How Stupid Do They Think I Am?

Here is an oldie that still seems to be catching people.  I got this from someone today and just rolled my eyes at it. Then decided it was well worth sharing here.

According to Snopes this e-mail has been in circulation in one form or another since 1997. Snopes has a notice from Microsoft about the hoax. Another good source that explains how it gets people to forward the letter can be found at Ohio State University.

The email that I got had been sent to 13 people, one of those sent it to 6 people, and one of them sent it to 26 people, and one of them sent it to me and 8 others…. that is a backtrack to 55 people that e-mail was sent to, including the original sender.

This does not account for how many of the 54 people that original sender sent it to also sent the e-mail to, nor does it account for how many had got it before them. This is just one chain tracing back from me to the person three levels up on the chain of this SPAM e-mail.

This is the e-mail as I received it. It is a hoax. It has been around since 1997 and no one has ever been paid a penny for forwarding it, much less over $200, and certainly not over $10,000.

Break the chain, do not forward things like this. At least not without researching them first.
____________________________

Ladies and Gentlemen:
This is not hoax. Please scroll down. Ok guys, my lawyer’s paralegal sent this one to me and if it doesn’t work, they are aware that we all will be coming to visit them for a law suit for false advertisement! J

THIS TOOK TWO PAGES OF THE TUESDAY USA TODAY – IT IS FOR REAL

If she says that this will work – It will work. After all, What have you got to lose? I’m an attorney, And I know the law. This thing is for real. Rest assured AOL and Intel will follow through with their promises for fear of facing a multimillion-dollar class action suit similar to the one filed by Pepsi Co against General Electric not too long a go.



Dear Friends: Please do not take this for a junk letter. Bill Gates sharing his fortune. If you ignore this, You will repent later.
Microsoft and AOL are now the largest Internet companies and in an effort to make sure that Internet Explorer remains the most widely used program, Microsoft and AOL are running an e-mail beta test.

When you forward this e-mail to friends, Microsoft can and will track it (If you are a Microsoft Windows user) For a two weeks time period.

For every person that you forward this e-mail to, Microsoft will pay you $245.00 For every person that you sent it to that forwards it on, Microsoft will pay you $243.00 and for every third person that receives it, You will be paid $241.00. Within two weeks, Microsoft will contact
you for your address and then send you a check.

Regards. Charles S Bailey Genera l Manager Field Operations

1-800-842-2332 Ext.. 1085 or 904-1085 or RNX 292-1085



Thought this was a scam myself, But two weeks after receiving this e-mail and for warding it on..
Microsoft contacted me for my address and within days, I received a check for $24,800.00 .
You need to respond before the beta testing is over. If anyone can afford this, Bill Gates is the man.

It’s all marketing expense to him. Please forward this to as many people as possible. You are bound to get at least $10, 000.00

We’re not going to help them out with their e-mail beta test without getting a little something for our time.
My brother’s girlfriend got in on this a few months ago. When I went to visit him for the Baylor/UT

game, she showed me her check. It was for the sum of $4, 324.44 and was stamped ‘Paid I n Full’.

____________________________

These guys got a good head shake from me as I was sorting things out this morning. The blue ‘net’ was a link to some ineedfinancialhelp dot net site. I am not even going to bother visiting these guys’ site because I think their last note is the best advice they give – there are a lot of scams on the internet.

My main red flag here? Sent to “undisclosed recipients” when the guy says that he got my information from somewhere online and is worried about me in particular. Secondary: A fast Google brought up a number of warnings about the site.

The hands down BEST is from Jana’s MySpace Blog where she recounts her narrow escape from these guys. Thank you, Jana, for sharing your experience. I’m glad to hear you evaded them and proved vigilant to their scams.

Hi,
I am Getty i saw your Ad In net And Decided To Contact You.I fell victim of scams in the internet twice after losing $8,000 before i was referred by a friend in Canada,that she got her loan of $30,000usd from a reliable and trust worthy loan company based in the United Kingdom,i doubted and refused to believe her,until she showed me the mtcn slips she use in having her loans..i was convinced and i applied for loans in Harry James loan company.He is very reliable and a God fearing man,he assured me and i got my loan under three days, Since then i have invited lots of my friends who are desperately in need to contact the loan company via e-mail:harryjamesloans@gmail.com and non have had cause to regret.Don’t be deceived by scams in the internet, they are legit and real,there are alot of scams in the internet

I’m not sure what these nitwits are after, but they are targeting AOL AIM users.

_________________________________________________

Dear AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) user,

Your AIM account is flagged as inactive. Within the following 72 hours it’ll be deleted from the system.

If you plan to use this account in the future, you have to download and launch the latest update for the AIM. This update is critical.

