|
|
02-11-2012, 09:05 AM
|
#1
|
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Chicago
Posts: 1,154
|
strange e-mail
Does anybody get weird e-mail from places like Nigeria or Ghana saying they have fortunes for you. I don't open these but it is a little disconcerting to me. I am wondering why I get these and how to stop them. I am thinking I get these because I look at financial sites. Does anybody else get these and if so is there a way to stop them?
|
|
|
|
Join the #1 Early Retirement and Financial Independence Forum Today - It's Totally Free!
Are you planning to be financially independent as early as possible so you can live life on your own terms? Discuss successful investing strategies, asset allocation models, tax strategies and other related topics in our online forum community. Our members range from young folks just starting their journey to financial independence, military retirees and even multimillionaires. No matter where you fit in you'll find that Early-Retirement.org is a great community to join. Best of all it's totally FREE!
You are currently viewing our boards as a guest so you have limited access to our community. Please take the time to register and you will gain a lot of great new features including; the ability to participate in discussions, network with our members, see fewer ads, upload photographs, create a retirement blog, send private messages and so much, much more!
|
02-11-2012, 09:11 AM
|
#2
|
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Cavalier
Posts: 2,317
|
__________________
"Don't take life so serious, son. It ain't nohow permanent." Pogo Possum (Walt Kelly)
|
|
|
02-11-2012, 09:22 AM
|
#3
|
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Chicago
Posts: 1,154
|
Thanks, Nodak, I believe this 419 Eater is the culprit. Now, how do I get them to stop. I am getting something about once a week. I just delete them right away. I am just afraid if they accidently get opened I could get a virus.
|
|
|
02-11-2012, 09:36 AM
|
#4
|
Recycles dryer sheets
Join Date: Dec 2010
Posts: 445
|
Hmmm....I got them for years before I started looking at financial websites, and actually think I get fewer now.
|
|
|
02-11-2012, 09:41 AM
|
#5
|
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: May 2006
Location: west coast, hi there!
Posts: 8,809
|
On Yahoo mail I regularly check the SPAM folder and clean it out. Once in awhile I'll find an email I do not consider spam in the folder. Probably get around 5 per day in there. Most for sex stuff -- and no, I don't visit sex sites. Have gotten plenty of "UPS missed delivery" and email from banks I don't deal with that supposedly want me to fix something in my account.
|
|
|
02-11-2012, 09:42 AM
|
#6
|
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Jun 2008
Posts: 13,143
|
I don't think they are related to any sites that you visit but more so at random by the spammers. When I see one instead of just deleting them, I mark is as SPAM with my spam filter. That way when the next time I get one, that email should automatically get placed in the spam folder.
__________________
Have you ever seen a headstone with these words
"If only I had spent more time at work" ... from "Busy Man" sung by Billy Ray Cyrus
|
|
|
02-11-2012, 09:53 AM
|
#7
|
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Cavalier
Posts: 2,317
|
419 eater is not where the scam originates. it is dedicated to baiting the people that employ the scam. lots of info on how the scam works.
__________________
"Don't take life so serious, son. It ain't nohow permanent." Pogo Possum (Walt Kelly)
|
|
|
02-11-2012, 10:10 AM
|
#8
|
Recycles dryer sheets
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: philadelphia
Posts: 115
|
I get at least two a day, but most days it is more like five or ten. The letters come from everywhere, but give phone numbers in the UK, Nigeria, or the country of Benin, which is situated right next to Nigeria. They are obviously written by con-artists who are gramatically challenged and always want your vital info. They don't bother me and shouldn't bother you, as long as you don't click on any links in the letters.
