The Anonymous Widower

Empty-nester? Buy underwear…

This was the come-on for one of the inside articles in today’s East Anglian Daily Times.  It was subtitled “Lynne Mortimer’s sage advice”

It wasn’t advising mothers, who just packed their last child off to University, to buy something sexy to get the old man or possibly a new one in their lives, to get the production line going again, but a plea for mothers to make sure that their sons had enough pants to take with them. Preferably the same colour as their towels; black.

August 23, 2010 Posted by | World | , , | 6 Comments

Are Scammers Getting Better?

I received this e-mail this morning.

HM Revenue & Customs
Crownhill Court
Tailyour Road
Plymouth
PL6 5BZ

This is to officially inform you that we have thoroughly completed an investigation with the help of our Intelligence Monitoring Network System that your packaged ATM CARD that was received from the Headquarters 1 (HQ1) of the International Monetary Fund, 700 19th Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20431 was forwarded to the ATM Issuing Institution for proper verification on the authenticity and it has been confirmed that your ATM CARD is good and ready to be used.

You are advised to forward to our office or via email the following:

1. Identification 
2. Electricity bill as proof of address
3. 65GBP for handling and delivery cost.

Joe Amond
For: HM Revenue & Customs

It’s obviously a scam, as it has all the usual elements of a free ATM card, that you really have no right to.

It was also addressed to undisclosed-recipients, which usually means it’s spam. Has anybody ever received an e-mail to undisclosed-recipients, that wasn’t crap?

But :-

  1. Where are the spelling mistakes?
  2. There is no expensive phone number.
  3. The address is genuine, but it’s the Customs Seizure Unit, where you make a claim if they’ve seized your goods.
  4. They have put a reasonable fee in to the e-mail.  But that of course is only the start. 
  5. The e-mail address it was sent for seems OK on a first look. I think it actually came from Russia.

So I believe this e-mail might be good enough to fool some vulnerable or gullible people. Perhaps the Russian education system is better than that of Nigeria?

I must say I’m very tempted to send a cheque for £65 payable to HM Revenue and Customs to Joe Amond in Plymouth and see what happens. THe trouble is I don’t have a cheque book, as I always transfer money directly.

August 23, 2010 Posted by | Computing, World | , , | 8 Comments