Forum Moderators: buckworks
Firstly he doesn't mention what type of products I have on my site. And also the 'include your web page'. He would know the webpage if it was legit.
Is there any way to check the I.P of the sender to check against any future messages or block them if it's scammers?
Thanks
[edited by: lorax at 1:07 pm (utc) on May 24, 2009]
[edit reason] removed email - see TOS [/edit]
I would probably inquire about it, since it only takes a couple seconds to shoot an email back, it will soon break down if it's not legit, if you know what you are doing.
What are you afraid of? Them coming through the phone line? If you think you may be duped you need to get clear on the steps for releasing information so it does not happen in the middle of an email or phone conversation when you are distracted.
See other threads on accepting international wire transfers.
[edited by: MrHard at 7:02 am (utc) on May 23, 2009]
If they are REALLY serious they'll try again, but with more details the second time around. And that has been my experience.
totally bogus. Just hit delete and move on, and train your employees to recognize scams like this one.
Agree. I've deleted DOZENS of nearly identical emails over the years. How do I KNOW they are fraudulent without ever wasting time responding? Because years ago the question was almost always "do you ship air express to Nigeria." (or very rarely, Indonesia or Singapore). Besides, we don't export and we clearly state that on our site.
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With even the newest, dumbest and greediest sellers refusing to ship to Nigeria and its neighbors, Lagos Incorporated was forced to find untainted ship-to's far from home.
"please do not forget to include your web page in your replying back to my mail."
Google produces many mentions of that precise phrase. Just a form email used millions of times by scammers who may not even know any English.
Is there any way to check the I.P of the sender to check against any future messages or block them if it's scammers?
It's been several years since I setup our email form on our site, but part of the script adds something like this to the bottom of the emails we get. We've used the IP info many times to decide to DWNR (Delete With No Response).
Sample:
-----------------------------------------------
For security, we've recorded your IP address as:
###-#####-###.uopnet.plymouth.ac.uk
Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1; GTB6; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.30; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.648; .NET CLR 3.0.4506.2152; .NET CLR 3.5.30729)
Thanks for your responses...I've been on holiday, sorry I didn't know you weren't supposed to post emails.
I didn't want to reply to the email in case by giving them my URLs or seeming interested would increase the amount of spam I receive.
I don't have any employees so I'm ok on that front.
Thanks for the advice about recording IPs. I will set up something like that on my contact forms.
This email was sent without using a form though, my email address is displayed on the contact form too.
Is there any way of getting the IP from emails of this type?
Thanks
I'm using Outlook Express at the moment. I've tried using View->All Headers but nothing seems to appear on any of my messages. Can you do it in Express?
Would using Message->Block sender be adequate for blocking future messages?
In the full product "Headers" just seems to mean little more than the from and to addresses. To find what we mean here by "headers" you right click on the message and select "Options".
I would block by domain ,or even by IP if you can. Blocking on single addresses is pretty useless.
Apparrently stupid questions aren't necessarily an indicator of fraud. I have lost count of the number of times that I have been phoned by legit customers asking my for details that are on the same page as the phone number.
But when the same <<exact>> stupid question has been id'd on G by many people as fraudulent, that is a very strong indicator of fraud.
Scammers change IPs, emails, domains etc, but they almost never change their basic MO (method of operation). Virtually every fraudulent inquiry fits into one of 4 or 5 categories. Learn the odor of those categories and you'll suffer very few losses. Just hit delete.
I've yet to have a real customer ask if we can ship $10,000 worth of products tomorrow air express to Lagos, to cite an obvious example.
stupid questions aren't necessarily an indicator of fraud.
but not knowing what you sell or your web address is. :)
Hi, I am looking to take some people for a ride. So I am sending out 3,000 of these emails to a list of addresses I bought that supposedly are ecommerce operations (or i'm using a bot to fill out 'contact us' forms). What I need to know is if you take credit card payments and if you ship overseas. Doesn't matter what you sell, since I get rich by asking you to wire money to my shipping agent once you've agreed to accept my credit card. Please reply to this email if you are green, gullible, or greedy. When you reply, please include the address of your website - 3000 places is a lot to keep track of and I couldn't possibly waste my time browsing the websites of all 3000, I'm sure you understand. Much more efficient to focus time on the 10 people who will reply to this email - the low hanging fruit, so to speak. Thank you and have a nice day - the sun is shining here in Nigeria, how is the weather in your state/province/district/country?
All kidding aside - yeah you will get dumb questions from real customers (do you take PayPal when the seal is on the page, or do you ship overseas when it clearly says we will) but never do they ask you to remind them of your web address when you reply. That's a scam hallmark. You were right to be suspicious - congrats on that; these guys can be pretty sharp and you can feel good that you recognize when something smells funny.
'include your web page'
Delete!
We get those emails all day long. Its a complete scam.
Great! thanks
