Smarter than average Vietnam Lad?

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Posted: Wed Feb 11, 2009 4:34 pm

Got an email in an old catcher account.

It's supposedly from a Barrister and the office address it gives is in the same town that my IP shows as. It's around 2-4 miles from where I live as the road he's put in the fake address is very long and theres no number given.

He probably tracked my IP from some of my older baits as I used to use Thunderbird, unaware that Gmail doesn't strip headers unless the web interface is used Rolling Eyes

The other peculiarity was the header tracked back to Vietnam. I've never previously baited anyone there so I'm curious how he's come across it. My guess is he's come across it from me posting the addy on Usenet to attract lads. As I didn't use the Gmail interface he's had the genuine IP alongside the email addy to work with and then traced it and used the info to modify his script.

Posted: Wed Feb 11, 2009 8:51 pm

The same-town-as-your-IP-address thing could be coincidence; the same way (unless it is a small local ISP) it is coincidence that you yourself live in the same town as your IP address. Many/most people do not!

However, if I was in your position, I'd still leave this alone. Just in case.

(Unless my 'town' was actually a large well-known city. Then I'd think it definitely was coincidence. Though my character would conveniently live a hundred plus miles away.)

ETA: Surely it would actually be to the scammer's disadvantage for you to know the area/know the office didn't actually exist?

Posted: Wed Feb 11, 2009 11:21 pm

I agree with Branwen - he has the slightest whiff of your RL, leave him alone.

If the proximity was intentional, it seems a high risk ploy on his part. How would he handle the possibility that you would just threaten to pop round and discuss it face to face?

Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2009 12:06 am

It's a small town but not that small, it's pretty easy to be anonymous here (Pop around 11-12000). I've tried a few tracers on my own IP and some do show my town. My ISP is one of the bigger one's here.

The address on the scam email has the correct first part of the postcode as well - it's pretty thorough when compared to your typical lad effort, although there is of course no building number and the company isn't listed anywhere I can see and I've never noticed it travelling up and down that road.

I've googled the name and it does show the letter, complete with same address, on a couple of Blogs as well as fraudwatchers - it looks pretty new but is just a rehash of the same old clearing fee, consignment scam.

Im 99% thinking it's a coincidence. It's just the town I live in is just so anonymous with no claims to fame and is pretty much dwarfed in reputation by it's neighbours. I'm just a bit surprised that whoever stuck the pin in the map when coming up with a fake address happened to stick it in just around the corner from me!

It's a bit like walking into your local back street pub and seeing someone famous in there - what the hell is he/she doing here of all places??

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