposit all info on the spammers computer.

Thanks but I don't think you understood me. I already know the URL without doing all that. I'm not asking for advice. I posted this as a warning to others who might not be as wise as me in the ways of the Internet.