Only just recently I’ve been contacted by Mikhail Khodorkovski’s personal secretary in order to help cash in a fund. Shortly after that two other mails tumbled in my inbox. One from Serge Kargbo from Benin and an other one we’re pulling a joke with right now, so I can’t name him/her yet. Point of this post : apparently 419ers have gone a step further and now Google their ‘prospects’. Doing so, they obtain info such as chat-names on hotmail or AIM, or Skype contact listing. Now they start bothering you by e-Phone, and chat-client too.
[IrishEyes] writes on his TypePad :
“KILKENNY — One mark of arriving on the fringes of the searchable internet is that along with Google finding out who you are and Yahoo automagically putting you into set categories is that the spammers get to know and share your business too. Summer 2005 is the first time I’ve been addressed by name by Nigerian 419 spammers. It’s part an honour and a curse.
The 419ers also have my Skype and Yahoo Messenger details so I’m getting cold calls that I can block with the software. It’s a bit of a bother and also a rite of passage. Fortunately, the technology is a half-step ahead of the spammers and I can control the unwanted noise.”
Through [Findory]
So beware. — But… you can also join the fun :)
419 Eater The ScamBaiters
“What is scambaiting? Well, put simply, you enter into a dialogue with scammers, simply to waste their precious time and resources. Whilst you are doing this, you will be helping to keep the scammers away from real potential victims.
It doesn’t matter if you are new to this ’sport’ or a hardened veteran; if you’re wasting the time of a scammer, or frustrating them in any way, well that’s good enough for us.”
If you’d like to, and IF you feel prepared, you can join in because, coincidentally :
MIKHAIL KHODORKOVSKY MIGHT NEED YOU TOO