Someone, somewhere, must have sold off a distribution list with my name and address on it. Twice in the last month I've received scam mail in my (physical) mailbox.
The first was a chain letter sort of thing. Several pages long, and topped up with references from happy customers, it was basically one of those pyramid schemes i.e. if you send ten bucks to the guy on the top of the list of names and addresses, then add your own details to the bottom and send multiple copies to your unsuspecting friends, then you'll be rich. Hah - friendless, more like.
On the weekend I received mail from Spain. I don't know anyone in Spain, so it could have been only one thing. And I was right. Apparently I've won hundreds of thousands of US dollars in some kind of promotional lottery, and all I have to do is fill in the form with my personal details (including bank account number) and return it.
Well, all I can say is - what a waste of paper.
15 comments:
This stuff must actually work on some people or no one would do it. Strange..
You might have to explain "yeah, right" for your foreign readers.
Or shall I? OK then - It's very sarcastic, as in "I'm so sure".
Tui, a NZ brewing company, has "Yeah, right" as its slogan. Their billboard ads have different pronouncements on the left, and on the right it's always Yeah, right. For example, "I slept on a mate's couch". Yeah, right. But people graffiti them. The example above got graffitied to "I slept on a mate, ouch".
I actually had to explain the one below to a male:
"Summer's here. Time for a back, sack and crack". Yeah, right.
happyandblue: I was just reading in the Sunday paper about a couple of pensioners who were not only taken in, they also got other people involved. One of them is in jail now, and her husband is still hanging on to the chance that there still is money waiting for them.
The editter: thanks for the explanation, which I couldn't be bothered with...I don't remember seeing that last Tui ad - it's about waxing, right?
Violet, sounds like it may have been a mutual friend. We got one in the post too. Do you know anyone who recently went to the Waikato?
kazzer: I don't think so. I know someone from work who is based in Hamilton, but surely not well enough for her to send me junk like this.
It really does work on some people. I work for an organization made up of senior citizens and it is freaky how many of them call in asking if we can help them get their money back.
Its despicable isn't it, targeting the old and naive - which I'm sure is what scammers are doing.
Ah the beauty of chain letters. I've been sent a couple in the last month, not by anyone I know, but then all you need is the phone book to find the 50 people you need to forward it on to.
I keep on meaning to forward it to the Police so the people who's names are at the bottom will get a call from the boys in blue, but apathy kicks in and it just ends up in the bin....
And Happy and Blue, it doesn't have to work for people to do it, it's the lure of easy money that gets people doing it, kinda like buying a lotto ticket really....
So you actually received junk mail from Spain? That might be a 'pleasant' change from all the credit card letters that come in every day for me. I met one of those 'Ponzi Scheme' shysters in a Borders books store not that long ago. That sneaky bastard.
Oh, that sucks! I've heard of junk mail, as in unwanted catelogs, but never receiving bogus claims asking for bank numbers! Are you going to report this to the NZ equivalent of the Better Business Bureau (don't know what you call it)?
I get tons of spam asking for my bank account numbers, and laugh at the fact that people are that stupid- no bank is going to ask for information over the internet in an email- but then I think about senior citizens who might fall victim to it, and it makes me soooo angry!
You know, for a while I received several emails from Microsoft saying that I must go to their website and register with my credit card details, to ensure that the software on my computer isn't somehow disabled - as a measure against software pirates. I always assumed they were scam emails. But it turns out that for some XBOX games users are in fact asked to do exactly this in order to get access to certain game extras. So they're for real. Hmmm...
Sometime ago I had a few as well - were they the same as these:
P.R. Nelchael
Marie D'Esple
David Rhodes of Perth
I sent the details off to Dept of Internal Affairs and some other lot who both knew about them and have logged the calls.
I chucked 'em out - i suppose I should have reported them, but I didn't. That Marie might have been the name on my Spanish lottery letter though.
Yeah, probably the best for them.
I do think they are little gems and works of art - totally useless (I hope) at getting any money but as comedy they are top notch.
Those Microsoft emails sure do sound like hackers phishing around though.
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