Security Breach at 419Eater?

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Hello I'm New here! Joined: 05 Aug 2011 Posts: 3

I've been going through this website for a couple weeks now and fell in love with it and wanted to give it a try.

As advised I set up a fake e-mail account to start baiting and have gotten many solicitations in the past couple of days.

However today I got an e-mail in my personal inbox that was clearly a 419 scam but for some reason was not pitched to my spambox... I found the timing odd. Going through my spambox I have found only 2 other 419s in the past 3 years so I thought it could be more than just a coincidence.

Here is where it gets weird-
The scammer used my name and the supposed victim of the scam also had the same last name as me. Granted my e-mail is of the firstname_lastname variety so its not that far-fetched.

I did not use my real e-mail for anything on this site so I don't see the connection between 419Eater and the recent e-mail.

Anyhow, I was hoping for advice. Can I bait this guy or should I just drop him? Maybe use my bait e-mail to act as my attorney or is that too dangerous??

Please advise....

Baiting Guru Joined: 27 Mar 2011 Posts: 21158

When in doubt, BAIL OUT! Stay safe!

Posted: Tue Aug 09, 2011 5:22 pm

As next victim pointed out, you should not bait this lad. But you probably already figured that out yourself.
But i doubt that there is any connection with you signing up to 419eater. It is most likely a coincidence. I have been a member for over a year and i haven't gotten a single spam or scam mail to my box.

Baiting Guru Joined: 03 May 2007 Posts: 18313

Hi, DirkStruan.

It's just a coincidence and not in any way connected to your membership here.

Quote:

The scammer used my name and the supposed victim of the scam also had the same last name as me. Granted my e-mail is of the firstname_lastname variety so its not that far-fetched.

It sounds like the scammer pulled your info from somewhere for a directed scam attempt. It happens plenty of times. Have you done a search for your email address? Where does it show up online? What have you used it for? Scammers buy lists for spamming their scripts.

See this article for more info: http://krebsonsecurity.com/2011/04/where-did-that-scammer-get-your-email-address/

You can probably safely bait the script by just copying it over to your baiting account and changing the name in the script to match your baiting character since he's sure to have sent it out to a bunch of people, but it's safest to just ignore it. There are thousands of scam emails to choose from for baiting.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 05 Aug 2011 Posts: 3

It just seems weird to me. Have any of you gotten scams with your name like that and the "dead" relative also has your name?

Baiting Guru Joined: 03 May 2007 Posts: 18313

I've seen it happen plenty of times. It's just a scammer trying to be clever and customizing the script to match your address or info where your address was scraped from.

Baiting Guru Joined: 27 Mar 2011 Posts: 21158

I keep a bait file with my IRL addy. My name is on most every one of them. I fwd. to my baiter acct. and only use the reply addy to compose a new mail with.

Posted: Tue Aug 09, 2011 9:52 pm

One of the lads I've got on the go at the moment sent his initial script (in letter form) to both my mother and my brother, using their names and a fictional deceased relative. I never received the original letter and I can only think that is because I am ex-directory (not listed) in the phone book. It's not that uncommon.

Posted: Wed Aug 10, 2011 7:17 am

DirkStruan wrote:

I've been going through this website for a couple weeks now and fell in love with it and wanted to give it a try.

Here is where it gets weird-
The scammer used my name and the supposed victim of the scam also had the same last name as me. Granted my e-mail is of the firstname_lastname variety so its not that far-fetched.

I did not use my real e-mail for anything on this site so I don't see the connection between 419Eater and the recent e-mail.

I've often found that trying to sign up for a perfectly normal gmail or hotmail account for a plausable name (fred smith, peter white, or even my wifes name and surname), is impossible since someone has got them. My surname is not common. So lets say a spammer wants to find out if a fred smith exists on hotmail, he can simply try to create a [email protected]. If hotmail wont let him create it, then he knows [email protected] is used, so he can email Fred Smith and know he has the right names. I'm not sure if scammers do that, but it is perfectly possible they do.

Another option for them might be to email all common fornames combined with all common surnames. You can bet if you take a common name like Fred, Peter, Mike, then it will almost certainly exist with any common surname. Using a dot or underscore to sepparte them is very common.

If your account is more private, such as specific to a small ISP, I'd be more surprised and concerned, but with hotmail, gmail, yahoo etc, it would be easy for an intelligent scammer to get sensible names and emails.

wasname

Baiting Guru Joined: 10 Oct 2003 Posts: 4747

I have gotten them with my name, and names of friends, its really creepy. I understand the concern, but I think you’re safe. Still don’t feel compelled to bait it

I have also gotten overused formats from scammers, PM'ed to me here before, It’s not really creepy just weird.

A lyric in a song reminds me of baiting “what a long strange trip it’s been” ..

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 05 Aug 2011 Posts: 3

Thanks everyone.

Posted: Wed Aug 10, 2011 10:42 am

I created a new email adress for this website 3 days ago, I did not use it anywhere else that 419eater and already 6 scams !!!

Incredible, but I think it's stupid if they actually hack here to scam people that are well aware of it...

It should be a coincidence...

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