How dangerous are email headers?

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Hello I'm New here! Joined: 13 May 2007 Posts: 6

I read through the faq and found this:

"Short answer. No. They're not, shall we say, brilliant by any stretch of the imagination. While it's true your IP is normally in your email headers the scammer would be extremely unlikely to even know what an IP is, let alone how to find you with it. And even if he did by some miracle track you down, he would have no way to get to you. It would cost him too much time, money and energy to even attempt to try it. Besides, I somehow doubt he'd get the Visa he'd need to enter the country."

But I wanted to get your opinions on the subject. I responded to a scammer recently, and later realized that they would be able to see my first and last name and IP address. The scammer's email had a "UK" at the end, so I figure that's where they are. How much can they learn about me with that info? How worried should I be about identity theft?

Thank you!

Posted: Sun May 13, 2007 6:49 pm

The only way they could see your first and last name is if you were baiting from your own personal email account. That is a concern above and beyond IP alone. Usually when the dangers of IP are discussed, we are talking about the dangers of using a made up hotmail or yahoo account, for example, registered with fake details. With IP alone a mugu could theorectically pin down your general area, but that's about it. With your real name they might be able to track you down to your door. Of course this would be very unlikely, but still....

*** BANNED *** Joined: 02 Jan 2006 Posts: 2021

Quote:

realized that they would be able to see my first and last name and IP address.

That comes down to bad baiting discipline, Thousands of people can share an IP however if you give your real details with that IP you suddenly become very easily trackable.
As the bible suggests you would seriously need to hurt a lad for him to bother looking for you.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 13 May 2007 Posts: 6

Oh god... I feel so stupid (and rightly so). I must admit I'm a little freaked out now. Yes, it was my personal account, and the scammer already sent a response. I'm not going to respond anymore and I've already set up a new email account. It was the standard scam asking if they can put a huge amount of money into my bank account because they are going to die soon. Rolling Eyes

Thank you for the feedback! Does anyone know if a scammer HAS come to somebody's door???

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 13 May 2007 Posts: 6

bombardier wrote:

As the bible suggests you would seriously need to hurt a lad for him to bother looking for you.

That makes me feel a little better.

Posted: Sun May 13, 2007 7:00 pm

Yeah...he's not gonna come knocking on your door if you ignore him from now on...just remember not to give the lads any real details in the future.

*** BANNED *** Joined: 02 Jan 2006 Posts: 2021

Quote:

Does anyone know if a scammer HAS come to somebody's door???

Im sure someone will come along in a minute and tell you the legendary tale of the guy that was baiting from work Wink

Master Baiter Joined: 09 Feb 2007 Posts: 101

No point in quoting the complete original post. - drwho

I have a yahoo.co.uk baiting account, and I'm American. You can sign up for an account anywhere, and just make up fake details about yourself including your name and address. Plenty of mugus use yahoo.co.uk accounts. Probably the one type of email address that accurately lists the country of a scammer is the type vlads (love scammers from Russia) use. They'll use [email protected] or something like that...the ru is key.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 13 May 2007 Posts: 6

Thanks everyone for taking your time to respond. I'll keep checking back to read any other responses any of you might have. It sounds like I don't really have anything to worry about, though. I've decided I'm not going to get into baiting. It just freaks me out too much! Razz

Posted: Sun May 13, 2007 7:23 pm

Quote:

Im sure someone will come along in a minute and tell you the legendary tale of the guy that was baiting from work

I'd love to hear this one. I bait from work all the time.

Posted: Sun May 13, 2007 7:59 pm

@jerz - the only damage you have done is to scare yourself, and that was caused by not reading the stickies and not taking the chance to pick up a mentor before starting to bait.

Twice in the last week I have received scam mail mentioning locations not more than 10 miles from where I live. Am I bothered ? Not one jot. It was an uncanny coincidence both times, and most scammers are operating from West Africa which you can easily verify from the e-mail header most times, but I often don't bother to check nowadays, as baiting safely means there is no risk, even if they do live close by,

There is as much chance of a victim getting their money back off a scammer, as there is of a scammer coming looking for vengeance - unless you're YeaWhatever - Laughing

They'd rather spend their money at the local whore house and bar.

