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
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.
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.