Nigerian Spam Resurgence
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James Joyner | Tuesday, June 3, 2008 |
After a long absence, I’ve suddenly become deluged with variations on the Nigerian e-mail scam over the last few days. Probably a dozen of those have made it through my spam filters in that span, surpassing the amount I received the previous year.
Have others of you noticed the same phenomenon or am I just lucky?
About the Author: James Joyner is the publisher of Outside the Beltway and the managing editor of the Atlantic Council. He's a former Army officer, Desert Storm vet, and college professor with a PhD in political science from The University of Alabama. He lives just outside the Beltway in Alexandria, Virginia.
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Dunno. I'll have to check my spam filter and see.
I've noticed a surge in "new dating site" advertisements that make it through the filter, but not Nigerian 411 scams.
Funny thing with the Nigerian schemes - - the US Secret Service used to take an active role in investigating those scams. They had a website with contact information, an e-mail address you could forward the solicitations to, etc. When I used to get the solicitations I would respond excitedly and tell them to fax all the information immediately and then give them the Secret Service fax number. But then that program seemed to fall off, and now the FBI and FTC seem to be the most active (if at all).
Then the twist: the Nigerian scammers began sending e-mails spoofed up to look like they came from the US Secret Service. (The poor English, however, did not seem to improve.)
I'm not seeing it. I do see a lot of comment spam on my blog, though, primarily coming from Russia, Ukraine, and China. Lots of spurious registration on the site, too.
I always see a slow trickle of the things in various permutations. Mostly my filter catches them.
I always see a slow trickle of the things in various permutations. Mostly my filter catches them.
Gmail and YahooMail aren't catching them for me for some reason. In addition to the Nigeria-type scams, I've also won several lotteries.
I've noticed more pump-and-dump penny stock scams than the Nigerian oil-minister scams. But mostly they all get filtered.
Yes. I seem to be getting about one or two a week recently. I don't think I received any in the previous year.
Wayne
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