This arrived today. Needless to say, I replied immediately.

Dear Friend,

This is to notify you that all our customer about the latest development concerning all the payment that are left in our custody, which yours are inclusive beside your.Our Money Gram office is now offering for 2017 to help all our customer to received they funds which you will be picked up and $5000usd per day.Here is what we need from you to complete the transfer immediately you received it today,

Telephone.............................. Occupation............................ Copy of id.............................

Bellow is your first payment for $5000usd sent today in your name.

Track View Website link:
https://secure.moneygram.com/track

Transfer Static: Amount Transferred: Transfer Sending Fee $184: First Transfer:..............$5000.00 Money Transfer Control Number [MTCN (#69133972) Sender's First Name: Joiner Sender's Last Name: ike

Receivers Name:......... Jim Amechi Country/City:.........Benin Republic Test Question:........what Answer: ..........city Amount:.........$184usd

Dear Beneficiary, Your mtcn of 5000usd is showing available for pick up

REGARDS,

Mrs.Stone Sharon

Manager Director for Money Gram California USA. Office Tel:+22998216753 Customer Service: Tel(601) 401-1953 Text or Call SMS

Ha!

You're going to collect, right? Think how much poser stuff you could get.

RedPhantom posted at 8:04PM Fri, 10 March 2017 - #4299087

You're going to collect, right? Think how much poser stuff you could get.

I know. What could possibly go wrong? I mean, such a professionally written letter just has to be the real deal.

This is craziness! This scam goes back to the mid 90's ... (before that it was a post card saying you have won a prize ... all you have to do is varify you credit card number!!)

This scam is centuries old.

One interesting constant is $5000. This was the default award or benefit in the 1950s and hasn't been adjusted for inflation since.

ockham posted at 11:26PM Fri, 10 March 2017 - #4299099

This scam is centuries old.

One interesting constant is $5000. This was the default award or benefit in the 1950s and hasn't been adjusted for inflation since.

Indeed. What made me laugh about this one is, it must be the most atrociously unprofessional I've seen yet. After all this time you'd think they'd be a bit better at it.

Saw this on youtube the other day

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QdPW8JrYzQ >

Always wanted to do stuff like that.

Never thought Sharon Stone would do something like this. ????

It says Mrs stoned Sharon, Perhaps if she weren't that stoned, she would have written a better scam er... offer.

I just read on another forum that these emails are deliberately bad to weed out all but the rubes. That way, there's less chance of the scammers getting burned.

RedPhantom posted at 4:52AM Sat, 11 March 2017 - #4299104

Saw this on youtube the other day

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QdPW8JrYzQ

Always wanted to do stuff like that.

I highly recommend all of James Veitch's videos, lots of hilarious scam-baiting.

I had a friend ( a very dumb friend) scammed with something similar on Craigslist when he tried to sell a guitar. The scam is that someone sends you a message that they want to buy your item, then they send you a check for $2000 and claim that it was a mistake. They instruct you to cash the check for $2000 and send back the difference and the item you were selling. My friend almost got arrested at the bank for trying to cash the check. My friend also believes in Bigfoot, UFO's, chem trails and voted for trump so pretty easy to see why he got scammed.

There just pinging computers so if you open the email then they have pinged your computer.

RorrKonn posted at 12:43PM Sun, 12 March 2017 - #4299180

There just pinging computers so if you open the email then they have pinged your computer.

No. For lots of reasons, just no.

ghostship2 posted at 12:48PM Sun, 12 March 2017 - #4299154

I had a friend ( a very dumb friend) scammed with something similar on Craigslist when he tried to sell a guitar. The scam is that someone sends you a message that they want to buy your item, then they send you a check for $2000 and claim that it was a mistake. They instruct you to cash the check for $2000 and send back the difference and the item you were selling. My friend almost got arrested at the bank for trying to cash the check. My friend also believes in Bigfoot, UFO's, chem trails and voted for trump so pretty easy to see why he got scammed.

:D

I had a friend ( a very dumb friend) scammed with something similar on Craigslist when he tried to sell a guitar. The scam is that someone sends you a message that they want to buy your item, then they send you a check for $2000 and claim that it was a mistake. They instruct you to cash the check for $2000 and send back the difference and the item you were selling. My friend almost got arrested at the bank for trying to cash the check. My friend also believes in Bigfoot, UFO's, chem trails and voted for trump so pretty easy to see why he got scammed.

Don't be too harsh on your friend, I've got scammed by telephone by someone who was claiming she was from microsoft, before I realized it was a scam, they got into my computer and locked it. I have always said this would never happen to me, but it did. I switch down my computer, but the damage was already done, and the only solution was to erase my harddrive and reinstall windows, I lost a couple of months work inspite of having a backup. My IQ is more than average but i'm a little too trustfull from time to time. I was called several times after that occasion with the same nonsense, but I never trapped again. I had a call with microsoft about this, but they said they would never contact me like this. It was a hard lesson, I always have a good virusscanner, a firewall, I always throw away nigerian emails but I never expected something like this. So be warned.

best regards,

Bopper

BTW . I would never have voted for Trump.

I've had various friends hit like bopper and none of them are stupid people. As well as the MS scam, some fell foul of the scammers pretending to be the persons ISP. Especially Talk-Talk which had a whole bunch of account numbers stolen.

