Is someone shutting down accounts?

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Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2007 2:57 am

I've responded to the last six scams I've gotten on the same day they came in, only to have all six bounce back. Can't believe they're dropping that quickly.... Is someone taking them down out there?

Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2007 3:03 am

Yeah,

Lots of people are taking them down. People who hate scam mail, victims, rogue baiters that don't know any better, bank killers (sorry Embarassed

) email providers, and so on.

A select few people are true baiters and understand it's not worth doing and can actually hurt an investigation by LEO. The general public think it's the "right" thing to do.

Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2007 3:28 am

Yes, most definitely. Yahoo is the principal provider shutting down scammer accounts at an alarming rate. It's making mass mail a health hazard. There are a few other ISP's closing the odd account, but Yahoo is unrelentant.

Not quite a Newb Joined: 17 Jun 2007 Posts: 37

I have a list of nearly 200 scammers' addresses. Some are lottery scammers and the rest are 419s. I have them divided into groups, according to email provider: 1) Yahoo; 2) Hotmail; and 3) all others.

If anyone wants my complete list, in order to search for some new lads, they are welcome to PM me and I will send it to you.

I can't bait them all, so I might as well share.

Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2007 8:18 am

^^ Mate, the email addresses on their own are not much good for many reasons.
1) As the OP pointed out, many are "catcher" addresses and get shut down pretty quickly.
2) Without full email headers, we don't know much about the lad, where he is etc.
3) It's difficult, VERY difficult to get in touch with a lad via an email address alone, far better to know what type of scammer he is and what he wants to hear. Although an ASEM can work also, but more rarely.

@ Ladron. Are you making sure you are replying to the right email addy? The one that you recieve the email from is rarely the one you should reply to. There is normally a seperate address provided for replies as the original addy is merely a catcher.
But if you are replying to the right ones, then yes even then they are bouncing, and I'm having the same problem at the moment. As AfferBeck says, lots of people get the lads closed down with all good intent, but without realising it destroys baits.

Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2007 8:29 am

There's been a bit of buzz about this topic recently. I'd say a clear majority of my lads all have yahoo addressesjust for fun I looked into Yahoo's Spam Policy. This was mentioned right in it...

Quote:

NOTICE: Sending unsolicited email advertisements to or through Yahoo! computer systems will use or cause to be used Yahoo! servers located in California. Any unauthorized use of Yahoo! computer systems is a violation of the Yahoo! Terms of Service, Universal Spam Policy, and certain federal and state laws, including the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (18 U.S.C. � 1030 et seq.), Section 502 of the California Penal Code, and Section 17538.45 of the California Business and Professions Code. Such violations may subject the sender and his or her agents to civil and criminal penalties.

The preceding paragraph on the policy states that any account violating their TOS will be immediately closed, followed by an investigation and blah blah blah, then the notice as quoted. I'm no expert, but I'd guess that means "we are watching you and we are allowed to, so if you are a spammer we'll" I know a few people who have had their yahoo accounts closed due to alleged spammer-like activity recently (and they're not spammers), and word is that yahoo is doing that a lot in their fight against spam. Reportedly, yahoo is also not apologizing or even reinstating these accounts - sort of a "national security" attitude.

Most providers like yahoo and hotmail view 419'ers as just another species of spammer, mainly because they are. Considering that our lads violate almost every clause in the TOS agreement, automatic shutdowns are probably something they're used to. Unfortunately, that affects our baits, and I doubt yahoo cares about that. If we could just get these people to see that (tongue in cheek here) we're better at stopping 419 than they are, our problems would be solved! Somehow I doubt that's gonna happen though.

On the upside, if we can't reach our lads, that means the real victims can't reach them either. While the mugu may have a new account set up within minutes, but he probably didn't write all his addresses down, and he may have just missed an MTCN from John Q Realvictim.

Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2007 8:47 am

@ Ladron

Make sure you reply to the email address the scammer specifically provides you with (ie in the body of the email text) or the email address supplied in the "reply-to" section of the header.

Why?

The original email address the lads send out from is called a catcher account (much like ours) and is a throwaway account. Because of the volume of mail that gets sent out it is almost always shut down within 24 hours of it being used simply because yahoo or hotmail or whoever have their own spam protection people working on it.

This might explain why you've had so many bounce.

Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2007 12:16 pm

Yahoo has been really serious this past week or so. I took out a list of 140 fresh mails today, and 32 of them bounced, "This user doesn't have a yahoo.XXX.XX Account. Any address that has agent, fiduciary, or claims in the name is likely to go.

Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2007 2:52 pm

YAHOO just shut down five of the ten accounts I had been using to ASEM the lads. I had sent four messages from each account during an afternoon with 25 BCC's each. I had gotten away with this previously so it seems that YAHOO is tightening down.

A lot of shutdowns that are currently taking place could be attributed to lads inadvertently crossing the line with their volume.

While it is easy for us and the lads to open new accounts, the rub is that the new account has a very limited capacity for the first thirty days. It would seem that the lads would have to create a large number of new accounts continuously in order to maintain any kind of mass mailing volume, since the half life of those accounts is short and by all indications, getting shorter.

Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2007 3:39 pm

Sometimes I've sent out a few mails and had them bounce back, only to try again and see them delivered. If all 6 bounced, it might be a problem with your email account (just a thought...)

Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2007 3:54 pm

For what it's worth, the FBI has a whole section on their webpage just for forwarding suspected scam mails to them. It goes on to say that you should also report it to the sender's service provider and explains that this is usually in the form of [email protected]. So to the average American public at least, it is the right thing to do Confused

Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2007 3:40 am

Red wrote:

The original email address the lads send out from is called a catcher account (much like ours) and is a throwaway account.

Close, Red, but not quite. Wink

The original email comes from a "throwing" or "bombing" account. These are the ones that die a very quick death with most reputable providers. The catcher account is the one you find in the body of the email, ie "Please reply to my personal address, [email protected]". "Catcher" is also a nickname for the lad who owns the catcher account and gets the scam rolling before passing you on to the "banker", "security company", or "barrister" (not all lads do this, some work alone and play all the parts themselves).

Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2007 3:43 am

Thanks SF.

I still remember the FAQs... i always got confused with that part the difference between the catcher and the catcher account, on second reading it is actually very clear... bugger and i was so close Very Happy

Thanks for clearing that up!

Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2007 3:44 am

The only accounts I shut down are my beloved phone pets in order to send them out spamming sales boards again. That is about the only account I shut down, and from my understanding that is the only account that should be shut down (aside from fake banks... which I have very little knowledge on).

Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2007 4:04 am

^^^ In many cases the lad is using the email provided from his website hoster to make him look legitimate. That's the ones that are [email protected] instead of [email protected] We don't normally target email accounts, however when we take down a site, sometimes it takes the email with it. Sorry. Crying or Very sad

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