Wheeeeeeeeeee!!!! Why you get spam and scam

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: Fri Dec 26, 2008 8:40 pm

Hi all,

I am not anyone special and I certainly don't have great computer tech skills. I have been reading all of the 419baiters rules/regs/instructions and they are spot on.

My topic of this note is this. Internet security. If you don't receive the scam letters in the first place, then you're not going to get involved and be taken. The same way with any spam. There are tons of ways to block that and all of it is free.

I know I'm spouting off but, the best defense is a good offense.

You can block all of these bastards by using your computer's tools or buy using software to protect yourself from all of it.

The 419eaters rule at getting back at them but wouldn't it be nice if nobody had to put up with this in the first place.??

Do what's right for you. I will stay and fight with 419 but, you can use another option and block all of the shit that you get.

Knowledge and education about this will help.

Very Happy

Posted: Fri Dec 26, 2008 8:45 pm

In essence, you're right. But on an anti 419 website (where we actively search out spam and scam emails, and roll around in them, laughing and rubbing the filth into our crevices) you're probably preaching to the converted. We know how to avoid scam emails, our trouble is that we don't want to avoid them... the more the merrier! Smile

Posted: Fri Dec 26, 2008 8:54 pm

For non-baiters who are sick of spam/scams there's still the problem that no matter how good the anti spam software is, the spammers still find ways around it.

Posted: Fri Dec 26, 2008 9:29 pm

lesabre101 wrote:

There are tons of ways to block that and all of it is free.

It's not as easy as that. Gmail is good at trapping spam, but bad at trapping scam emails.
This forum was set up to protect the vulnerable, by disrupting scammers' activities by baiting, getting their names and phrasology on search engines, offering advice, etc.
We wouldn't devote a lot of our time to this for free, if there were better ways of fighting scammers.

Baiting Guru Joined: 04 Jan 2006 Posts: 3193

It's actually a bad idea.

Consider the vulnerable, naive computer user who gets 10 lottery wins and 20 419 scams in their inbox every day. They are not likely to be fooled.

Now consider if their helpful computer guru had installed filters that stop 99.9% of the scams. Now they only get one every few weeks, and they probably fall for them.

Virii and phishing may be another matter.

Posted: Sat Dec 27, 2008 2:28 am

lesabre101 wrote:

My topic of this note is this. Internet security. If you don't receive the scam letters in the first place, then you're not going to get involved and be taken. The same way with any spam. There are tons of ways to block that and all of it is free.

... You can block all of these bastards by using your computer's tools or buy using software to protect yourself from all of it.

I think there's a weak element to that approach. The most important element. The element between keyboard and chair. In order to know what to block with your free spam filtering, you have to be able to IDENTIFY what is a scam/spam. If you're relying on the user to click "Report spam", they've got to be able to use that thing between their ears to figure out if what they're looking at IS a scam should one of the newer, as-yet-unidentified variants slip through. Even the best heuristic spam/scam/virus filtering isn't 100%. It's kind of putting the cart before the horse to expect filtering to be the only protection.

And even if you have a paid piece of software that operates something like a virus scanner that relies on a central database, you're still relying largely on a user base reporting those new scam variations back to the central database so they can be cataloged and the software can identify them and the variations on them. Or a darned big lab with a darned big group of researchers trying to catalog what's out there by setting up spam traps.

Not to mention, people have been preaching the necessity of good anti-virus protection for at least the past decade at the top of their lungs. The number of computer users out there without even a free anti-virus solution kept up to date on their machines still makes professional IT types like me shiver. Any tool is only as good as the user and their faithfulness in keeping it up to date on definitions and running regular scans or leaving continuous protection in place.

Would it be great to keep them from landing in people's inboxes in the first place? Of course! But I don't think it's realistic. As long as there is a possible buck in it, scammers and spammers will come up with new ways of circumventing security measures, constantly evolving. Keeping up is an arms race.

And even if you managed to squash email scams, that leaves other types of internet, phone and mail fraud. What about the scams where the scammers set up a website and wait for the victims to come to them? Chinese non-delivery scammers are pretty active. All the spam filters in the world won't keep you from visiting the latest Chinese "factory" supposedly offering "real Lacoste" and "real Nikes" next to the "real iPhones" after you find it on Alibaba. There's fraudulent lending, too. And all the "we can guarantee you'll get a green card/visa" offers.

Computers are indeed nifty, but they aren't terribly good at learning. They can only do exactly what the programmer tells them and only make decisions based on a limited database of knowledge. People... well, we can draw conclusions. Leap to them, even. Or at least say "more data needed, I'll go acquire it" when necessary. And we have this "gut feeling" and "intuition" stuff.

Truly impressing upon one person that advance fee laws prevent any real lottery, sweepstakes or contest from legally asking you for any sort of fee before you can receive your prize is going to protect that person against any variant of that scam that comes down the pike from then on. Including the one that might arrive via phone or postal mail. (Or at least prompt them to research further.) Teaching them that Moneygram or Western Union aren't meant for business and that you can't buy real Nikes direct from China legally will protect them from whatever fake seller site that shows up next month or next year. Showing them that they don't have to pay a cent to apply for immigration to Canada may keep them safe from a dozen unscrupulous visa operations. And even nicer, you can often get that one user to spread the word to all their friends and family for you.

I'm not saying filtering is worthless, just that it needs to be one weapon in a large arsenal. I'm convinced that education is probably the most effective weapon. It's got its flaws, too, of course. For a start, you have to keep educating the new users as they come in. Some of those scams I mentioned above aren't usually baited, but sometimes baits here help point people to the more comprehensive/broad fraud education sites like the ones in my sig where they can learn about fake check scams, employment scams and so on.

Sometimes, you have to have a little entertainment and zazzle out front for people to come in and look around. And if they aren't careful, they just might learn something while they're here. Or at the very least, know they have at least one resource where they can post a question.

And baiting serves a purpose for those of us who do additional anti-scammer stuff. I also volunteer on an anti-fraud informational site that does no baiting. Baiting taught me just about everything I know about scammers. You can really convince a potential victim that you know your stuff when you can accurately predict exactly what the scammer is going to do next because you've baited this same script a dozen times.

Elite Baiter Joined: 15 Sep 2008 Posts: 1006

Also love lads are responding to ads placed on dating sites, often through the "contact me" portion of the web site...no spam filter is going to block those.

Posted: Sat Dec 27, 2008 11:51 am

OK I see everyone's point. Thanks to everyone for the answers. I should have thought about what I posted a little more. But, I did learn a lot of stuff today which is very cool. I began doing a search on IP's and how they're assigned, read a ton of stuff on security and many other things about computer software and how e-mail works. I got into some pretty heavy stuff and was amazed.

The main thing is, joining 419 eater really got the ball rolling. I am interested in doing some serious damage to these scammers and the more info I have will help. This group here is fantastic and you all deserve a medal for doing this and creating this site.

I have snared a couple of lads on my own in the past 6 months but now with the help of 419 and people here, I am really better prepared and it is becoming a lot easier and safer. Thanks a million to everybody here.

Happy New Year !!!!

ST

Wheeeeeeeeeee!!!! Why you get spam and scam	View next topic View previous topic