Scams like these

[mel-world]

Got an email from Dropbox a day or so ago with a link to a .pdf file claiming to be an invoice from some company I had never heard of. Although I use Dropbox a lot, I was never going to click the link and just sent it to the Spam folder and thought nothing more of it. However, a colleague has reported opening a similar link and now has his computer compromised. Has anyone else had a similar experience - not exactly spam, more an inventive way to introduce malware.

 

[wandering_fred]

I seem to get a couple of emails/day-week referencing a google dot docs document - mostly saying that there is important information I should look at..... Not going to happen Though I am tempted to fire up the UNIX machine with an account with no authority just to see what would happen.

Just wandering
Fred

 

[prozac]

Got an email from Dropbox a day or so ago with a link to a .pdf file claiming to be an invoice from some company I had never heard of. ....

I have received alot of these lately. You are right, never open an attached file or click a link from someone you do not know and be careful about unusual phrasing or requests from contacts you do know as they might have been attacked and email sent out to all of their contacts. e.g. Your friend's recent infection. BTW he will need to run diagnostic tools in "safe mode".

 

[andye]

I am on the committee of a junior rugby club and not infrequently receive emails from other members asking me to urgently authorise payments. They are usually in good English but are generic and just sound 'wrong'. I expect websites of various organisations are being scraped via an automatic script

 

[OZDUCK]

I got this today. It is supposedly from some Canadian finance group. I don't even know what a BMO is. The bit I like is that March is 'the month of fraud prevention!'.

Only 24 hours left to activate BMO

The deadline is almost here: March 3 at 1 p.m. EST is the very last moment to activate your BMO for 2019 and avoid termination.

Act now in March, the month of fraud prevention! It takes just five minutes.

xx_xx_xx_X

 

[Major]

Greetings,
We wish to notify you again that your name was mentioned as heir to the sum of 750,000.00 sterling pounds. In the last testament of our deceased client name now withed. I and my Heir Hunters Debt Recovery Unit team of the detectives, we are assisting distant relatives of people who have died with or without making any official will.

As the heir hunter's team of detective, the race is now on for us to track down the often distant relatives in line for a windfall. We came across your profile and email while searching through genealogy database. Note as the heir hunters our aim is to assist people claim their lost relative fortune instead of the government or Bank MDS to use the money to in enrich their treasury. Please send an acknowledgment email to enable us process your inheritance with all due verification process.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Representative

Faithfully,

Admin
United Kingdom

 

[OZDUCK]

Greetings,
We wish to notify you again that your name was mentioned as heir to the sum of 750,000.00 sterling pounds. In the last testament of our deceased client name now withed. I and my Heir Hunters Debt Recovery Unit team of the detectives, we are assisting distant relatives of people who have died with or without making any official will.

As the heir hunter's team of detective, the race is now on for us to track down the often distant relatives in line for a windfall. We came across your profile and email while searching through genealogy database. Note as the heir hunters our aim is to assist people claim their lost relative fortune instead of the government or Bank MDS to use the money to in enrich their treasury. Please send an acknowledgment email to enable us process your inheritance with all due verification process.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Representative

Faithfully,

Admin
United Kingdom

The 'Heir Hunters Debt Recovery Unit' sounds like a great idea for a reality TV show. Far more interesting than moving to the country or watching someone buy abandoned goods. Of course it could also be a series of films starring Tom Cruise.

 

[JessicaTam]

The 'Heir Hunters Debt Recovery Unit' sounds like a great idea for a reality TV show. Far more interesting than moving to the country or watching someone buy abandoned goods. Of course it could also be a series of films starring Tom Cruise.

I was thinking the exact same thing. Great idea for a TV show.

 

[drron]

Mary Benson from the dept of finance Benin tells me that the government plans to steal my $US1500000 fund in Benin.
Crikey my CRAFT disease must be really bad as I have no memory of that fund even though I have been to Benin.

 

[serfty]

CRAFT disease must be really bad as I have no memory of that fund even though I have been to Benin.

In that case you deserve to have it confiscated ...

 

[Nerdnotgeek]

Hey there!Yours received swap transmission :1DD140DD894DF6 reimbursement account money lump sum $298.92 support look inspection cover rhwwpnb-pxmvjlix tub tl zpnenc inmvzhonju


... Seems legit , I think , not totally sure as I cant interpret some of it ! lol

 

[QF WP]

New take (not the usual Nigerian one):

I am Gu Kailai, Wife of Former China Leader Bo Xilai, I have a huge sum of amount to give to Charity.

Reply me for more details, if you are interested in helping me disbursing the sum to Charity on my behalf.

Reply to my private email

 

[drron]

New take (not the usual Nigerian one):

Go for it.I reckon I could hustle a couple of hundred AFFers to become registered charities.

 

[QF WP]

I'd only be worried about the Chinese Mafia

 

[OZDUCK]

Another 'Canadian' one. Spelling not up to scratch.

Starting Friday the 15th of March 2019,
ATB Financial is proud to announce that our new online banking platform has been made more secure and efficient.

Needless to say that in order to be able to fully integrate this platform, we had to implement monthly fees for all our clients in order to have access to online banking.

Fortunately, as a sign of gratitude towards our clients, you have been selected and are eligible to keep on using your online access free of charge without any other additional fees.

In order to do so, all that is required from you is to enroll immediately to our online ATB Financial update program by updating your personal informations with us.

TELUS gives you more

The link attached goes to 'Rosewood Products'.

 

[JohnK]

Lucky you, only 3-5 a day. I am currently receiving 30+ daily!

....

Any techies here that can offer advice?

I used to get 30+ spam emails a day and I updated my spam filters by creating rules with certain keywords such as "Bitcoin" and I'm now at the stage where I've received 9 spam emails in the past 22 days. Some still get through.

 

[prozac]

I used to get 30+ spam emails a day and I updated my spam filters by creating rules with certain keywords such as "Bitcoin" and I'm now at the stage where I've received 9 spam emails in the past 22 days. Some still get through.

I have a different approach John and today I received another successful response. This domain took me about 20 minutes to track down from the front that was listed on WhoIs and full credit to the host "NameCheap" as they dug a little further. Their response today;

Hello prozac,

This is to inform you that the shaleburton.icu domain was suspended. It has been placed on the clientHold status and locked to prevent modifications in our system.

Thank you for letting us know about the issue.
------------------------
Regards,
xx_x
Legal & Abuse Department
Namecheap.com

For those of you who have been receiving these scams from a '.icu' address, they may have ended for a little while.

 

[prozac]

Since I got that domain suspended on Friday my scam email count has gone from 30/day to zero. I don't expect this will last long as the scammers eventually set up a new domain with another host. Has anyone else noticed a drop in scam emails?

 

[Cossie]

I've stopped receiving the spams with the spelling mistakes, i.e., double letters in lot's of words.



Well I had until just now, and they have a copy of all the adult sites I have visited and camera footage taken of me enjoying said sites......

Must have been asleep as I seemed to have missed all the fun.

"Wee hackeed youur account"

 

[sinophile888]

I have received a number of odd calls. Today from this number: 0267229037. It is a woman's voice speaking Mandarin. What is the scam here?