Look at this spam email I just recieved! (1 Viewer)

[James~P]

"Dear PayPal member,

We regret to inform you that your account is about to be expired in next five business days. To avoid suspension of your account you have to reactivate it by providing us with your personal information.

To update your personal profile and continue using PayPal services you have to run the attached application to this email. Just run it and follow the instructions.

IMPORTANT! If you ignore this alert, your account will be suspended in next five business days and you will not be able to use PayPal anymore.

Thank you for using PayPal.


hsahpuip"


I'm not even a PayPal member! LOL!


I hate computer viruses, especially ones like this that aren't even clever.

 

[Bob Turnbull]

Apparently the attachments in this email are a variant of the mimail worm. Running them would harvest your email addresses, etc.

Delete, delete, delete...

 

[Christ Reynolds]

we live in sad times when trusty ol' "hsahpuip" has stooped this low.

CJ

 

[James~P]

Silly hsahpuip. :frowning:

 

[Bob Graz]

I got the same e-mail twice at work today. Others I know received it as well. I didn't open the attachment since I don't have a paypal account making the note very suspicious. I deleted immediately.

 

[Kevin P]

Click here for Symantec's writeup on W32.Mimail.J@mm, the latest variant going around. It's now a category 3, so it's spreading faster than the prior version.

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

I actually stood there and watched as a friend followed the link (which of course diaplyed as paypal, but linked to something quite different)- and watched her type in her username and password.

I was in complete disbelief and was shocked so deeply I couldnt get word out before she submit. I quickly explained to her what she had done, and she was able to promptly change her password-- but I'm wondering how many hundreds of people actually fall for this stuff.

-vince

 

[John Thomas]

is about to be expired in next five business days

These hacks seem to have poor skills in using the langauge as well. I've received several of these scams and spotted most of them due to their errors.

 

[Dick]

This same sort of message links to a phoney eBay site. Damned insidious, and I can't believe that, with all their technology for tracking down internet criminals, the law can't seem to catch and shut down these assholes. I would guess that MANY people fall for this, despite bad English and grammer, because not everyone is a computer geek or savvy in the ways of identity thieves. And many persons who are victimized by this type of deception are probably those with less understanding of the language than the shitheads who perpetrate it.

 

[Casey Trowbridg]

People pray on the fact that most people that use a computer aren't computer savy. Anyone remember an email that circulated a few years ago telling you to delete sulfnbk.exe or something like that?

This email reminded me of another 1 of my favorites, though this is more a hoax than anything else, but 1 that said something about hotmail going broke and requiring people to pay for the account.

 

[LewB]

I got it too and sent it to [email protected] I got a note back from paypal (the REAL one) saying that they were investigating. I figured it was a hoax since I had just used my paypal account the day before and it was sent to my work E-mail and I have never given my work e-mail to paypal.

 

[Rob Gillespie]

I was in complete disbelief and was shocked so deeply I couldnt get word out before she submit

Well, she's now infected and is most likely sending the mail out to everyone on her address book.

 

[Shawn C]

I got one of those PayPal/EBay scam e-mails the other day. They asked for all kinds of questions, like what was my bank account number, what my routing number was, what my SSN was, all kinds of crazy stuff.

It amazes me that people actually type in this information and send it off.

 

[Matt Gordon]

Would you believe this?


Dear Internet User:

We regret to inform you that your Internet account is about to be expired in next five business days. To avoid suspension of your account you have to reactivate it by providing us with your personal information.

To update your personal profile and continue to be connected to the Internet you have to run the attached application to this email. Just run it and follow the instructions.

IMPORTANT! If you ignore this alert, your account will be suspended in next five business days and you will not be able to use your computer.

Thank you for being online.

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

rob,

Huh? It wasn't an exe, and didn't install anything on the local machine. It was just a form setup to steal cc numbers & paypal accounts (I checked the HTML code- all simple clean stuff that was just there to look like a paypal page, and allow you to submit your login).

The virus that sends that kind of mail (if it is even distributed that way, I'm not even sure it is-- seems unlikely but who knows) would likely not be spread using a web submitform. In fact- I knwo of no code way to infect a machine by using a submit form, without the user getting install prompts...

-Vince

 

[Chet_F]

Yea, this makes the REAL emails harder to differentiate.

 

[Seth--L]

Nothing beats:

Dear sir

We want to transfer to overseas the sum of One hundred and Forty Two Million United States Dollars (U.S.$ 142,000,000.00) from South Africa.

