I routinely get spammers in my junk folders for my blog- as of late there's been a really irritating pile of crap using different names but the same message, with spam links embedded into punctuation marks- the same spammer does the same to other blogs and photoblogs I follow, and always ends with the words "my brother", embedded with punctuation marks in between the letters, even when the halfwit is sending this spam to blogs run by women. It's been awhile since I last had junk email from one of those pesky scammers. This one, however brief, comes from one Michael Dullea, and included a link to a youtube click. This is the first time I've seen this angle on the internet scammer genre. Oddly, his email addy belonged to Southwestern College in California. There actually is a Michael Dullea on their faculty. I did send a heads-up to the college to let them know a scammer is piggybacking on their email.
Good Day!
My Client Marie Holmes who just won a powerball lottery has made a donation to you, contact her via her private email (holmesdonation23@gmail.com) for more detail on how to receive this. Please do not ignore, this is the third time trying to reach you. WATCH STORY:
Me again. Brief though this one might be, and while we don't have the usual Nigerian widow/ concubine/ masseuse/ daughter of the usual president/ minister/ general/ warlord angle, we do have some of the tell-tales. Capitalizing client, for instance, and not capitalizing Powerball. Someone with a proper use of the English language would write it as details instead of detail. And frankly, I'd have put in commas here and there where it would have made sense. But we're not dealing with a normal person, we're dealing with a scammer sending this same email to endless people, hoping someone's dumb enough to bite.
The scammer would have us believe one Marie Holmes, winner of a Powerball lottery, wants to give some money away to complete strangers. Well, I've looked her up, and yes, there is a Marie Holmes who did win the Powerball... and she's been cited for drug possession since the win and spent millions of dollars bailing her boyfriend out. Wow. Lovely company. Hardly the sort of person who'd be all charitable where complete strangers are concerned.
Let's face it, scamming scammer from Scamylvania, you're not representing the Powerball winning, drug possessing, boyfriend bailing out Marie Holmes. Because the simple fact is that a real lottery winner would be more concerned with maintaining their privacy and not returning calls from people they haven't heard from in twenty years. I'll leave this to the Grumpiest Grump to explain what I'd like to see happen to you and the rest of your irritating waste of oxygen colleagues.
So true, William, so true! Telephone scammers also irritate. We've had a slew of them lately . . . and I've called every possible agency to log a complaint. Googling the numbers, one came from Ventura, CA, the whopping majority came from up the road, in Charlotte, NC (and nearby Gastonia). Anyway, I was told several times to beware of bloggers with cutsy avatars who're constantly gathering names for lists. Thanks to a CNN article, I learned scammers easily sell lists to people in Jamaica (or Nigeria . . . ) for $10K, often negotiating a percentage of the money they rake in.
ReplyDeleteThanks to caller ID I don't answer those calls.
ReplyDeleteI get so many calls from all over America. Lately it is Texas, California and Georgia you can tell the cartels are really using all the new immigrats. I never answer them caller ID is wonderful.
ReplyDeletecheers, parsnip
I've gotten spams saying that I'm receiving a "donation", although never one from a Powerball winner. Usually it's just rich people who think I deserve it.
ReplyDeleteOh brother. But they make great posts.
ReplyDelete@Kittie: too bad we can't have a bio-weapon designed that only targets spammers and scammers.
ReplyDelete@Whisk: caller ID is a godsend.
@Parsnip: it is.
@JE: this one's new to me!
@Shelly: they certainly do!
Maybe it's like a disease that spreads through the air because I've had an inordinate amount of spam lately, too. Much more than usual. Very irritating.
ReplyDeleteRe your comment on Ocala: I think the point is to have a point of interest; it's very Florida (I think an old shrimp boat). It's fun to look at and that's what The Villages are all about - fun for old folks! :)
That might actually make Grumpy Cat smile.
ReplyDeleteIf it would make guru,pay cat happy, then I'm all for it.
ReplyDeleteI always wonder if anybody actually falls for these idiots' scams....
ReplyDeleteI don't even understand why spammers try. I feel like everybody's on to their tricks.
ReplyDeleteAgree. Most of the tricks are too plain to buy into them.
ReplyDeleteRemember the official lottery operators will never send the winning notifications. It is to their advantage when player forget to claim the winning.
ReplyDelete