Scam

dancorn · Jan 13, 2011

Just got the following email which was purportedly from an EO member, so beware. Someone has ripped of a member's email contacts.

Date: Thu, Jan 13, 2011 at 5:58 AM
Subject: Terrible Experience!!!
To:

I'm writing this with tears in my eyes,I'm sorry i didn't inform you about my trip,i had a trip to the United Kingdom (London) and a bizarre thing happened to me. I was mugged at a gun point last night,it happened at the park of the Hotel where i lodged but thank God i wasn't hurt,all cash,credit card and cell-phone were stolen off me...but luckily for me i still have my life and passports,i was able to make contact with the UK Police and i was directed to the Embassy, but they seems to be taking things too slow.

I need your help so urgently.. My return flight leaves pretty soon but i am having problems sorting out the hotel bills,i need a quick loan to get things fixed out here,i promise to refund it as soon as i get back home.. Please reply asap so i can tell you what to do and how to get the money to me.

Hope to read from you soon.

Frank

Lawrence · Jan 13, 2011

Actually, it's not a scam from our site - rather someone's computer has a malicious virus on it and is sending out bogus emails. Another reason to run Mac!

greg334 · Jan 13, 2011

Lawrence said:
Actually, it's not a scam from our site - rather someone's computer has a malicious virus on it and is sending out bogus emails. Another reason to run Mac!

Ah... By the way Macs also get viruses and they do funny things too.

Go Linux!!

dancorn · Jan 13, 2011

Lawrence said:
Actually, it's not a scam from our site - rather someone's computer has a malicious virus on it and is sending out bogus emails. Another reason to run Mac!

Lawrence,
To reiterate, I received the email from someone posing as an EO member that I had been in email contact with. As that member is quite prolific I was concerned that perhaps all of his email contacts,including many EO members, had been compromised. No, it did not come directly from this site.
....................................................................................................
Yep Greg, I loves Linux and Firefox.

TeamCaffee · Jan 13, 2011

I am on a Mac and I did get this email.

greg334 · Jan 13, 2011

dancorn said:
As that member is quite prolific I was concerned that perhaps all of his email contacts

It isn't me, is it?

chefdennis · Jan 13, 2011

You need to contact the sender so he can clean up his hard drive with a good virus scan and remove this...

dancorn · Jan 13, 2011

No Greg, I said he was prolific, not professional.

Dennis, I did contact the member via email, don't know if he received the notification.

AutonomyRex · Jan 13, 2011

It is being sent from FKATZ's computer (The Tax Fella ) to anyone on his email list. I received one also, and it does not read like Frank writes, so I knew it wasn't him. Was logging online when I came across others whom have rec'd the email.
A-REX

greg334 · Jan 13, 2011

God do they need to outlaw windows and Macs.

JimmyB · Jan 13, 2011

greg334 said:
Ah... By the way Macs also get viruses and they do funny things too.

Go Linux!!

I am a linux man myself, but you know, the Mac OS runs off pretty much the same kernel as linux..... If I remember correctly, Mac was originally designed around the FreeBSD kernel.

While it is true that Mac's can get Viruses it is extremely RARE. Also keep in mind that that linux box can be rooted

Actually we just converted our entire office workstations to Mac's for that very reason. Excellent work Apple did at making such a great product.

greg334 · Jan 13, 2011

Please ... it isn't as rare as you would think.

Since OSX, it has been a linux core but outside of that, it is still an apple proprietary system, dictated by that anti-free market guy Steve Jobs and his ilk.

I think people buy into this idea that Mac is soooo great miss the point that viruses happen because of people, not the machines. The person who decides to click on that email that says "I made a million expediting, you can too" or going to ww.XXXXXX.comm may be the cause of most of the issues.

With a good firewall that is setup right, turning off the computer when it is not being used and using the business computer for business purposes - not surfing Youtube - maybe a better solution than a massive investment in proprietary system to prevent something that may never happen in the first place.

Jefferson3000 · Jan 13, 2011

The interesting thing is, I had heard about this sort of scam sometime ago, but not so much recently. Yesterday, a good friend of mine sent me a warning about a similar scam. His mother received a call from someone claiming to be her grandson (named Alex). The caller even knew what per name he called his grandmother. Thankfully, she called her son, the boy's father first, to verify this claim, as the caller was indeed looking for $2800 to be wired to him in England.

BillChaffey · Jan 13, 2011

Wasn't this same E mail / post. Posted back in December of 2010?.

Bruno · Jan 13, 2011

Someone was sending this out on facebook a few weeks ago. They was on my wifes facebook account chatting with my cousin. My cousin called at 6:30 am and asked if my wife was okay and how she was going to get to get home. I said she is home, she is right next to me in our bed. I had to post a message on Facebook about it and found out 5 other people got the same messages from my wifes Facebook account. One person was asked to send $1200.00 and another was asked to send $1800.00. Its all SCAMS