Beware these noxious emails

Subject: Beware these noxious emails
From: Vic Smith
Date: 13 Sep 12 - 06:43 AM

My friends Greg Stephens and Kate Barfield of The Boat Band will no doubt be surprised to find that they sent me this email this morning:-

I am out of the country, Madrid Spain at the moment, I am here for a Voluntary Training Program (VTP), but unfortunately for me tonight just a few hours ago I had my bag stolen from me with my passport and personal effects. I have been trying to sort things out with the necessary authorities, I will be needing some assistance from you in the morning.

Please let me know if you can be of any help.

Regards
kate and greg

The email purports to come from boatlband@******** (No reason to divulge their full email address here) and it's only that extra "l" in the middle that distinguishes it from the real address.

Sadly, this is not the first one of this nature that I have had, I previously had one from poor old Roger Wilson who had also been robbed in Madrid (though he was actually safe at home at the time).

Even more sadly, the person sending this foul lying stuff must know enough about the folk scene to know who the people involved and who their friends and contacts are.

Beware these noxious emails

Subject: RE: Beware these noxious emails
From: Owen Woodson
Date: 13 Sep 12 - 06:52 AM

I don't think it's a folkie who's doing it. Simply a phisher or a viruser who has managed to invade their adress book and fired off the same email to everyone in there.

Bloody sickening all the same.

Subject: RE: Beware these noxious emails
From: Will Fly
Date: 13 Sep 12 - 06:53 AM

I had one of these this morning - it was immediately apparent that someone has hacked Greg's mailing list. Just another boring, detestable scammer.

Subject: RE: Beware these noxious emails
From: Charmion
Date: 13 Sep 12 - 07:01 AM

One of our American Catters was exploited in this fashion a few years ago, and when we received the begging e-mail we suspected fraud right away because it was full of spelling mistakes our fiddling friend would never make. Her e-mail account was hacked, we eventually learned.

I did reply to the e-mail, but with a skill-testing question about her cat. Just in case. Knowledge of other people's felines comes in handy at the oddest times.

Subject: RE: Beware these noxious emails
From: Mr Happy
Date: 13 Sep 12 - 07:07 AM

I had one as well, have deleted it, thanks for warning

Subject: RE: Beware these noxious emails
From: Barb'ry
Date: 13 Sep 12 - 07:26 AM

I got one too and have had an email account hacked in the past. It was an old hotmail account but I have no idea how my password could have become available to the miserable gits. I've become a bit paranoid lately, and changed passwords every couple of months but goodness knows if that is enough.

Subject: RE: Beware these noxious emails
From: EBarnacle
Date: 13 Sep 12 - 07:50 AM

This style of phishing scam has been mentioned on the 'Cat previously in one of "Scam" threads. The best defense is to contact the person directly just in case. Then change your password.

Most commonly, it purports to come from someone visiting Scotland.

In America, it seems to be associated with scammers who have broken into yahoo groups or yahoo e-mail accounts more than any other.

Subject: RE: Beware these noxious emails
From: The Sandman
Date: 13 Sep 12 - 08:12 AM

i had one a while ago purporting to be from Grace Woods, ORGANISER OF FRODSHAM FOLK CLUB,I notified her and deleted the post

Subject: RE: Beware these noxious emails
From: GUEST,Peter Laban
Date: 13 Sep 12 - 08:13 AM

These have been going around for some time. I received several in the past 'from' Irish musicians.

Subject: RE: Beware these noxious emails
From: Girl Friday
Date: 13 Sep 12 - 08:37 AM

I had something similar. Perporting to come from a folkie friend.

This one claimed that whilst on holiday in Spain he had been robbed at gunpoint. Do not go near them.

Subject: RE: Beware these noxious emails
From: greg stephens
Date: 13 Sep 12 - 08:55 AM

Thanks for warning Vic. I am not in Madrid, I just hope none of my contacts fell for it! I have had a few of these myself. Incidentally, Vic, I think you are wrong about it perhaps being a wicked folkie who knows me. I dont think this is anything personal, just somebody phishing with the information they have somehow extracted from a computer.Anybody who knows me would know that the only reason I would be in Madrid would be for a gig. I am far to poor for volunteering!

Subject: RE: Beware these noxious emails
From: kendall
Date: 13 Sep 12 - 09:00 AM

I only trust people I know that I'm looking at.

Subject: RE: Beware these noxious emails
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 13 Sep 12 - 12:17 PM

I am in Madrid. Please send me lots of money!

Subject: RE: Beware these noxious emails
From: katlaughing
Date: 13 Sep 12 - 02:10 PM

i read an excellent suggestion for passwords...use the name or lyrics of song...much harder for idjits to crack, esp. a snippet of lyrics with some numerals and caps added.

Subject: RE: Beware these noxious emails
From: Les from Hull
Date: 13 Sep 12 - 02:15 PM

Isn't there somewhere that these fake emails can be reported. It is attempted fraud after all.

Subject: RE: Beware these noxious emails
From: DebC
Date: 13 Sep 12 - 04:24 PM

It's not just passwords, it's people uploading their entire address books to the web. I have had more spam in the last two years from people I know who have Yahoo, Hotmail and AOL accounts. Just today I got one from a friend who is on an American ISP, Earthlink.

If you are going to use a web-based email account, use Gmail.

Maybe John In Kansas or one of the other tech-geeks here can comment.

Deb

Subject: RE: Beware these noxious emails
From: Mr Happy
Date: 14 Sep 12 - 12:03 PM

Some on Facebk getting same stuff

Subject: RE: Beware these noxious emails
From: Newport Boy
Date: 14 Sep 12 - 12:58 PM

I agree with Deb - avoid putting email addresses on the web, and certainly not address books - that's a spammer's delight. Also, keep your address book in a different location than the default for your mail client or PIM - it makes it more difficult to find. Symbolic links are a good defence against email harvesting.

Phi