419 Scammers are commencing to use technological know-how more frequently to swindle harmless victims. I see advanced and skillfully designed e-mails and internet websites, clever social engineering competencies and scam e-mails targeted at specific people today on a day by day basis. That was in all probability the purpose of the scammer who utilised Google Look for to find Yahoo! and AOL e-mail addresses of individuals in the Usa, who ended up desperately in will need of funds. Certainly, the scammer did a Google Look for for the research string: “e-mail deal with of people today in the Usa that are in will need of fund @yahoo or AOL mail“. Between the lookup final results was a website link to my Lottery Scam website page where I clarify the approaches made use of by Lottery scammers to swindle harmless victims. The scammer was dumb enough to simply click on the backlink, correctly revealing his IP handle and the exact lookup string he utilised.
A pair of things straight away caught my notice when I analysed the customer statistic data. The customer was from Nigeria, with the IP handle 196.1.179.153, one that is generally included in e-mail frauds and spamming. His/her World-wide-web provider supplier was Nitel, the principal telecommunications corporation in Nigeria. What struck me the most was the search string utilized by this visitor. Did the scammer genuinely believe he/she would locate the e-mail tackle of a US citizen, wanting for cash on the Web, applying a Yahoo! or AOL e-mail address and on leading of that, leaving it on the world-wide-web for anyone to use? It can be like likely to Amazon, hoping to uncover specials on 419 Fraud Victims, or getting a sufferer shipped to you on a silver tray. But is a lookup like this, actually that significantly-fetched?
A couple of intriguing theories came to intellect when I analysed the research string.
- 419 scammers are targeting men and women living in the United States. Why? Perhaps they have a superior achievement charge with Us residents
- They like men and women making use of the e-mail services of Yahoo! and AOL. Why? The spam filter of Yahoo! and AOL is not as powerful as Gmail’s and it is in all probability much easier for scammers to get by to men and women who use these e-mail products and services. Also be aware that the scammer did not glance for Hotmail e-mail addresses. In accordance to 419eater.com, some scammers do not like to converse with Hotmail end users and
- They specifically target individuals in want of monetary guidance. Why? Folks with intense economic difficulties are usually determined and will do nearly anything to improve their monetary position. 419 scammers exploit this desperation, making it less complicated to encourage these victims.
I recognize that it is hard to foundation good theories on a solitary incident, so these are only a few of alternatives from a personalized stage of view. 419 scammers deliver e-mails to quite a few international locations, not just America, they mail e-mails to Gmail and other e-mail accounts, not just Yahoo! and AOL and they ship e-mails in bulk, like a spammer with a shotgun strategy, they generally have no idea who the recipients would be.
What can we find out by this behaviour? Do not put up your own e-mail tackle in any public space on the world-wide-web and do not reveal your economic position on the net. Scammers will use this to their benefit. If they have your e-mail handle in their possession and at the similar time know about your monetary troubles, then they can send out you a very qualified and convincing e-mail, putting them in the correct place at the correct time. I still imagine it was wishful thinking by the scammer to do such a slim look for, hoping to obtain a victim that suits this profile. Having said that, this scammer inadvertently exposed just one of their harvesting approaches, so lets acquire the necessary safety measures and make it tougher for scammers to obtain new victims.