SPAM and SPAMMERS

We wake up, go to our computers, and find we are flooded with messages, advertisements, and information.

I check my facebook page and emails. My cell phone rings. The Geico ring a ding sound tells me it is someone I dont know. My wife says, answer it. I look at its a number from Providence, Rhode island. I dont know anyone from Providence, hence the universal I dont know who they are ring tone. I check the number on the internet and its a spam caller, or a telemarketer. I check my email and I have 300 emails in my spam folder. The paper mail comes in and the stack contains fliers for used cars, and a bill from a doctor I dont know about and whom I havent seen.

I do everything I can to stop all of this madness. I take all junk mail and shred it. I created a fake email address. My real one is given to trusted friends and family members. I put as little as possible on my facebook page. But, the spammers, identity thieves, and telemarketers get smarter to try to get through the gauntlet of security and protection.

Paper Junk Mail: That is hard to stop. Most of the junk mail isnt addressed to me or it is addressed to a fake name I use to register my TV warranty or simply resident or neighbor. Your house info is available anywhere from phone books, to city registers. The internet makes it easy to find out your address, not necessarily that YOU live at that address. So, by sending 1,000 fliers out, with a nice advertisement that says, YOU MIGHT HAVE WON ONE OF THE FOLLOWING: That will sucker the greedy in. Just look at the news to see the many who have been scammed by simple greed. One woman lost several hundreds of thousands of dollars via a lottery scam. I tried selling a camera on an internet site that is not ebay and I got 7 emails which were from Nigerians whove done this scam before. ALl 7 were from the same person. It was their terrible english that gave them away, the way they spelled some words and their messed up grammer.

Phone: I am on the Do Not Call List. I was researching for life insurance and went to a website that was promising. I gave a fake phone number and a fake email address I use just for this situation. I no sooner entered info that was asked and the fake email address got 15 emails. One from a broker that was pissed because he called the fake phone number which is a pay phone on the outside of the corner store. I assumed this person made his living on commission. I hate to imagine what would have happened if I gave real information. The name I gave wasnt mine either. I use the name of a long dead author or the name of a character from an old book. My son uses the name Hunter S Thompson. We get about 10 advertisements in the mail per week addressed to Hunter S Thompson. Even though I am on the do not call list, I still get the telemarketer calls. What they do is load their auto dialer to call every possible number. Filing a complaint with the government is useless. I filed a complaint and got a response that they couldnt do anything because, in their opinion no laws were broken and I am free to hire a lawyer to go after the telemarketer. So, I said to myself, why do we have a do not call list??? It makes me wonder if these telemarketers are giving our representatives huge donations for reelection. You wont do anything to stop the gravy train. So, the telemarketers call my number, it rings, then goes to my voicemail which is unique. I say hello, pause and say hello again, pause, then hello again. That makes my wife and friends mad because when they hear hello, they think they're talking to me. That suckers in the telemarketers. Their auto dialer hears a voice then transfers the call to a sales person. I tell my wife and friends that their number has a special ringtone. If I hear the special ringtone, I do answer my phone. Otherwise, your Geico ringtone goes to voicemail. I never give my cell number to anyone other than a friend, family member or employer. Websites get the payphone number and Simon Barsinister name. My address is 123 Main Street.

Address: You can do a reverse address check on the internet to find out an address. The info may not be 100% accurate but some sales people dont care because someone might be at that address. You send out 1,000 fliers that say YOU COULD WIN ONE OF THE FOLLOWING. The following may be a car, $10,000 cash, $500 debit cards, dinner at the Hot Dog Hut or a coupon for a discount on what you buy and that discount could be 1%, 5%, or 50% off. The flier is probably a phishing ad. You also see them where you get a key to come in to see if the key starts a new car. Someone will be hooked which makes it worth sending these out. I get any of these and I feed them into my shredder. Scam artists have no problems hiring a homeless person by paying them a few dollars to wade through trash for info on you that you threw out. Once they have your address, it doesnt take much to use their computer to make a fake ID with your address. Once they have this, they can get free medical care. They find a doctor in a small strip mall or medical center close to the hospital or an urgent care center or local emergency room. Now Juan Valdez who shows he lives at 123 Main Street, Johnson City, New York is having his cranialrectalectomy scar treated. You send the bill and it goes to Wimpy who lives at 123 Main Street. Wimpy calls or throws the bill out leaving the door open to more scam artists. The bill now goes to the doctors collection agency and they spend $$$ to try to collect on a debt that is uncollectable.

Internet
When you use the internet, you are inviting the world into your home and life. You see the email that "someone" sent you a card of somesort. This may be a phishing scam because someone is an unknown. You also see the word free, but is it free or do you have to participate? These sites ask you tons of questions which eventually comes to asking you for your email address, home address, name of parent or sibling or phone number. They're extracting info that they can use to possibly assume your identity. It also establishes a profile on you on your likes and dislikes so you can be targeted for more offers. When you are asked for your email, you see the disclaimer, we promise and promise and we cross our heart and hope to die that we dont give your email address to anyone. I created a new fake email address and tried this, this address had about 175 emails almost immediately. I only gave this address out once but now Im getting emails for adult depends, discount cigarettes, canadian drugs, power wheelchairs, diabetes supplies and enhancement devices to make me bigger down in between my legs. I didnt know i was that messed up medically, but the survey questions keyed in on my fake answers. I cant count the emails i get from so-called nigerian lawyers or a Blessed Be message about a very rich person who died in a car crashand I am asked to be their long lost child to inherit multimillions of dollars. I put as little as possible on my facebook page. I dont post my real picture. Some internet sites are getting smarter. They wont accept a yahoo, gmail or hotmail email address. I also clean out my computer daily to remove any cookies that may have been left on my computer by a website and I use software to prevent unwanted access to my computer. My computer's name is fake because when you get a computer, some people use their real name which can be accessed by a website cookie. The intent of a cookie is supposed to save you time from reentering data when you go to a website. The cookie also tells the website some private info as far as your internet searching, so when you look for Japanese Mud Wrestlers, this is marked so that somehow you get emails for mud wrestlers and suggested websites to visit. Some sites put trojans into your computer so that it records all key strokes which includes your passwords such as password or 12345 or Japmud. We're not a private as we wish we could be. The world is at our fingertips, so, so is the world with accessing us.

I occassionally do a check on myself. I look to see what is out there on me. On some sites that advertise background checks. I see what i can see for free. I find some are close but no cigar. I find very very old addresses I used to live at but the current one is not listed or showed. My wife was looking for an old friend from 30 years ago. It took me 45 seconds to find her and I got her home phone number, called it and she reconnected with my wife. Some people are off the grid so to speak. A friend of mine from 1974 is still among the missing. Ive found about 100 with her name but none are her. But, one day, you never know. I used the internet to find my children from a previous marriage.

While some may run and try to hide. Today, that is not easy. To protect ourselves we need to do what is reasonable and to use due dilligence to protect our privacy.

	Author	Topic: SPAM and SPAMMERS (Read 2226 times)
0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.