Re: NIGERIAN EMAIL SCAM

["Paul D. Robertson" <paul () compuwar net>]

On Sun, 31 Oct 2004, Servie Platon wrote:

> Hello firewall wizards and security experts,
>
> May I ask for some kind of spam 101 tutorial from
> anyone. Please kindly enlighten me on how these
> spammers or people who send scam emails
> indescriminately all over the internet which is kind
> of annoying.
>
> Please refer to the whole excerpts of the email
> below/bottom part of this message.
>
> I received an email from this sender"maryam56"
> <widowwoman () tiscali it>
>
> and have sent an email to this address,
> selcom01 () amnetsal com
>
> Now, my question here is this. I have no idea how
> these people tend to get email addresses of people
> whom they intend to victimize.

1.  Web searches for E-mail addresses (like the archives for this list,
dictionary Web searches against sites like Yahoo, blogs...)

2.  Virus/worm backscatter from people who have you in their address book
who get infected and send e-mail spoofed from you.

3.  Purchasing address lists from employees of Internet companies.

4.  Address books from infected/botted systems.

> I am just concerned if ever, my home network might be
> compromised though, I have followed all the tips, and
> safeguards as suggested by the security gurus and
> experts here.
>
> However, I am just wondering, since I have a small
> home network comprising of linux and windoze boxes I
> am worried if and it could be possible that I am in
> danger here because, I receive spam or emails with
> intent to do scam both in my yahoo account and in my
> work/office email account.

The 419 scammers don't do target of choice, they spam as widely as
possible, then pay attention to the folks who e-mail back.  That's why the
folks who scam the scammers have such great stories.

> Could this be due to the fact that, I have subscribed
> at usergroups such as this? What I mean here, if I
> post a message to this usergroup or anywhere, these
> people might or could get hold of my email address?

Yep.

> Please kindly enlighten me on how these spammers do
> this to automatically generate or send emails without
> my knowledge.

Google on "Nigerian 419 scam."

Paul
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Paul D. Robertson      "My statements in this message are personal opinions
paul () compuwar net       which may have no basis whatsoever in fact."
probertson () trusecure com Director of Risk Assessment TruSecure Corporation
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