Slashdot Mirror
Scamming Spammer Hooks the Wrong Person
CrypticSpawn writes "Read on SecurityFocus, a 55 year old woman spammed an FBI computer crime agent. She got caught mailing off a credit card scam to AOL users." Her scam targeted AOL users with messages saying their credit cards were refused during the last billing cycle, and linked to a false billing center page which demanded private information.
I suspect that a vast majority of spams hit a large number of law enforcement inboxes - it isn't like spammers are selectively making hand-crafted to lists. Of the spams I get (of which there has been a marked increase in the past month), a good percentage are illegal or gray-legal pennystock pump and dumps, PayPal imitators attempting to get your information, or our good Nigerian friends looking for some assistance in rescuing their money.
An electronic trail of stolen AOL accounts and free Web pages led agents to raid the homes of a professional spammer and a credit card thief, both of whom snitched on Carr, naming her as the ringleader of the operation
She isn't the only one going down. But, sadly, there are still many more to go...
Remember: If you buy anything from spammers, you have a small penis.
a 55 year old woman spammed an FBI computer crime agent. She got caught mailing off a credit card scam to AOL users.
What this story teaches us:
- Little middle-aged (well, quite ripe already) ladies are not to be trusted
- AOL users are idiots, since they are prime targets of even little middle-aged lady spamsters
- FBI agents too open AOL accounts, which is worrying in a sense
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
No, she was smart, she sent her scam mails to AOL users, who are notorious credulous computer idiots. She didn't send it to postmaster@homelandsecurity.gov. She was just unlucky that an FBI agent was on AOL too.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
I was thinking of a different scam I ran across... This one is still pretty transparent though, considering that AOL (and every other ISP I know) clearly state time and time again that they will never ask you for your password, credit card info, hell, even your name in an email.
---
Programming is like sex... Make one mistake and support it the rest of your life.
The article makes it sound like she wouldn't have got caught if an FBI agent hadn't been a recepient of the email. I hope this isn't the case and that the FBI is taking a more pro-active attack on this kind of thing than what the article seems to say.
Actually what it teaches us is
- Criminals don't wear stripes and sound like Cagney
- For any scam the best approach is to target the largest user group... more people means more idiots
- The FBI staff use personal email
This is exactly what you should expect, the FBI aren't a mixed race of mutant beings, and large crimes can be commited by pretty much anyone.
An Eye for an Eye will make the whole world blind - Gandhi
Part of the problem is that the people who DO know about the workings of these sorts of things don't educate others on the matter.
/.ers are frustrated with friends and family not understanding why they should patch regularly? Now, think of how many /.ers are completely ineffective at presenting a simple argument on an annonymous message board.
/. managed a series of funny and educational public service announcements, I'd be in seventh heaven.
Think about it, how many
The fact of the matter is, most of us geeks just aren't good communicators and teachers when it comes to people outside of the community. We assume that the person we're educating has a modicum of understanding from the get go. What we need are more geeks who can communicate and teach effectively to the entire populace and help get the word out about such things.
Hell, if
I don't get it. Is this all it takes to get spammers busted? Can I just forward the scams and spams I get to this guy and have all these people caught? Why did this only become an issue when it was a personal attack on someone in a position of power to do something about it. What about the rest of us, how can we fight back? And more importantly why isn't the FBI doing more to attack spammers other than when they're personally feeling the heat?
ôó
Sorry, but it is incredibly naive of you to assume that only "computer idiots" fall for these scams.
They are very convincing... stealing all the branding of a legit informational email. I'll tell you, my mom and dad just cannot tell the difference between http://www.citibank.com/signup/account.jsp and http://www.citibank.com@192.168.0.1/acct.jsp.
These scams can be compelling to people who don't understand that ALL email should be untrusted, and that all URLs within email should be untrusted, and that all forms that you fill out should be untrusted.
does it take for a spammer to mail the FBI direct before they take action? Surely they must be aware of the volume of scam emails we *all* get, and be taking action anyway?
Its like waiting for a police station to be burgled before the police take action..
Some of these frauds are pretty blatent (penis enlargement pills etc), you dont need to be sherlock holmes to track them..
"You lied to me! There is a Swansea!"
Well, the churches are fillied with millions of gullible people...
Good guess. I never would have figured that out. Well, except for the part where it says she is from OHIO!
This never happens anywhere else. Except for all those countries that collapse because so much of the population is taken by a single scam! Albania
The lady should have modified the scam a little bit, because it looks like the original scam was against Sympatico users in Canada. That explains the SIN. More reading
Why email millions of inteligent people, when all you need to do is to set up an "Free IQ" test, that delivers results via email...
Analogies don't equal equalities, they are merely somewhat analogous.
haha, I was talking to an Executive ofr a CC company at a financial event and suggested the same thing. He thought it was a good Idea to. that was 9 years ago.
based on that, I'd say the odds are pretty damn slim.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
I know some extremely intelligent people who fell for things like that.
It is not about how smart you are, rather it is
whether you choose to belive certain things or have the experience to tell the scam from the real thing.
People are really stupid.
And some are dickheads who abuse a little bit of programming knowledge. Oh, what a wonderful world!
Actually, there are poison numbers in some credit card databases, that if are used, will redflag that as being stolen-card activity. I don't recall the details, but this was used back in the era when they mailed blacklists to merchants, who then had to manually check your card against it before they were allowed to take it. (1970s-80s)
The problem with the general public having its own poison number for inputting into scam forms, is that someone with a grudge could input said number into legit forms, and cause all manner of legal havoc.
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
"Carr's sentence will be determined by the amount of fraudulent charges racked up on the stolen credit card numbers -- with a maximum of five years. But the guidelines also dictate that each credit card be valued at a minimum of $500.00, a formula that helped boost Carr co-conspirator George R. Patterson's sentence to 37 months in prison, according to Patterson's attorney."
That's it? 37 months in prison for her cohort.
Yet the RIAA is trying to hit people for $150,000... and Ashcroft wants "hackers" sentenced as terrorists and put in jail for LIFE.
Want to stop identity theft? Jack up the jail term..big time. 3yrs in jail for stealing a ton of credit card numbers is pretty weak.
But how do you cost a crime? If you lose $500 from a stolen Credit Card, well, it's hard to justify a months worth of police time to track down the cuplrit.
But if say 1,000 people were each defrauded of $500, that half a million dollars obtained illegaly. But each complaint is only $500, too small to be investigated.
Makes you think, doesn't it.
Democracy isn't about no one telling you what to do. It's about everyone telling you what to do.
Yes, those're mighty impressive laws.
If you want to see privacy law, try looking at New Zealand's Privacy Act, or some of the European legislation. The US may as well not bother pretending they have any privacy legislation, because all it does is lull people into a false sense of security.
"God, root, what is difference?" - Pitr, userfriendly