Sunday, January 31, 2010

Fraud

I have heard of someone who actually managed to get embroiled in one of those e-mail 'please open a bank account for us and you will get $10,000 scams.

It is all sordid and unpleasant.  It also got me to a little internet searching, out of curiosity.

I found the FBI's Cyber Investigations New E-scams and warnings page.
MAN, some of those guys have coJONes!!!!
Look at these headlines from the FBI site.....


NEW TWIST ON COUNTERFEIT CHECK SCHEMES TARGETING U.S. LAW FIRMS
Sooooo....they're targeting law firms!!!!


SPAMMERS CONTINUE TO ABUSE THE NAMES OF TOP GOVERNMENT EXECUTIVES BY MISUSING THE NAME OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY GENERAL


They're imitating the FBI!!!!!!!!!
FRAUDULENT E-MAIL CLAIMING TO CONTAIN FBI “INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN NO. 267”


FRAUDULENT E-MAIL CLAIMING TO BE FROM DHS AND THE FBI COUNTERTERRORISM DIVISION



FRAUDULENT E-MAIL CLAIMING TO CONTAIN AN FBI INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN FROM THE WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION DIRECTORATE

CIRCULATION OF FRAUDULENT E-MAIL CLAIMING TO BE FROM U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION (CBP)

FRAUDULENT SPAM E-MAIL PURPORTEDLY FROM FBI DEPUTY DIRECTOR JOHN S. PISTOLE


I have to confess, these ones seem particularly astonishing.  Who on earth in the FBI would want to contact me!  I would find that one mighty hard to buy.  Some of them are simply malware and you open them to your computer's doom.....

There are a fair number of simply nasty scams going around too.  Kind of depressing reading there.....but goodness.  They're going after the law firms!  Go where the money is I guess. 

That'd be embarrassing for them, wouldn't it.

7 comments:

Beth said...

You’ve got me wondering – do BIG government agencies ever make contact via email? Revenue Canada always gets in touch by Canada Post or by phone.
Perhaps these agencies/departments know it’s best not to trust cyberspace communication…

The Bodhi Chicklet said...

Now that's chutzpah. I almost fell for one purporting to come from Yahoo. But I had the sense to contact Yahoo and ask them some pointed questions and they investigated. There will always be gullibility and fear and these guys prey on that. Sad, for if only they used their powers for good instead of evil...

oreneta said...

Beth, I don't think any of them EVER do, for just that reason. The FBI site kept saying over and over and over again that they NEVER send out unsolicited e-mails, and I imagine that is true for most.

Bodhi, Some are easy to fall for....the make it hard to press that delete button, you just aren't quite sure sometimes....

J.G. said...

Hoaxbusters.org and Snopes.com have great sites for checking these things out.

I once worked for a lawyer who wanted to investigate a Nigerian prince money transfer e-mail he received. He kept asking me, "But what if it's real?" (Greed. He had it.)

oreneta said...

JG, the hoax I heard about was Iraqi money......greed does ugly things, no? I'll have to check out those sites! Bizarre.

Anonymous said...

the "don't talk to strangers" thing you teach children also applies to e-mail senders. Keep that in mind, and you're scam free for the rest of your life :)

oreneta said...

So true and so simple. Eldest pointed out that he obviously hadn't attended the Grade 3 on-line safety seminar at school. I had to point out that there was no online when he was in grade 3. A silent pause followed.