In order to install the update use the following link. This link is generated exclusively for your account and is available within a certain period of time. As soon as this link is not available anymore you will get another letter.

Thank you,

AIM Service Team

This e-mail has been sent from an e-mail address that is not monitored. Please do not reply to this message. We are unable to respond to any replies.

_________________________________________________

I’ve got this one with a multitude of different subject lines, both to AOL and AIM and saying everything from download critical update to telling me my account will be deleted.

First off, folks, if you have an AIM or AOL account, open your account as you normally do, NOT using this email’s link!!!!

One you are logged in look for the help links and they’ll guide you to if there are any updates. In my experience with AIM, they generally tell me when it needs updated as soon as I open it and I can choose to update or not.

Good ways to spot this scammer – most companies tend to send notices to the email they have on file for you. BIG flag there. They also tend to host their updates on their own website, not something that looks like…

http://update.aol.com.terfkiof.com.pl/products/aimController.php?code=……..

Oh goody, I get to help  “Mr. Duke” handle his investment portfolio… how much you wanna bet I’d lose my life savings if I did?

The following is an e-mail I got today from a “Mark Duke Esq.” wanting me to help him with “repatriating the funds and property left behind by my late client”.  What does he need for this?

My name, phone, fax, address, occupation and age…

Hmmm… isn’t that the kind of things that are needed for identity theft?  Why does he need that information anyway?  If he is having me help with a legitimate “repatriating” then he should know who I am and everything – right?

It don’t help his case that he sent it through a e-mail I know for a fact adult XXX e-mailers have got in their directories.  Not exactly the most trusted contact means.

This one’s another scam.  If you’re lucky all you’ll lose is your life savings, but I’m thinking they are more interested in taking your identity with this one.  Delete it, and any like it, and don’t let them sucker ya.

Greetings,

I am Barrister Mark Duke.I am reaching out to you as regards the handling of an investment portfolio.

I am soliciting your assistance in repatriating the funds and property left behind by my late client before it is confiscated by the government
and declared unserviceble by the bank where the huge deposit is lodged.

My Client died intestate and every attempt to trace any member of his family has proved unsuccessful and abortive. Do note that your identity or
country of origin does not matter.

I will give you more information upon your response. You should respond by
sending the following:

1. Your full names

2. Tel & fax numbers

3. Complete Address

4.Your occupation and your Age

If Interested Please Reply me Via my
PrivateEmail:markdukeesq2008@yahoo.com.hk

I humbly look forward to your soonest response.

Yours Faithfully,
Mark Duke Esq.
London, U.K

I got another letter from the Domain Renewal Group. Those of you who have been here before have probably seen me complain about this scam in an older post about them (posted here). They are one group I would not mind seeing go belly up, or shut down by the BBB or someone. They target people that own their own domain and send them letters that … well, I wish my camera was working, because this letter should be seen. I’ll try to replicate the header information… Oh… let me see if I can get my scanner to work…

Here we go, took a few, but I have scanned the latest letter I got from them and blacked out any personally identifiable information. Click on the thumbnail to see the 800×1023 pixel image so you can (I hope) read what they send people.

For those of you who can’t view the image, or just don’t want to, it opens by saying:

As a courtesy to domain name holders, we are sending you this notification of the domain name registrations that are due to expire in the next few months.

It then goes on to talk about how when you switch to the Domain Renewal Group you get “our best savings”, this is important, because this is *THEIR* best savings, not *THE* best savings. For example, my favorite domain name registrar Plato Host at www.PlatonicSolid.Info (which is, yes, my brother – transparency in plugging the guy here) he charges $12 for domain name registration, less than half of what this Domain Renewal Group has as their “best price”. And when you talk to him on the phone or in e-mail, you get a very knowledgeable guy that can answer questions in clear easy to understand and hear English – not some outsourced to another country working on a commission English as their third language person who does not know anything other than how to collect your credit card information. You might recall the Confusing Phone Call I got back in June, which lead to another one that made me point out that Domain Name Theft is a Serious Issue and ended out with my conclusion that They Are Persistent, I’ll Give Them That.

Renewal of a domain name for $30 is highway robbery and these guys get away with it because they are sending their letters to people they find on Who Is (I assume that’s how they find people) and catching ones that read the first line, tear off the bottom of the letter and send it in to renew the website. Websites that in the cases I have got were not even due for 6 months or more.

Don’t let them catch you in a scam and sucker you into paying twice what you should have to pay for your website.  If they are not really less than your normal hosting company put that letter in the paper shredder or your fireplace.  And if they are cheaper than your hosting company shred or burn their letter and look for someone like Plato Host to work with instead.