Internet Scams

[jrharvey]

There has got to be a way to stop them. Just about everyone I know these days has been scammed at least once. This is becoming rediculous. I have not personally been scammed but it hurts to know that my friends and familly are. Is there nothing we can do to catch these criminals?

[tamoneya]

There isnt much you can do to stop "them" since when you catch one scammer another two take his place. What you can do is make it more difficult for them. Take a look into scam baiting. Basically you make the scammer jump through hoops and waste their time. Some people have even tried setting up irc bots and such to respond to emails from scammers:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scam_baiting

[Bubba64]

Human greed is a factor in being scammed, if it looks to good to be true then your suspicion should be rather high. If you remember that your dealing with people on the web who are anonymous then you can't expect much of a true or honest interaction.

[TBOL3]

Hmm... linux, a free, and completely amazing OS, must be a scam.

(However, it is generally true, most things to good to be true aren't true, the only way to know is DO YOUR RESEARCH!!! Don't just click on the stupid flashing button. And another indicter is the flashiness of a webpage. A simple one, such as the ubuntu page, is generally safer then a page that is really flashy).

[Ralphie]

It would be hard to stop them, but I think the best way is through education!

Such as letting people you know how to look out for scams, or to give you a call before buying or downloading sketchy things, that is probably the best way to defeat it.

Just last week I was wiping a computer clean, a lady from my church was scammed into buying a virus for $200+ !!! It said it was virus fighting software, but was a virus itself, so so sad.

She had to cancel her credit card and everything, what a mess!

Needless to say I installed ubuntu on her computer and said "it is 100% impossible for you now to get a virus, and you no longer have to buy any kind of software!"

(and she is so happy with it! More people at my church now want ubuntu! lol!!)

[jrharvey]

I just wish with all the technology we have today that we could find out who is doing this. Can we not track where the emails are being sent from? If the emails are coming from some empty warehouse on a bot PC in some closet then we should be able to find it and catch who is maintaining the machines. IDK i am just tired of all this mess.

[tamoneya]

I just wish with all the technology we have today that we could find out who is doing this. Can we not track where the emails are being sent from? If the emails are coming from some empty warehouse on a bot PC in some closet then we should be able to find it and catch who is maintaining the machines. IDK i am just tired of all this mess.

The emails typically come from what are called bot nets. Hundreds of thousands of infected PCs send the emails. These PCs wouldnt track you down to the spammer anyways since they are just bots. Then on top of that take a look at how much trouble the MPAA/RIAA are having catching their copyright infringers. They tried to make the case that IP = conclusive evidence but failed. Now they are attempting to say that since it is so hard/impossible to be 100% sure that they dont need to prove that you broke copyright. I cant see how that would hold up in a court of law especially a criminal court of law.

[jespdj]

Read the stories here, they will cheer you up: http://419eater.com

[fatality_uk]

I just wish with all the technology we have today that we could find out who is doing this. Can we not track where the emails are being sent from? If the emails are coming from some empty warehouse on a bot PC in some closet then we should be able to find it and catch who is maintaining the machines. IDK i am just tired of all this mess.

Yes but the one factor in this that ALWAYS causes the issues is the human being on the end of the keyboard. At some point, the people being scammed, have to accept a level of responsibility. They are the people sending credit card details, bank account details and personal information usually, as has been said before, in order to make a quick buck or get something for virtually nothing.

I could write a VERY sophisticated algorithm that would search out for key words, string patterns and IP addresses and WARNING the user this could be a scan, but at the end of it all, if the carrot dangled is just too tempting, then all the technology, wont make a bit of difference.

[TBOL3]

Want a free iPod, or how about a brand new copy of Vista? Click here: http://www.turnofftheinternet.com/#

[jrharvey]

Want a free iPod, or how about a brand new copy of Vista? Click here: http://www.turnofftheinternet.com/#

See what i mean!!!! look at this as i speak. Grrrrrr its just a shame is all :( what has this world come to that people stop working REAL jobs and prey on others stupidity.

[billgoldberg]

I'm wondering who falls for internet scams.

I don't know anyone who has ever fallen for one of them.

If you believe that you can get millions by depositing some money on a swiss account, well then you are just stupid.

This doesn't only apply to the internet.

If something is to good to be true ...

[Midwest-Linux]

I think the first scam I could remember was the infamous "AOL Update".

[TBOL3]

I remember falling for one once. It was this horrible thing called ubuntu :lolflag: .

Actually, the only scams I fell for (this was about 8-10 years ago, when I was young and foolish) was viruses from 'freeware' aplications. I remember not having any sleep one night because I was worried that I wouldn't be able to save the computer (this was before I realized that at worst cast (unless you have ruined hardware), all you would need to do is reinstall the OS).