New Email Scam to look out for

21 replies
Just a little warning to be on the look out for NEW scare tactics by scammers.

I received THIS email to my iPhone a few minutes ago:

While I FIGURED it was fake, it made me think for a moment and really check things out. It would suck to be sued for something like this - especially because there ARE law firms out there that do this type of scare tactic crap in order to extort money out of people.

The scammers email:

Esteemed Sir or Madam,

We have gathered a decisive evidence of your involvement in the infringement of
copyright protected by our company.

This contact has been obtained from your Internet service provider tracing it to your infringing Rapidshare.com traffic.
Please access the list of the files which you shared illegally by clicking the link below. It was composed by analyzing your Piratebay.org traffic.

http://eximtradeagencies.com/eoztcgyebzrr.html

We offer you a chance to not be engaged in the court procedure and a
possible court trial by settling this case out of court. You
have 21 days to contact us and come to a solution which will entail a much lesser financial burden for you.

IF YOU DO NOT RESPOND TO THIS MESSAGE WITHIN 28 DAYS UNFORTUNATELY WE WILL HAVE TO
START THE LEGAL PROCEDURE AGAINST YOU.

Sincerely,
Boris Lott
#1. I do not use rapidshare - lol
#2. They did not know my name, or even if i was male or female
#3. The link showing 'proof' was simply a re-direct to an article about crackdowns on MegaUpload
#4. The ROOT domain for that redirect link is some company in India that does who know's what
#5. This email came from a free email address, not one associated with a law firm.

At any rate, just a warning scammers are getting more creative - make sure you're careful about these types of things. I've been dealing with nigerian scammers for quite some time, but this one takes a VERY unique approach and capitalizes on peoples fear of being sued for MORE money, as opposed to capitalizing on their greed like many 419 scammers do (IE: You won the UK Lottery)
#email #scam
  • Profile picture of the author MeganFreed
    It's sad that there are people that will stoop to that level to try and scam people out of their money. What's even sadder is that some people fall for it. Thanks for the warning.
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    • Profile picture of the author RogueOne
      I got one the other day that claimed to be the FBI. Just mark it as spam and move on.
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      • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
        Banned
        Originally Posted by RogueOne View Post

        I got one the other day that claimed to be the FBI
        Yeah ... the FBI has spammed me too
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        • Profile picture of the author cashp0wer
          I don't understand how people fall for this stuff but they obviously do. I would just love to have all this time to write up and send out all these emails to people. If I did, it sure could be spent doing much better things.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mark Bradley
    Originally Posted by eljeffe77 View Post

    Just a little warning to be on the look out for NEW scare tactics by scammers.

    I received THIS email to my iPhone a few minutes ago:

    While I FIGURED it was fake, it made me think for a moment and really check things out. It would suck to be sued for something like this - especially because there ARE law firms out there that do this type of scare tactic crap in order to extort money out of people.

    The scammers email:

    #1. I do not use rapidshare - lol
    #2. They did not know my name, or even if i was male or female
    #3. The link showing 'proof' was simply a re-direct to an article about crackdowns on MegaUpload
    #4. The ROOT domain for that redirect link is some company in India that does who know's what
    #5. This email came from a free email address, not one associated with a law firm.

    At any rate, just a warning scammers are getting more creative - make sure you're careful about these types of things. I've been dealing with nigerian scammers for quite some time, but this one takes a VERY unique approach and capitalizes on peoples fear of being sued for MORE money, as opposed to capitalizing on their greed like many 419 scammers do (IE: You won the UK Lottery)

    Another big give away is the poor use of grammar.
    Not what you would expect from a reputable legal firm.
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  • Profile picture of the author themaab
    I wonder if they really catch anything with these fishing emails? I get them all the time too.
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    • Profile picture of the author Jeff Lenney
      Originally Posted by themaab View Post

      I wonder if they really catch anything with these fishing emails? I get them all the time too.
      They do all the time - my friend had to stop her dad from giving one of them money just this last week.

      Obviously, we all know scammers are out there doing this stuff - the reason I posted this one was due to it's new approach - going after fear instead of greed.
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      • Profile picture of the author Addguy
        Hello eljeffe77,
        I have 2 questions:

        1. Did the subject line look like: Copyright infringement notice. Case #XXXXX-XXXXXX ?
        2. When you hit reply, it tries to send the reply email to: legaldept @ riaa.org or some other apparently legit address ?

        What I don't get is how are these scammers getting paid? Is it just a hoax?