I want to ask you to kindly look for a reliable and honest person who will be capable and fit to provide either an existing bank account or to set up a
new bank account immediately to receive this money, though an empty bank account could serve this purpose as long as you will remain honest to me till the end of this important business trusting in you and believing in God that you will never let me down either now or in time to come.

I am Mr,Kweme Moris the External Auditor of a Bank. During the course of our auditing,I discovered a floating fund in an account opened in the bank in
1990 and since 1993 nobody has operated on this account again.

After going through some old files in the records, I discovered that the owner of the account died without a “Heir apparent to the throne” hence the money is floating and if I do not remit this money out
urgently it will be forfeited for nothing.

The owner of this account who is Mr.Eshed.B.Willey, a foreigner and an industrialist died, since 1990,until now no other person(s) knows about this
account or could give any documentary evidence concerning this account. As such this account has no other beneficiary and my investigation proved to me
as well that Eshed.B.Willey until his death was the manager Oriental Diamond Company,in South Africa.

However, if you are interested in this business we will start the first money transfer with Forty Two Million U.S.Dollars(U.S.$42,000,000.00) upon
successful transaction without any disappointment from you. We shall also re-apply for the payment of the remaining amount to your account.

While the total amount involved is One hundred and Forty Two Million United States Dollars (U.S.$142,000,000.00)only. I would want us to make
a first transfer of [Forty Two Million United States
Dollar.(U.S.$42,000,000.00)from this money into a safe foreigners account abroad before the rest. I am only contacting you as a foreigner because this
money can not be approved to a local account, without valid international foreign “Agreement”, but could only be approved to any foreigner with valid international credentials: passport or drivers license and foreign account because this sum is in U.S. dollars and the former owner of the account Mr.Eshed.B.Willey is a foreigner too, thus
the money could only be approved into a foreign account.

However, knowing all this,we will reach a binding agreement in this regards. As a matter of urgency,I will inform you the next step to take, while you
Send your private telephone and fax number including the full details of the account to be used for the deposit.

I want us to meet face to face to build confidence and to sign a binding agreement that will bind us together before transferring the money to any
account of your choice where the fund will be safe. Before we fly to your country for withdrawal, sharing and investments,I need your full co-operation to make this business a success, because the management is
ready to approve this payment to any foreigner who has
correct information of this account, which I will give to you,upon your positive response and once I am convinced that you are capable and will meet up with the instructions of a key bank official who is deeply involved with me in this business. I need your strong assurance that you
will never let me down.

With my influence and the position in the bank we can transfer this money to any foreigner's reliable account which you can provide with assurance that
this money will be intact pending our physical
arrival in your country for sharing.

And to build confidence that you can come immediately to discuss with me face to face after which I will make this remittance in your presence and
three of us will fly to your country at least two days ahead of the money going into the account.

I will apply for annual leave to get visa immediately I hear from you that you are ready to act as I directed.

To prove the authenticity of the business I will use my position and influence to obtain all legal approvals for onward transfer of this money to
your account with appropriate clearance from the relevant ministries, foreign exchange departments, embassy and Board of Internal Revenue Services.

At the conclusion of this business, you will be given 35% of the total amount, 60% will be for me, while 5% will be for expenses both parties might have incurred during this process.

I look forward to your earliest reply through my email address.

Yours truly,


Kweme Moris.


#13 Kweme Estate.
Johannesburg
South Africa.

 

[Tim Hoover]

Seth, LOL...if Mr. Willey died in 1990 and nobody else knew the account even existed, then how the hell did activity take place until 1993?

Matt, also very funny. It not only kills your internet connection, but apparently kills your PC completely

Instant classics...both of them

On the subject of spam, the one that really annoys me is the "refinance your home" one. Yeah, like I'm gonna take out a $50K+ loan with a company who sends spam complete w/ fake return addys...

 

[Bill Williams]

I'm with LewB. I got it at work yesterday as well, and I have my PayPal account set up through my home e-mail. I just pasted the text of the e-mail, along with the link to the bogus PayPal link, and sent it to the real PayPal, and I got a really nice e-mail from the PayPal support team saying that they would investigate.

And at least once a day I get another song-and-dance variant on the "bank scam" e-mail, from Lagos, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, you name it. They're all variants on the 4-1-9 scam from Africa. Those automatically get deleted.

Now if you want to check out a very funny take on the 4-1-9 scam e-mail, go to TheForce.net. There's a really hilarious spoof in which it was "sent" by Bib Fortuna where he's wanting to share the bounty of his late master's assets - even in death, Jabba got the bucks! I don't know if it's still on the site, you'd have to do some searching, but it's pretty darn funny!