Anti-Scam Course: Borrowing Pastor Frank's Tinfoil Hat

By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics and access other forums reserved for members. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today by clicking here.

Posted: Thu Jun 09, 2011 8:11 am

Hi all,
I'm about to write to our local adult education institution to offer them free information evenings about scam.
I'm going to do it via snail mail, hoping that it will have a better chance not to get discarded right away.
Now I'm torn between giving myself credibility and remain as anonymous as possible and protect myself from getting spam or worse.

What contact information should I give?

Of course, I'll have to give them my real name, but should I ask them not to pass it on to the teachers?
RL phone or baiter phone?
RL email addy or baiter addy?

The institution is huge: they offer nearly 8000 classes, hundreds of them about IT. So if they decide to just give the teachers a copy of my letter there is no way of telling who will get hold of it.

Posted: Thu Jun 09, 2011 8:43 am

If I were you I would give them your baiter phone. That way if your information is given to someone undesirable at least you will receive calls at a number where it doesn't matter. As for the email, I would set up a new email account specifically for this. Since you're giving them your real name it could be related to that so that it doesn't look silly or fake, but it's also easy to discard it if you start receiving lots of spam.

And good for you on volunteering your free time to warn people about scams. That's something I should look into doing.

Posted: Thu Jun 09, 2011 8:44 am

At times you just have to bite the bullet, face up to the paranoia, and realise that if you are going to do this, some of your real life facts are going to come out.

What I do, is

They get my real name, due to where I'm living now, everyone in the district knows me anyway,

I only have one phone number, and a mobile pre pay, so they get the mobile prepay number, and one of my other email addresses, not my friends family one.

Getting the information out there becomes the important bit, I doubt that you'll have any problems coming back from any courses.

I've had a lot of the negative (stupid people for falling for a scam) type answers from people, until they discover one of their family has been caught out.

Go for it, have fun, don't get overly paranoid about it.

Best of luck

Posted: Thu Jun 09, 2011 8:56 am

Thanks, guys!
May I post a draft of the letter for you to check, Irish? You have experience and know what to tell them so they will bite.

Posted: Thu Jun 09, 2011 9:05 am

pm in your inbox Jeanette Very Happy

Posted: Thu Jun 09, 2011 1:09 pm

I think this is a great idea. One I have been toying with is offering something like this to Senior Centers. They are always looking for educational programs and even something like just getting started using a computer for the older folks is beneficial and at the same time warn them about scammers and what to look for.

Good Luck on your project.

Posted: Thu Jun 09, 2011 1:26 pm

^^ Morgain, go for it, from what I've found here, the Senior Classes I'm involved with become a lot of fun. Most of the people in my workshops have a delightfully cynical view (something that seems to accumulate as you get older I find) and the workshops become a real joy to hold.

pm for details if you like.

Posted: Thu Jun 09, 2011 1:57 pm

Just an update:

Initially, I wanted to do kind of a free "insert" in ongoing computing classes. But after a lot of useful info from Irish - which I'm still digesting - I am tending to offering a free mini-course of its own. So much to cover ...

Luckily, I am a former teacher and have worked with adults in this type of education institutes, so I know what to expect - as I wrote to Irish, I'll have to compete with TV regarding to attention span and expectation to be be entertained. Razz

Trophy Videos · Posted: Thu Jun 09, 2011 7:09 pm

Entertainment? Why not pull out some nice lads singing songs? That ought to grab their attention. Tigbitties has posted several masterpieces of song! Very Happy

Posted: Thu Jun 09, 2011 9:22 pm

SlapHappy wrote:

Entertainment? Why not pull out some nice lads singing songs?

Great idea. You could also spice up your presentation with a couple of photos of a lad with a fish on his head. Razz

All kidding aside, this is an interesting idea. Were you going to put together a PowerPoint presentation or something?

Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2011 6:18 am

I was thinking about giving presentation about scam to my IT class, we're supposed to have some project, related to IT, but I'll have to discuss it with my teacher, sadly I don't think she'll let me, because it's not THAT IT related, but well since I've got nothing but A's I might convince her... Confused

Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2011 6:31 am

I've prepared a first draft of a course of three evenings and sent it to Irish for inspection.

I firmly believe in making the students work during class, so I'll use several media, not a full length presentation. Making them do some work in small teams and present the results to the class guarantees fun for all.

Plus they'll get "homework". This should have the effect that they show the papers to family and friends.

- I want to hand out scam mails and make them try to analyse them,
- screen shots of the most common email providers to teach them how to get headers,
- screen shots of the IP Tracker,
- screen shots of ScamWarners so they can use it to get help,
- parts of the gallery with lads' dating profile photos compared to their RL photos (copied from Romance Scam).

Again, I'm planning to give them a lot of printouts to take home and discuss with friends.

As for more advanced media, it depends on the equipment I'll find. Usually the community education centres are well equipped.

And I love the idea of audio clips, must try to copy the raunchy ones of the Chocolate Ice Cream Lover from Hell. Razz

At the end, I'll give them a brochure shamelessly translated from Irish's material.

As soon as the concept is finished, I'll post the English version to the "Help" forum.

Now let's keep our fingers crossed that they will accept me. Mr. Green

Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2011 8:36 am

^^^ Once it has been decided on how the course is to be presented.

Would it be an idea for each member to write to school heads, seniors for example with a outline of the course and asking if they could help us in the education of the public, bringing to the attention about these scams to their pupils, during a lesson.

They might make copies of the information sent to them to hand out to their pupils.

Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2011 9:18 am

You may have thought of this already but, if not... it might be a good idea to include in your introduction a few news clips about what has happened to some people who fell for these scams to stress the seriousness of the situation.

Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2011 9:30 am

^^ @ Raga man, I do include those in my initial first session, nothing gets attention like hearing about someone that is in the next town/county/city that got scammed

If everyone wants to start doing community work like this, I'm happy to be a sort of central cordinator, and set up a page where we can all work on a collective version of what we present.

On the proviso, that everyone is free to use what they need to suit their own specific group

There is no *right* way of getting this information out

Just get it out there

Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2011 1:16 pm

@ Raga Man: Yes, of course I'll try to find newspaper articles, in fact I plan to attach a really horrid scam to my presentation letter to the institution.
The problem is I won't be able to use the ones posted at the Eater, I'll have to find German ones.

Right now I'm dealing with RL, so hopefully by Sunday evening I'll be able to post my lesson plan for your comments and advice.

Anti-Scam Course: Borrowing Pastor Frank's Tinfoil Hat	View next topic View previous topic