Sunday, June 10, 2007
How to spot fake profiles, scammers, and spam bots
Current mood: geeky
Category: MySpace
I know I have posted a similar blog about this but, some of my new readers may have not read back that far.
As a regular blogger, I have noticed that every time I post a blog, my mailbox gets at least 3-4 fake profile e-mails. If you don't believe that, just post a "test" blog.
Here are some tips that I have learned to tell if the e-mails are spam bots, scam artists or bogus profiles from folks in Africa:
1) Almost every single one of them have "professional" quality pics.
2) The body of the letter has a lot of grammatical errors and misspellings.
3) It is usually a very long letter. Some examples of the letter's contents are:
A) A man talking about how his wife has passed away and he has to raise his child alone.
B) They state they are contractors living abroad and are wanting contacts. (see below)
C) Your picture has been chosen for a display in an airport.
D) A job as a representative for a foreign company as US representative.
4) A yahoo contact name is almost always included as the last sentence.
5) While there is a pic of a male, the actual letter may say they are female.
When you go to their profile, here are the things that I have noticed on almost all of them:
1) There is only the one pic.
2) The about me section is almost identical to the letter sent.
3) They usually only have about 3 friends if any. The friends look to be average everyday folks that might be very gullable.
4) Some even have links to an actual off myspace site.
5) They have no profile "decoration".
6) The sign up date is either recent or not been in use for a while.
You can check a sign up date by going to the blog section. Even if there is no blog, when you go over to the blog, the sign up date will still be on the left side at the bottom of the standard blog box.
When I first signed up for Myspace, I fell for one of the scams of the contractor living abroad. The pic was of an average looking white man with brown hair. The first letter wasn't a long one so, it didn't fit into my scam catagory. I think the first letter was, "I really liked your pics and profile. I would love to talk to you more as I am Oregon working overseas. Can we be penpals?" Since I do have friends who are contractors working in Iraq that I knew before Myspace, I knew that they have told me that it sometimes gets lonely much like the soldiers over there.
We sent e-mails back and forth and we instant messasaged each other on yahoo. On day he said he was coming back to the US on furlough and wanted to call me. I gave him my cell phone number. About a week later, he called. The voice on the other end said his name. It really surprised me to hear a Nigerian accent. Like accents in the US, you can sort of figure out what part of the country they are from.
To make a long story short, the man kept calling. It started to scare me. The authorities stated that since he was overseas, there really wasn't anything they could do legally to stop his harrassment like what could be done in the US. I eventually, had to get a new number.
I hope this helps some of you to be aware of the tricks.
The Goddess CoverDBabe
The Goddess CoverDBabe
It happened again! I went to check my mail and there was an e-mail that said, "MTV wanted me...." Inside the e-mail there were several links in it.
FOLKS, If you get an e-mail from an unknown source or your friends that you know with links in it, DO NOT PUSH ON THE LINKS! If it is a friend of yours, let them know they have been phished! If it's an unknown source, go to the top right of the e-mail and report it as abuse/spam. Once you do that, the e-mail will automatically be deleted!~
Posted by The Goddess CoverDBabe on Sunday, June 10, 2007 at 2:42 PM
The Goddess CoverDBabe
Block User
Bomex
AND YET ANOTHER!!!!
http://www.myspace.com/bomexuk
Date: Jun 10, 2007 12:51 PM Flag as Spam or Report Abuse [ ? ]
Subject: Work From Home
Body: You got some wicked pics can i add you as friend please
you might also be intrested in the website below free to sign up so dont need to pay i am a member from uk check it out can make some cash can ever set your amount until they send you a cheque nothing to lose all free
http://www.cashcrate.com/250273
Posted by The Goddess CoverDBabe on Sunday, June 10, 2007 at 2:55 PM