While we are on the subject of con-artists that bother people, the ones that bothered me were the ones that would call and tell me that I didn't show up for jury duty when I was called and that they were just trying to keep me from getting arrested. When they called, the caller ID would show the name as "Washington DC" and the number as "1234567890". These scared the hell out of me until I caught onto the scam. There was even an episode on the news a while back about how these con-artists set up call centers in Costa Rica and arrange their telephone connections in such a way so that it would look like they were calling from Washington, DC. Their scam is that you were not called for "federal" jury duty, not local jury duty. After many local phone calls, I found out that there is no such thing as federal jury duty.
|
|
|
02-11-2012, 10:12 AM
|
#9
|
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Nov 2009
Posts: 6,695
|
My ladyfriend gets them all the time. But I very rarely get them. We have the same email provider so any spam filter the provider has would help us out equally, wouldn't it?
She is not on line much but the one website she visits a lot is Facebook (I have no use for that), so I wonder if the spammers can harvest email addresses from there to target recipients.
We get some good laughs from those emails. But the scam emails from the "banks" asking for your login info because your account has been "suspended" are not funny.
I rememver Chris Hansen doing a Dateline NBC piece a few years ago about those con men, trying to catch some in England on camera and make them sweat (which one did, profusely).
__________________
Retired in late 2008 at age 45. Cashed in company stock, bought a lot of shares in a big bond fund and am living nicely off its dividends. IRA, SS, and a pension await me at age 60 and later. No kids, no debts.
"I want my money working for me instead of me working for my money!"
|
|
|
02-11-2012, 10:15 AM
|
#10
|
Administrator
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Chicagoland
Posts: 40,708
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by ripper1
Thanks, Nodak, I believe this 419 Eater is the culprit. Now, how do I get them to stop. I am getting something about once a week. I just delete them right away. I am just afraid if they accidently get opened I could get a virus.
|
Your spam filter should deal with these. It may need to be trained a bit. Can you identify this as spam in the inbox so the mail program learns and filters more effectively?
|
|
|
02-11-2012, 10:22 AM
|
#11
|
Recycles dryer sheets
Join Date: Feb 2011
Posts: 225
|
At some point you should set set up multiple email addresses. I have one I use for business, one to join lists from various organizations that send regular "alerts" or updates to members, and another for Facebook, another for Yahoo and a few other lists. The first one I'd like to keep as clean as possible, so I use it just for important communication and purchases. At some point one or more of these emails may get too much spam and I'll create a replacement, but by segmenting them I only have to update a section of my email list.
|
|
|
02-11-2012, 10:47 AM
|
#12
|
Full time employment: Posting here.
Join Date: Nov 2010
Posts: 628
|
DW was looking for some recipes for something sweet, brown sugar, honey and spice. Google helped her out with some interesting 'dishes' and some spammers attention because she was so 'interesting'.
|
|
|
02-11-2012, 10:48 AM
|
#13
|
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Jan 2008
Posts: 1,671
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by ripper1
Does anybody get weird e-mail from places like Nigeria or Ghana saying they have fortunes for you. I don't open these but it is a little disconcerting to me. I am wondering why I get these and how to stop them. I am thinking I get these because I look at financial sites. Does anybody else get these and if so is there a way to stop them?
|
My email reader (T-Bird) is set to delete any email from an address that is not in my address book.
|
|
|
02-11-2012, 10:56 AM
|
#14
|
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Nov 2009
Posts: 6,695
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by easysurfer
I don't think they are related to any sites that you visit but more so at random by the spammers. When I see one instead of just deleting them, I mark is as SPAM with my spam filter. That way when the next time I get one, that email should automatically get placed in the spam folder.
|
I have found that trying to block the email address does no good because the spammers create unique email addresses for each new spam email. Often the domain name is one from a real business entity which has been hacked.
With my ladyfriend, many of these emails get sent to her "Junk" folder so she can more easily identify them but several get through to her regular email anyway.
__________________
Retired in late 2008 at age 45. Cashed in company stock, bought a lot of shares in a big bond fund and am living nicely off its dividends. IRA, SS, and a pension await me at age 60 and later. No kids, no debts.
