More Phishing Emails!

[Wes Bucey]

So, today, I get this wonderful email informing me I have been awarded $5,000,000 USD. You'd think they would use my name instead of "Dear Sir/Madam,"

Our Ref: CFQC/US/10GRT044
Your Ref:

Dear Sir/Madam,

Cargill which was founded in 1865 by W.W. Cargill was conceived with the objective of Human Growth, Education and Community development. We are pleased to inform you that as part of our 2013 fiscal year promotion, Cargill is donating two hundred million dollars, towards the Cargill Foundation anniversary as specific cash aid to 100 international recipients Worldwide in different categories for business, educational and personal development, and at least 30% to be use by each for the development of his/her community.

For more details about our charitable donations please visit our website at XXXXXXXX. In 2010, Cargill foundation contributed more than US $58 million to nonprofit and/or nongovernmental organizations, schools and local community organizations in locations where we have a business presence. Based on the random selection exercise from all databases and websites on the internet, you were selected among the recipients to receive the sum of USD 5,000,000.00 (Five Million US dollars) as cash aid. It is therefore my pleasure to officially inform you that you have been chosen by the board of trustees of the Cargill Foundation, as one of the recipients for 2014 Charitable giving for your own personal, educational and business development.

You are required to contact your cash aid documentation officer with the below information, for documentation and processing.

Cargill Foundation (United Kingdom)
Media 252 Campbell,
Societies,
Manchester.
Phone: (44)745-218-9080
Email: XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Reconfirm the following Information.

Full Names:
Gender:
Date of birth:
Contact Address:
Country:
Phone number(s):
Occupation:
Company:
Marital status:

Cash Aid payments are strictly administered by the respective/authorized payment offices of the Cargill Foundation in North America and United Kingdom.

On behalf of the Cargill Foundation, Board of trustees, kindly accept our warmest congratulations.
Yours faithfully,
Dr. Paul Long
? 2014 Cargill, Incorporated.

What a deal, huh?

 

[PaulJSmith]

Re: More Phish!


Interesting, too, that this Cargill Foundation is using a Yahoo email address.

Most of those such things go directly into my spam folder, whence they get deleted once a month.

 

[Wes Bucey]

Re: More Phish!

Interesting, too, that this Cargill Foundation is using a Yahoo email address.

Most of those such things go directly into my spam folder, whence they get deleted once a month.

Oh yeah! This was in my spam folder. There must be suckers who fall for this every day - else why would the spam phishers continue? I am reminded of the chain letters we would receive in the 50s (bad carbons or even mimeographed, sometimes as lame as spirit duplicated copies, still reeking of alcohol.) In the 60s, we got teletypes and twx messages. In the 70s, our fax machines would run out of paper, receiving identical messages from 5 or 6 separate phone numbers. With email, though, the quantity and variety increased exponentially.

The email phishing has an added danger - Trojans and worms which infect a computer even with something as simple as opening an attached photo. No longer are these malefactors looking to get a recipient to foolishly give them "seed money" to retrieve the fortune awaiting them - they just have little bots send them every secret on the recipient's computer.

 

[Marc]

Wes, when you post these things, please take out links and email addresses. It can really screw with Google and other indexers when they spider pages here. It can hurt the ranking here. I have to manually edit your post to remove them.

Thanks,

Marc

 

[Wes Bucey]

Wes, when you post these things, please take out links and email addresses. It can really screw with Google and other indexers when they spider pages here. It can hurt the ranking here. I have to manually edit your post to remove them.

Thanks,

Marc

Doh! Never gave a thought to the spiders. I apologize.

 

[Nite1922]

So, Wes are you 5 million dollars richer?
Just kidding.
By the way, you are one more person I want to personally thank for educating me behind the scenes that allowed me to pass my ISO 9001 certification audit

 

[Wes Bucey]

So, Wes are you 5 million dollars richer?
Just kidding.
By the way, you are one more person I want to personally thank for educating me behind the scenes that allowed me to pass my ISO 9001 certification audit

You are welcome! As to the five million - I am too hoity toity to deal directly with anyone who can't address me by name, at any price!

IMPORTANT ADDITION
I had a similar situation where I had some jerk text me with a "deal." He then sent me a bogus (counterfeit) check drawn on a real company with its exact bank and account number. I, of course, called the company, before trying to deposit the check, (which I handled with rubber gloves to preserve fingerprints) only to learn they had been the target of numerous similar scams and had been thrown out of three banks who refused to do business with them because of "suspicious" activity (instead of helping them.)

Because this idiot used the U.S. Mail, I tried to contact the U.S. Postal inspectors, who refused to even take the guy's phone number he used to text me, the physical check, etc. which may have had his finger prints. The best I could do was file a "report" on the internet (which presumably disappeared into cyberhell where other government electronic records seemed to have disappeared.

It's always a disappointment to learn the government won't "waste" resources on a criminal case, but will spend millions to pursue a political target.

 

[Wes Bucey]

Doh! Does Google REALLY think this is suspicioous?

Today's missive from the Land of Idiocracy:
First Google adds a label in RED

Be careful with this message. It contains content that's typically used to steal personal information. Learn more

Then, Google gives me a choice to report, ignore, or trust the message!
Report this suspicious message Ignore, I trust this message
Double DOH! DOH!

The message (email x'ed out)



After much attempts to reach you on phone, I deemed it necessary and
urgent to contact you via your e-mail address and to notify you finally
about your outstanding compensation payment.

After the last annual calculation of your Banking/Financial activities,
you are qualified and eligible to receive a compensation check payment of
$475,950.00 USD from the 2015 United Nations Compensation Commission
Payment Reconciliation program.

Your Cashier?s Check ($475,950.00) has been forwarded to the United Parcel Service for shipment to you. Send your Name, Resident Address, Country and Telephone number to the United Parcel Service (UPS) in order to receive your compensation check payment.

United Parcel Service (UPS)
Contact Name: Ahmad Moore
Contact E-mail: [email protected]

Please take note that you will pay a shipping/handling fee of $87 USD to
receive your cashier check payment from the United Parcel Service (UPS).

Do you suppose they are shipping the cash in dollar bills to run up such a big UPS bill?