Also interesting is how the scammers are changing tactics. Instead of trying to max out the victims card, I've seen it where the scammer setups a "Recurring Visa Transaction", also called a "Continuous Payment Authority". Whats clever here is the amounts are not that high, something like 19.99 a month, an amount that many people would miss.

Until recently, it was a real struggle to get many UK banks to cancel such things. Main excuse was only the company could cancel the transaction. Or recurring transactions are linked to the bank account not the card.

The other thing to note is what the scammers do to a machine once they get access. Not just the obvious like disabling AV/security, but also damaging the registry. They do that so you can't run things like regedit, change any windows security settings and make sure system restore won't work. Even if you go into safe-mode the damage is really severe and usually the safest bet is backup data (they don't usually touch that) hard format the machine and reinstall everything from scratch.

Times may be tough at the White House. In the past week I've had several scam emails from Melania Trump. You'd think she'd have better ways of raising cash.

My sister-in-law was telling me a friend got a scam call about a grant for starting a business. She knew it was a scam but played along for a bit. Then the caller asked her what business she was wanting to get into. She said selling drugs. He didn't want to give her the money after that.

RedPhantom posted at 3:12PM Mon, 20 March 2017 - #4299699

My sister-in-law was telling me a friend got a scam call about a grant for starting a business. She knew it was a scam but played along for a bit. Then the caller asked her what business she was wanting to get into. She said selling drugs. He didn't want to give her the money after that.

Awesome. :D

One part of handling that sort of thing, on the telephone, is to have the strength of will to put the telephone down on the call instead of trying to bring the conversation to a goodbye.

Anthony Appleyard posted at 12:17AM Sun, 02 April 2017 - #4301215

One part of handling that sort of thing, on the telephone, is to have the strength of will to put the telephone down on the call instead of trying to bring the conversation to a goodbye.

Fortunately for me, I have that strength of will. I'm not averse to giving them some very forceful instructions involving sex and travel, too.

You'd be surprised how many scammers there are out there. Being a Private Investigator I get to see the less obvious stuff, too.

Those 'Bank of Uganda' style scams as we call them, have been doing the rounds for some time. But what might surprise you even more, is that leaks are made as to the reasons intentionally. This is to pull you into a false sense of security. For example, Sam reads that they are intentionally bad to weed out all but the rubes. But look at it another way, which might not be so obvious at first glance. After reading such a thing, someone needing the cash bad enough, will try to scam the scammers, thinking they have the upper hand in the matter by pretending to be dumb. I can tell you it hardly ever pays off for those trying to scam the scammers. The scammers nearly always win no matter what society in general would have you believe.

I know of at least three scammers on these forums alone, thankfully all now banned from here, they used to haunt these and other forums on a regular basis. The member 'Visionist', who we codenamed 'Bluebottle' and cautioned over five years ago, was a professional stalker, blackmailer etc. The member 'Aramaxus', who we codenamed 'Danger Mouse' and caught around the same time, was part of an extortion racket. The member 'Pumeco', a charmer we codenamed 'Silk Tongue' and cautioned a few days back, has his very own darknet-based mafia of sorts. An interesting thing about Aramaxus was his method, and his hacking skills. He would use a single, constantly changing handle to hide his practices. I know some serious hackers who to this day, still have no clue as to how he managed to work some of the stuff he pulled off.

Then you have the 'trust' scams as we call them, which appear to be the most common right now. These are where your trust is gained. You are then put in a position of responsibility, and the scam is pulled. There is always a reason you become the one responsible for any 'damages' they shall seek. That, right there, is the scam in a nutshell. The scam that Sam has encountered in his email, would technically be considered a hybrid of the two.

Now I could tell people to stay away from scams, but the truth of the matter is, even the smartest of us are easy pickings for some of the scammers out there. I've never been scammed myself, but I'm quite prepared to accept that it's only a matter of time until it happens.

Hmmm...

Maybe things are different where you are but I thought the rule of Fight Club was you don't talk about Fight Club.

Now then Sam, you're right of course but I did sign up here on April 1st.

Yeah, it's pumeco here, just thought I'd visit old friends, see how everyone's doing and perhaps cause a little friendly chaos as well

Anyway, before I get banned again, I have to ask, do ever upload stuff you perform with that axe of yours? I saw a street performer with an axe just like that a few weeks back, he was performing the video at the link ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJS3xnD7Mus

Sounded absolutely great and the shoppers were definitely impressed.

Great song, very catchy played with mild distortion!

Nah, that ain't me. I don't do street playing. Anyhow, it has to be the most generic guitar in the world; a red Fender Strat. Mine has been slightly modified but not so as you could tell from a glance.

Guitarist's joke follows:

At the Fender owner's club, three guys are discussing their guitars. One says, "I call mine Thunder, because it's black and rumbles like a huge storm when I play".

The next guy says, "Mine is called Lightning because it's white and bright and I can play it so incredibly fast, you can see sparks flying".

They turn and look at the third guy, who is looking rather embarrassed, shuffling his feet, gazing at the floor.

"Well", they say, "you have a name for yours?"

"Yeah, I have", he replies in a very quiet voice. "It's called Clitoris".

"What?! You're kidding! Why the hell would you call it that?" the other two ask in astonishment.

"Ummm, well, it's, erm, well, it's because it's red and every c*nt's got one".

(In Brit vernacular, the above denotes an extremely commonplace thing, just in case the joke doesn't translate)