Brace yourself, it’s a long one. I know this isn’t exactly sex toy party related, but I have to vent. Don’t you just love the Internet sometimes? I’ve been on here since I was 15. That’s 1994. Brainwashed by AOL, I thought that was all there was from then till about 1998 when I learned about “hotmail”. Imagine if you had known the value of domain names back in the mid 90’s?? Anyhoo…that’s a whole nuther post…
I found a new phone on eBay, a Palm Treo!! (fingers crossed I actually receive it!!). Someone with 0 feedback bids and bids and beats me. I get a Second Chance Offer. Alright cool, I never got one before…except the fact that it came to my email in the form of what looks like spoof material, bad grammar and all. No eBay letterhead or anything. I reply “aren’t you supposed to send me this through eBay?” I get a reply saying “I can’t send 2nd Chance offers”. Just like that. Soon after, I get a Second Chance Offer through eBay. OK…it looks legit. It’s in my messages. It IS legit. So I “Buy it Now”. A day later I get what looks like an eBay email asking if I want a Second Chance Offer on the item. This time from a whole different eBay member. 100% feedback too. Imagine that?!?! But, never sold a single thing…hmmm. So I bought the phone on the Second Chance Offer from the original seller who has good feedback and seems like a real person. *still nervous!!!* These scams just keep getting smarter and smarter. NEVER pay for an item outside of eBay. And be sure to read your Second Chance Offer messages closely to make sure they have the right Subject!
Here is a better explanation of the eBay Second Chance Offer scam:
http://news.netcraft.com/archives/2004/10/15/fraudsters_go_phishing_on_ebay.html
Phishing: Emails that encourage you to log into a fake website designed to look exactly like ebay, paypal, myspace, etc. Even your own online banking page!
The worst email I received of this nature was when I got an obviously fake “Your account is in danger of closing!” email from my own bank. It asked me to log in and update my account information by following the link. Would you imagine that there were thousands of email addresses in to “To:” form?? I had to scroll down for a good 10 solid seconds before getting to the actual message. Usually you don’t see the thousands of other email addresses these criminals send their fraudulent emails to. These were emails that belonged to other account holders at my bank! I even joked with Prince that I should send them all “Host a Free Sex Toy Party!” emails since they are actually legit email addresses. Or “Hey! Money-conscious people! Come Join My Team!” Please, I’m not THAT ballsy! And that’s where we come to the lovely subject of spam…
We all know how that goes!! How in the world do they get our email addresses? That bank email is a perfect example. But I know it’s more intricate than stumbling across a few thousand legit email addresses in your inbox. I am however VERY thankful for Bulk/Junk Mail Folders! My inbox is clean for the most part. I just want to know what kind of operations go on where people sit at a computer and spam for a living. It’s mind boggling. And even MORE mind boggling at how people create the vicious programs (bots) designed to carry out the spam. A program that actually registers accounts for message boards then plasters the boards with useless spam. Lord have mercy.
And those stupid website/search pages on deleted GOOD domain names? What are their names? You know, like my old URL www.passionade.com?? (Thank you Yahoo for taking my domain and selling it the SECOND I chose the wrong service to cancel…) Greeeeeeeed are the scammers, the spammers, the phishers and the bullshit (can we curse on here?) search websites that become expired websites!
Anyone actually get scammed? stupidly spammed? Want to vent too? Share!