We're proud of the insults and death threats we receive. I hope you do regain the confidence to bait. It's a lot of safe fun with a good purpose.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 13 May 2007 Posts: 4

hi, i'm a newbie here, but a thought just occured to me:
i'm sure using a simple php or perl script, we can set up a page that sends emails, but with only the information in the header we want sent, which would be "sender", reply to, date, etc., but ommitting the important data such as ip addresses and server names.

so, you would use this page to send your emails, then check your real email for replies from the scammer, and then send your reply to the scammer using this page.

thoughts?

Posted: Sun May 13, 2007 8:24 pm

^^^Why bother?

IPs are not the big bad wolf/virus/man your mother told you not to date.

Just bait safely and things are just fine.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 13 May 2007 Posts: 6

You're right, GomerPyle, I just jumped right in with very basic knowledge. I am usually very thorough about checking things out. I guess I acted rather impulsively in this case. Those scammers are just so insulting, blatantly asking you to give very personal info (I did not give that person any of my info, btw) and they fill my box with so much junk...

Posted: Mon May 14, 2007 12:57 am

@ Bombardier

There was one case in Sydney Australia where "diplomats" contacted an inheritance victim. newspaper people were tipped off and a slapstick chase through Sydney streets ensued, Remarkably, the victim still appeared to have some belief he would eventually receive the inheritance.

Baiting Guru Joined: 04 Jan 2006 Posts: 3193

Pantsface wrote:

I'd love to hear this one. I bait from work all the time.

The story as I heard it about a year ago is as follows:

A baiter got a friend to send a fax using his office fax machine. Faxes have the telephone number of the sending machine added to them. A few days later two or three impressive looking men turned up at the friend's workplace asking for the baiter character.

I have since searched for the original story a few times and never found it. I've now put it down as urban legend, although it is plausible.

Posted: Mon May 14, 2007 9:50 am

So after a combined 10 billion baiting years a one time occurence of 2 lads allegedly turning up at a baiter's workplace asking for his baiter name (scary stuff!) because he used his traceable work fax warrant 500 threads on how to hide your IP (IP! bad!) threads a day. Impressive.

jerz wrote:

The scammer's email had a "UK" at the end, so I figure that's where they are.

No, they could be anywhere, it's the internet.

jerz wrote:

How much can they learn about me with that info?

That mainly depends on your name. Try googling the information you gave them and see what you can find out.

jerz wrote:

How worried should I be about identity theft?

As long as you didn't accidentally send them your credit card info, your PIN, your mobile phone number and such I'd suggest not to overreact.

Not quite a Newb Joined: 25 Apr 2007 Posts: 20

theres a lot of paranoia on this site. the scammers wont come looking for you. there are so many baiters they just dont care.

Unneeded quote removed. TS

Posted: Mon May 14, 2007 5:07 pm

I wear a tinfoil hat, carry a shotgun and bait with a gmail account forwarded to hushmail hidden by a proxy. That is the ONLY way to bait.

Your IP address gives away nothing, so don't worry. I have done many evil things to lads, many of it without IP protection. Not one has come knocking.

Posted: Tue May 15, 2007 3:14 am

saltire wrote:

theres a lot of paranoia on this site. the scammers wont come looking for you. there are so many baiters they just dont care.

Very true, but to be on the safe side, it's always best to use proxies. Especially when logging on to eater. Wink

Posted: Tue May 15, 2007 3:24 am

And never use an "I" or a "P" in your emails and you will be safe.

Posted: Tue May 15, 2007 3:44 am

My question is, if a scammer comes knocking on my door, will I get a really special safari award? Wink

Posted: Tue May 15, 2007 3:55 am

You should, provided you show the pictures of your scammer hog-tied on the floor. But he/she/it has to have all of their body parts still attached to the correct locations.

Posted: Tue May 15, 2007 6:37 am

ERROR IN FAQ.

I read the FAQ 10 times and I never saw the tinfoil hat mentioned Question

where can I get one Question

Posted: Tue May 15, 2007 6:44 am

Look it up at Wikipedia. I thought we all wore them

I think we should get all our mugus to wear them so we don't have to - or would that be considered to be educating them ?

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