Phishing and Scamming - back at 'em

I'm a member of a software user group -- www.chaosfanatics.com -- and "JustDave", one of my good friends there, struck back at a scammer/phisher. It's worthy of posting:


Earlier this week I got an email from a Ms. Philips, supposedly with an international courier company, notifying me that my certified ATM card in the amount of $450,000 had arrived and that all I had to do was to send her my banking info so they could take their $125 fee and deliver the card. Right.

I replied, thanking her for the notification and informing her that I had, in fact, already received the card. I told her that planned to buy lunch for the entire office and then take the rest of the day off to go pay off my mortgage and buy a new car. I also told her that if she would send me a link to her web site I'd make an online payment for the delivery using the card. I received a very confused, almost incoherent email back from her. I didn't reply. She's emailed me twelve times since then. Heh.


Great job, Dave!! Gotta remember that one! Add another beer to the tab!

On the more serious side, these folks have no shame and REALLY take advantage of the elderly who no longer know when they're being scammed. I'm guardian for a 90+ retired military clergy who is convinced he's won the Irish/German/Canadian/TimbuckToo lotteries and all he needs to do is send $100--$500-$2500, and so forth. Other than that he's perfectly sane and still preaches once or twice a month as a 'substitute'. He's blown through his live savings and incurred nearly $100,000.00 in credit card debt, spending over $200,000.00 with these bastards. 

If you've got elderly relatives, try to look over their finances to make sure everything is in order. If you see a problem, get to an Elder-Law lawyer at once. You can find one at NAELA.ORG.
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