        I received a similar email which is slightly different but I have no doubt that it is coming from the same scammers (see below). Anyways, I did not infringe on anything so getting this was just weird. Outlook moved it to Junk automatically.

        P.S.: My email appears to come from a residential IP address pool and email.

        ----------------------------------------------------------------------
        Dear Sir or Madam,
        We have collected a decisive evidence of your involvement in the infringement of copyright held by our company.

        This e-mail address has been requested from your Internet service provider tracing it to your infringing Megaupload.com traffic.
        Please access the list of the files which you distributed illegally following the link below. It was composed by analyzing your Rapishare.com traffic.

        Address here that redirects to the Megupload crackdown page (different address than yours).

        We offer you an opportunity to avoid the legal procedure and a
        possible court trial by settling this case out of court. You have 21 days to contact us and come to an agreement which will entail a much lesser financial burden for you.

        IF YOU DO NOT REPLY TO THIS MESSAGE WITHIN 28 DAYS UNFORTUNATELY WE WILL HAVE TO INITIATE THE LEGAL PROCEDURE AGAINST YOU.

        Sincerely,
        John Liotta
        ---------------------------------------------------------------
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  • Profile picture of the author retsced
    It's just sad that people still fall for these scams. We all get them into our inbox everyday and most people are wide to them by now. It's just the non web savvy individuals that fall for these all the time.
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    • Profile picture of the author Richard Van
      Originally Posted by retsced View Post

      It's just sad that people still fall for these scams. We all get them into our inbox everyday and most people are wide to them by now. It's just the non web savvy individuals that fall for these all the time.
      I'm afraid I disagree with that.

      I posted a scam here a few weeks ago that was extremely good. It was an email from Paypal (same email address I always get it from) and it was exactly the same as any other email I get from Paypal when I pay someone. The only difference was I didn't recognise the name of the person I'd paid. When I went to click the transaction ID, I paused as I hovered the mouse over the link and looked at the address that it showed - it was dodgy, as was the small resolution links at the bottom. Everything else was exactly the same.

      The fact is a lot of scammers are following in the footsteps of others scammers and they're copying the old methods, these are easy to spot. Some of the scammers are very clever and it's those ones you have to watch out for.

      Don't underestimate them, that's when they'll get you. It certainly isn't just the non web savvy that fall for it.
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  • Profile picture of the author rosetrees
    I haven't seen that one before. Could I add it to my anti-scam blog, please?

    Edit: I'm adding them to my blog now - the link in the OP goes to a site infected with a Trojan.
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  • Profile picture of the author Ettienne
    I receive 100 variations of scam emails on a daily basis. Some are just plain dumb, and yet people fall for it. I don't get it...
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  • Profile picture of the author NXmarketeer
    I wonder how much money these guys make from scams like this... Can't help but to wonder. Everyone recieves tons of spam everyday for years now. They have to be pretty profitable to keep them going like that.
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  • Profile picture of the author JimDucharme
    I have to agree with Richard. Don't get smug about scammers because when you get overconfident, that's when you let your guard down. I will say that the example from the OP has one huge flag to it: Lawyers are never that polite .

    Regards,
    jim
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    • Profile picture of the author bacardi
      This is a multi-billion dollar a year business, ran by professional teams, and about 90% of everything related to scam emails or anything similar online is operated by one dedicated team.

      And they do work, that is why it never stops. It is a major business for them.
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  • Profile picture of the author sloanjim
    i would have deleted it right there and read no more...

    Esteemed Sir or Madam,
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    http://www.fxscalpingmethod.com

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  • Profile picture of the author eshoppingez
    Wow, I receive spams every day, but all of them are promising me money, but this is on a completely new level! The things people do for money!
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  • Profile picture of the author problog
    The first line of the email is a big giveaway that it's fake. But I can see how some people may fall for this, it's a bit different from what we get every day...Anyway, I have a friend who got scammed out of 200K recently, some of these scammers are really smart and know exactly what to say to convince you to give them your money...
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    • Profile picture of the author justanothernoob
      An obvious scam to English speakers because of the poor grammar...

      "Esteemed Sir or Madam,

      We have gathered a decisive evidence of your involvement in the infringement of
      copyright protected by our company."

      lol!
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  • Profile picture of the author Croque
    @ eljeffe77
    IMHO you should remove the live link, before someone gets infected.
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  • Profile picture of the author williamk
    Banned
    Thats really bad. I got one of those emails too. I dont know how they get my email IDs.
    Anyone know how to stop them?
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