Technology in Society

How Technology is used in society and how it affects it

Another sad case of lottery scam victim losing money

Submitted by Khalid on

I got this email today from someone who lost money because of the fake Microsoft lottery wining. He thinks that my site is Microsoft, and contacting me based on that.

People are milked in these scams on fake courier and insurance fees, then bank fees, and the scam goes on as long as the person continues to pay in the hope of getting money.

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Apostrophes and special characters in names

Submitted by Khalid on

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Yahoo has an article on how apostrophes and other non-English punctuation in people's names cause a lot of trouble, specially when computers are involved.

It can stop you from voting, destroy your dental appointments, make
it difficult to rent a car or book a flight, even interfere with your
college exams.

Google Adsense gets keyword right, but context is wrong

Submitted by Khalid on

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I use the Linux dump program to do backups. I use a set of scripts making the process as unattended as can be. The scripts send me an email with the result so I am informed of the outcome.

Viewing today's email status message in Gmail had a hilarious surpise in it. Look at the ad on the right hand side.

Google thought that the email subject and text here has "Dump" in it, an display an ad about "She dumped me" ... "Get your girl back".

Work-at-home offers front ending Money-Mule for cybercrime

Submitted by Khalid on

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Mainstream media is finally covering money-mule scams disguised as a work at home offers.

Cyber crime comes in many forms, whether it is phishing, 419 Nigerian scams, fraudulent cheques or money order scams, and much more. In all cases, money changes hand, and it needs to be funnelled back to the scammers in a way that will hide its origins.

To this end, the scammers recruit often unsuspecting people who are a bit naive, unscrupulous and often greedy. The offer normally comes in the form of someone being an agent for a company, collecting payments and sending them.

Scammers infest Virtual worlds: SecondLife pyramid schemes and EVE Online investment scams

Submitted by Khalid on

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Over the years, I have written on various internet scams, including advance fee fraud, classified ads forged cheques, winning the lottery, and more. It is sad to see a lot of people fall victims to them, either out of ignorance, desperation and/or greed.

Just like the real world, virtual worlds are now the targets of scammers. Players of both EVE Online and SecondLife have suffered from scammers. This includes several investment scams on EVE Online, and a more recent SecondLife pyramid scheme.

Internet Scam: UN Contractor in Iraq finds millions of dollars

Submitted by Khalid on

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Here is another scam. This criminal claims that he is a contractor for the UN in Baghdad, Iraq, and that he found $65 million US dollars, and want help to move the money. 

From    Michael <amark215@yahoo.com>
reply-to    mix215@yahoo.com,
date    Nov 25, 2007 5:19 PM
subject    Can I Trust You ?Wait Your Reply   
   
   
Greetings,

Craiglist scam: criminals posing as police detectives "confiscate/sieze" goods

Submitted by Khalid on

Another unusual scam, is when someone advertised tools for sale on Craigslist on behalf of someone else.

A couple of people call and set an appointment to see the tools. They then claim that they are detectives and that they have to sieze the tools.

The victim is perplexed and does not ask for an I.D., and even helps loading the tools in the van. They then try to take some other tools from his garage, but he says this is his.

So, the less is to ask for an I.D. if this happens to you.

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Fake winning: Millenium Scientific Computer Game

Submitted by Khalid on

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This is yet another example of an email scam claiming that you won a prize.

In order to lower suspicion, they mention that there are no tickets to buy and only your email is used. This is to preempt the question: "how can I win a lottery when I did not buy a ticket?"

From: emones deprts <estonmeskromes@web.de>

Dear Beneficiary,

Hoax web site: Marry Our Daughter

Submitted by Khalid on

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Marry our daughter is an American web site that claims it is a referral service for those wanting to marry young girls.

They say that their "service" centers on the fact that it is legal under US law to marry young girls (aged 14 to 16) with the consent of their parent or guardian.

Moreover, they advertise a set bride price for each girl ranging from $20,000 to $50,000. They even stress that the practice of the bride price is biblical and that the entire site is driven by

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