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Saturday, 16 February 2008 |
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This one was interesting. For some strange reason I decided to check my spam email folder. I found an email that looked legit asking for a price to advertise on Tasweb. This is the email;
Good day,
My name is Edward Johnson and I am looking to buy links from good websites as yours (tasweb.org).
I will be glad if I can have a text link or a text box 120x60 or
125x125 on your site. Please advise what what will be the price for
each of these ads, if it is placed:
1. On your homepage only
2. On all site pages
I will be very thankful to you if you take into consideration my requrest.
Kind Regards
Edward Johnson
I question everything that I receive in email, but at first I thought it was real. The fact that there was a real link to my real website gave it credence and the request seemed reasonable. People really do this sort of stuff. Then I noticed the slightly dodgy grammar/spelling and decided to look a bit further. Whilst the email was signed by Edward Johnston, it was sent to me by Isabel Whithead. I then looked back at my spam folder and found another two of these emails. One was signed by George Nelson and the other by my new friend Edward. The wording was identical, however the emails were actually sent from another two different people (i.e. not Isabel). Not only that, but the reply to addresses of each email came from different domains. I then Googled for my new friend Edward and found another site who had received the same email's and had decided that it was an overpayment scam. If I had replied they would have agreed on a price and then sent me a cheque for an amount more than the agreed price. They would then aplogise and ask me to transfer the balance back to them. Some time after that the cheque would bounce because it had actually been stolen in a different country. I'm out of pocket for the money I transfered and the crooks have pocketed some cash from a stolen cheque. I guess this is a form of money laundering by organised criminals. Apparently the email addresses are spoofed (forged). The moral of the story is "don't believe everything you see on the Internet"!!!
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