"I want my money working for me instead of me working for my money!"
|
|
|
02-11-2012, 11:01 AM
|
#15
|
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Jan 2008
Posts: 1,671
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by scrabbler1
I have found that trying to block the email address does no good because the spammers create unique email addresses for each new spam email. Often the domain name is one from a real business entity which has been hacked.
|
Right, that's why I don't try to block them, just have the reader delete them.
|
|
|
02-11-2012, 11:27 AM
|
#16
|
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 2,049
|
Posting on craigslist also gives you plenty of spam from people who are moving to the area and want to pay for 3 months of rent (plus a little extra to hold it RIGHT NOW). Luckily, craigslist has an anonymous emails.
|
|
|
02-11-2012, 12:04 PM
|
#17
|
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Jun 2008
Posts: 13,143
|
I think a good spam filtering software uses bayesian filtering which "learns" which emails are spam and which are not according to marking them by the person receiving the emails. The software I use is SpamBully (purchased it a few years back), when the spam identifiying wasn't as common. Now it seems the ability to mark email as spam or not if pretty common with email readers. SpamBully uses bayesian filtering which doesn't identify an email as spam by the email address but more by content learning the probability whether the email is spam or not. As time goes by and the program learns, the more accurate it becomes.
The approach is pretty interesting...
http://email.about.com/cs/bayesianfi...ian_filter.htm
__________________
Have you ever seen a headstone with these words
"If only I had spent more time at work" ... from "Busy Man" sung by Billy Ray Cyrus
|
|
|
02-11-2012, 12:30 PM
|
#18
|
Administrator
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: N. Yorkshire
Posts: 34,124
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by easysurfer
I don't think they are related to any sites that you visit but more so at random by the spammers. When I see one instead of just deleting them, I mark is as SPAM with my spam filter. That way when the next time I get one, that email should automatically get placed in the spam folder.
|
This is what I do. I've used gmail for years and it seems to cope very well with spam. I rarely get a spam e-mail in my inbox.
Quote:
Originally Posted by PaddyMac
At some point you should set set up multiple email addresses. I have one I use for business, one to join lists from various organizations that send regular "alerts" or updates to members, and another for Facebook, another for Yahoo and a few other lists. The first one I'd like to keep as clean as possible, so I use it just for important communication and purchases. At some point one or more of these emails may get too much spam and I'll create a replacement, but by segmenting them I only have to update a section of my email list.
|
I also have an e-mail address (on Excite) that I use on many non-financial sites where an e-mail address is required to register. I occaisionally go in and mass-delete everything. It always contains mostly spam, both in the inbox and in the spam folder. It is this e-mail address that attracts all the phishing and other scams from places like Nigeria.
__________________
Retired in Jan, 2010 at 55, moved to England in May 2016
Enough private pension and SS income to cover all needs
|
|
|
02-11-2012, 01:14 PM
|
#19
|
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Oct 2010
Posts: 2,471
|
I use Postini provided by my DSL provider, it really cleans the spam out.
|
|
|
02-11-2012, 02:47 PM
|
#20
|
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Thousand Oaks
Posts: 1,111
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by scrabbler1
My ladyfriend gets them all the time. But I very rarely get them. We have the same email provider so any spam filter the provider has would help us out equally, wouldn't it?
She is not on line much but the one website she visits a lot is Facebook (I have no use for that), so I wonder if the spammers can harvest email addresses from there to target recipients.
We get some good laughs from those emails. But the scam emails from the "banks" asking for your login info because your account has been "suspended" are not funny.
I rememver Chris Hansen doing a Dateline NBC piece a few years ago about those con men, trying to catch some in England on camera and make them sweat (which one did, profusely).
|
Not all spam filters are equal. I suggest you switch to google's gmail if you are amenable to switching your email It's quite good at handling spam as well as being a very good general email service provider
|
|
|
|
|
Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
|
|
Thread Tools |
|
Display Modes |
Linear Mode
|
Posting Rules
|
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
HTML code is Off
|
|
|
|
» Recent Threads
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
» Quick Links
|
|
|