Spamnesty

The website is spa.mnesty.com and it’s about wasting the time of the scammers and spammers.

This is how they describe their ‘time-wasting’ service.

Spamnesty is a way to waste spammers’ time. If you get a spam email, simply forward it to [email protected], and Spamnesty will strip your email address, pretend it’s a real person and reply to the email. Just remember to strip out any personal information from the body of the email, as it will be used so the reply looks more legitimate.

That way, the spammer will start talking to a bot, and hopefully waste some time there instead of spending it on a real victim. Meanwhile, Spamnesty will send you an email with a link to the conversation, so you can watch it unfold live!

It interacts with the spammer by sending fairly open anodyne responses to each message until the spammer gets bored and gives up. The replies are generic e.g. I’ve talked with my colleagues and we are definitely interested. Can you tell me more’.

Or ‘ That’s impressive. I’m excited to hear more’ Can you provide references?’

And so on.

It doesn’t stop spammers but does occupy them fruitlessly.

If you have any experiences with these scams do let me know, by email.

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The Most Common Christmas Scams

It’s Nearly Christmas.

The festive season is a busy time of year for scammers of all kinds as people buy presents, food for visitors, decorations, more food and drink than usual and much more.

Pre and post Christmas discount sales are likely to push the market into overdrive even with Coronavirus still around.

Fake Online Shops

Scammers set up fake website shops offering whatever products are most popular. They usually copy the sales text and pictures from genuine websites to make their site look real, but if you buy then you’re unlikely to get anything and you will lose the money. Often they will also sell your credit card details to other scammers.

Always make sure you‘re on a genuine company website before buying anything.

E-cards

Christmas brings lots of e-cards – likely to be even more than usual in Coronavirus days. Fake notifications for e-cards are a common means by which scammers trick you into clicking on a link that can lead to malware being installed on your computer without your knowledge.

Even if the card appears to come from a reputable organisation such as Hallmark – be very careful.

To be sure, if a card is genuine,. You need to go to the apparent sender’s website e.g. hallmark.com and see if there is a card waiting for you.

If there’s no card waiting for you, the email you got was sent by a scammer.

Phishing Scams

These are very common and take many forms – the essential part of a phishing scam is to get you to provide your login and password for some reason and once the scammer has that information they can take control of that account and any others where you use the same login and password.

Unsolicited emails that tell you to click a link are always dodgy – so be careful.

If the message tells you there is a problem of some kind e.g. your account has been compromised or that you have won a prize then contact the relevant organisation directly – not via information in the message.

Never click a link in an unsolicited message until you are sure it is safe.

Charity Scams.

Many charities are struggling this year as lock downs have reduced their fund raising dramatically and they need all of the help they can get. However, scammers continue to invent fake charities or use the names of genuine charities and keep the money for themselves.

They may claim celebrity endorsement or official recognition or anything to make themselves believable.

If you want to donate to charity then donate in person or go to the correct website directly – do not click on links in messages.

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Spam Email Statistics

Around 30 billion emails are sent each day and about half of those are spam in some form.

It is estimated that spam costs businesses many billions of dollars every year in time wasted, security systems, overloaded email boxes and more.

This waste is likely to keep rising as more and more spam is sent and more time is wasted.

About 80% of all spam in North America and Europe is sent by the same roughly 100 spam gangs.

The 100 most active spam operations comprise of around 200-300 individuals who are responsible for the bulk of all spam emails sent around the world. Spamhaus’ Register of Known Spam Operations (ROKSO) documents the names, aliases, and other details of the operations run by these so-called “spam gangs.”

Phishing Targets

Apple IDs are the most popular target of phishing emails, then Microsoft Outlook, Google, Paypal, LinkedIn and many others.

The most common type of phishing scam is the fake invoice and the message tells you to click a link to retrieve some necessary document. That link takes you to a fake web page asking for login details.

Also commonly used are fake orders, payments, problems that must be rectified, special offers and many more.

Always beware of any message that could be a phishing attempt and never click on a link in an unsolicited email

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Mental Superpowers

This email is titled “In Just 2 Weeks You Can Have a Mind of a Million Dollar Jeopardy Champion”

So, it’s obviously a ridiculous scam.

Then it goes on “Have you seen the film Lucy?”

I have seen the film and it’s very good – the star takes a drug and it unleashes hidden powers in her mind, but it is of course pure science-fiction.

The scammer wants us to associate that idea of mental growth with what he’s offering which is a “top-secret and highly controversial brain training trick” created by a 104 year old ‘off the grid’ professor that has been proven to unlock hidden brain power and effortlessly improve memory, focus and concentration in as little as 14 days.

It also claims to protect against Alzheimer’s.

Then comes the warning part of the scam, to demonstrate its validity.

“It’s shown to be so powerful that high IQ organisations like Mensa have banned their members from using it”

Now, my super power brain powers tell me this is just a pathetic scam.

Lucy was a good film but pure science fiction and no-one should believe such rubbish as a trick that unlocks “hidden brain powers”.

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