Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Latest scam e-mail and response

Apart from being bored and annoyed by these e-mails, I find them a bit of an affront to mankind in their idiocy and the fact that people (based on my internet research) actually respond to them and end up giving over their account numbers, and then end up in massive debt. I just feel that if people are going to be caught up in scams, they shouldn't be so obviously ridiculous. It reflects poorly on us. Below is my e-mailed response to the fellow who sent me my most recent scam e-mail, with the e-mail below that. I mean, if you're going to engage in the business of international fraud, your sell should at least be credible.
_______________________________________________________________
Rather an interesting scam e-mail. A few flaws.

Microsoft's European headquarters is in Paris, not Liverpool. If you seriously think anyone in the UK would believe that Microsoft's European headquarters is in Liverpool, you're a fool.

The name of the "from" address is actually a rather respected figure in Brazil. It's unlikely he would be coordinating random lottery winnings, and all the more unlikely that he had suddenly moved to Liverpool to take on Microsoft's non-existent headquarters. Microsoft doesn't even have an office in Liverpool.

The e-mail address in the "from" section has absolutely no correspondence to the name of the individual sending the e-mail. This is unusual and actually, again, absurd. Moreover, it is from a Mechanical Engineering company in Rio, which takes about 3 seconds to find out. Again, begging the question of why someone at this company would be sending you to someone in Liverpool.

Point being, an e-mail with a Brazilian ending, supposedly sent from the Microsoft headquarters in Liverpool (which obviously should then be a Microsoft e-mail with a UK ending) that is then supposed to be sent back to an e-mail address in Hong Kong is a dead give-away for a scam. You may as well have set up a Nigerian e-mail address.

Another question is why Microsoft and AOL would be engaged in some bizarre joint venture, not to mention the fact that AOL doesn't exist (and hasn't for while existed) as an independent company. Time Warner is the name of the company and would have to authorize any such bizarreness and would be the name you would use.

Am fascinated to know what a "commemorative draw" is and why I should care. Looks like someone (who by the way, is unfamiliar with basic English grammar and sentence structure, again, a dead give away) has been watching too much late night tv and thinks people will confuse the all valuable "commemorative coins" with a "commemorative draw" and just send all their personal and financial information away to strangers half-way across the world.

And finally, why exactly would the mailing address for this bizarre agent be in Norfolk while he has a Hong Kong e-mail address? I mean, it's really easy to set up a UK e-mail address, if you seriously think you're going to get people to give you their account numbers when your only e-mail address is a yahoo address.

Oh, and BTW, what does an "e-mail beta test" have to do with this random lottery you've concocted? Might want to have someone review your scams going forward.

Hope you get tracked down and jailed.

--- On Tue, 30/12/08, Helcio Rangel Orlande wrote:
From: Helcio Rangel Orlande
Subject: SERIAL NUMBER MIC-AOL/8302/08...
To:
Date: Tuesday, 30 December, 2008, 8:03 AM

Dear Sir/ Madam,

The prestigious Microsoft and AOL has set out and successfully organized a
Sweepstakes marking the year 2008 anniversary we rolled out over US$
400,419,864 for our end of year/ Christmas Anniversary Draws. Participants
for the draws were randomly selected and drawn from a wide range of web
hosts which we enjoy their patronage.The selection was made through a
computer draw system attaching personalized email addresses to ticket
numbers. If you ignore this massage, you will defiantly regret it later.
Microsoft and AOL are now the largest Internet companies & in effort to
make
sure that Internet Explorer remain the most widely used program, Microsoft
and AOL are running an e-mail beta test.

Your email address as indicated was drawn and attached to reference and
ticket number 008795727498 with serial numbers MIC-AOL/8302/08 and drew the
lucky numbers 14-18-25-39-53-47 (10) which subsequently won you £ 1,000,000
( One Million Great Britain Pounds) as one of the jackpot winners in this
draw. You have therefore won the entire winning sum of £ 1,000,000 (One
Million Great Britain Pounds) the draws registered as Draw number one was
conducted in Liverpool, UK. 29th December, 2008. These draws are
commemorative and as such special.

Please be informed by this winning notification to file your claims
immediately. You are advised to make contact to your referred agent who will
by duty guide you through the process to facilitate the release of your
winning prize. To file for this claims, Please Contact your referred agent
with your verification information as required on the form below, beginning
the claims of your winnings funds as conducted by the lottery company.

We dedicate our special thanks & gratitude to Bill Gates {Now Retired from
Microsoft Corporations} .We wish you the best of luck as you spend your good
fortune in this season.

Note: You have Three (3) weeks from the date of this publication to claim
your prize or you may forfeit your winnings. Thank you for being part of our
commemorative end of year/ Christmas Anniversary Draws.

Find below your referred agent and the verification form:

Address: 18 South Drive, Hepwo rth,Diss,Norfolk, IP22 2HF, UK
Contact Agent: Mr. David Oliver
Email: mic_aol.oliverdesk@yahoo.com.hk

Name: ..................................
Country of Origin.......................
Place of Residence......................
Occupation..............................
Sex/Age.................................
Telephone/Fax...........................
Winning Email ID........................

NOTE: DUE TO FRAUDSTERS, WE HAVE DECIDED TO EFFECT TRANSFER TO YOUR BANK
ACCOUNT ONLY AND WHEN CONTACTING YOUR REFERRED AGENT, DO QUOTE YOUR TICKET
NUMBER AND SERIAL NUMBER FOR SECURITY REASONS.

Helcio Rangel Orlande
Public Relations Officer
Microsoft Corporation
Liverpool, United Kingdom,
Europe Headquaters.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Doctors

I'm in the initial stages on this, but I am thinking something dramatic has to be done about the power of doctors to control the care that patients receive. See, I wouldn't feel so strongly about it, but for the fact that medicine, while it pretends to be cutting edge, is in many ways in its infancy. So it begs the question, if doctors don't really know what they're doing, why should what they say/decide trump what the patient knows? I'm reminded of a story I told this afternoon about a former otolaryngologist who told me my ears, medically-speaking, were not stuffed up when in fact, they had felt severely stuffed-up (to the point of pain) for weeks and I needed to take a flight so I finally went in to see whether I could go. He didn't propose an alternate theory, an explanation, suggestions for care etc. Clearly, something was wrong. But because he couldn't identify it, he sent me on my way, essentially telling me I was mistaken about the very real medical problem I was having. I have an infinite number of these stories, as I imagine many people do. I believe it's a combination of pride, lack of knowledge about other specialities where symptoms may mimic issues mistaken for that specialty, denial about lack of information in the medical sciences, and a fear that should patients know how little doctors know, chaos would reign.

Joke? + "kipling only goes so far in federal court"

So I'm unclear as to whether this is a joke or some sort of tourist promotion. Having spent some time in Tunisia, I can't imagine what in the world this woman is talking about in suggesting that a single mother move there with her child. I am also curious as to why there are basically no other relevant suggestions. But I have made my complaint about yahoo answers in an earlier post so I'll let that go for now.

Anderson Cooper is sometimes extremely witty and dry. I appreciate that in a news anchor. That is my explanation of the title quote.

I also was highly amused that a friend called me out on the terms and conditions violation of gmail talk this week due to foreign language profanity. Again, witty and dry in its complex statement about america. Oh, on so many levels.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

"and the bleeps are not really bleeps"

Ah Fitzgerald - you amuse me to no end, despite the oddness of your voice.