puzzled?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Jun 29, 2004 6:51 pm

Ive just had an e-mail...one of those from the African continent..someone wanting assistance with bank account thing?From Ghana...wants to name me as next of kin..know ones I mean?
What Im puzzled at is..how he knows my name .and addresses me as 'Ellie'........
Must be looking in on here..CVO.COM..and looked at the Corner...as thats the only place where I have my name &'Gantree' e-mail address...........

Is that strange? usually you get these popping up time to time...but found this bit odd.......
Ellie
of course Ive deleted it.

Gambrinus · Post by **Gambrinus** » Wed Jun 30, 2004 7:40 am

maybe you registered somewhere with that addy and put Ellie in as first name.....?

In any case, this kind information happily floats around the internet as it is. Nowadays there is nothing more valuable than personal information and there are companies which broker "user databases" to ad companies who then proceed with various advertising campaigns which most people class as spam.

You will be amazed of often your information will pop up across the world and it is quite scary to think who else might be monitoring you.....

But then again, we all seem quite happy to let people monitor our every move in the interest of security.

Alea jacta est.

Ellie · Post by **Ellie** » Wed Jun 30, 2004 10:56 am

Ive been trying to think G.....but can only come up with Es.corner..the only other place with my first name is on book publishers site (but no e-mail addy there).....
when I first looked at it..I thought for a moment that I had a fan in Ghana!

but then the 'money' bit came in!
H reminded me that there are quite a lot of Africans working in Algarve now...and maybe those who are able will log onto CVO.COM?

e-richard · Post by **e-richard** » Wed Jun 30, 2004 6:17 pm

Its probably not even a person looking for email names. There are clever little programs that dart all over the internet following link to link scanning pages to find bits of text that look like email names and saving them for (ab)use later.

Perhaps it will even find me@iwanttobespammed.com and send an email to that address just to see if it doesn't bounce, then spam it galore.

On a related point. I saw a documentary recently on this scam, and was appalled at how many people fell for it and parted with huge sums of money as a "sign of good faith" in the hope of riches to come. The perpetrators have made MILLIONS out it.

petermeachem · Post by **petermeachem** » Wed Jun 30, 2004 10:22 pm

If you haven't seen it take a look at www.419eater.com , it is hysterically funny. It's a forum for people who reply to these scams.
Also http://www.savannahsays.com/kizombe.htm

Ellie · Post by **Ellie** » Wed Jun 30, 2004 10:39 pm

..oh I enjoyed that Peter...I was feeling bit cheesed off after hard day and that certainly put smile on my face!
How about that 'photo' eh?......beautiful

I had to laugh at the one I got..wanting to name me next of kin......dont think Ive got quite the right 'skin tone' do you?