New Version of an Old Scam

I haven't seen this one before. Today the "Card Services for Credit Union Inc. Survey Department" informed me that they'll give me a $50 credit to my account if I take a survey:

Dear Customer,CONGRATULATIONS!

You have been chosen by the Card Services for Credit Union Inc. Survey Department to take part in our quick and easy 5 question survey. In return we will credit $50.00 to your account, just for your time!

With the information collected we can decide to direct a number of changes to improve and expand the online services.

The information you provide us is all non-sensitive and anonymous. No part of it is handed down to any third party groups. It will be stored in our secure database while we process the results of this nationwide reward survey.

We kindly ask you to spare two minutes of your time in taking part with this unique offer!

Please note: Card Services for Credit Union Inc. will never ask you for your PIN via e-mail or phone

Click the link below and fill in the form on the following page to complete the Reward Survey process.

(Link deleted)

Of course, when you do go to the link (for which I used lynx, which deletes all cookies on exit), the "non-sensitive information" they ask you for your account number, the last six social security number (meaning they only have to try 1000 variants) and a credit or debit card number (including those 3 digits) on the back, so they can "credit $50 to your account."

Needless to say, Google turns up no mention of "Card Services for Credit Union Inc.", and the link they provide goes off to an unregistered IP address.

A classic phishing scam, with $50 for bait. Be warned.

Getting Back At Scammers

So you get another email saying,

Dear wondrous Soul,

My late husband/wife/father/mother stole about $15 billion from our local government, and they won't let me take it out of the country!!! Can you help? They'll let you take it out. Really!! Just send me all your account information, Social Security number, a few credit cards, and your firstborn child, and I'll deposit the money in your account. Then, if I can get out of here, we'll go halfsies!!

I'm sure no one here believes these things, though such scams still get bites. (Click on the circled "P" to see the whole article at once.) But wouldn't you like to scam the scammers, get back at them?

No problem, others are doing it. Check out Scam-O-Rama, which answers those annoying emails and strings along the scammers.

Who Wants to Make a Few Million Dollars

of illegally obtained funds?

I just got one of those email letters telling me of the said state of the sender, whose father/brother/partner's ill-gotten gains are going to be confiscated by the evil government if I don't help him transfer money from his country to my bank account -- and oh, could you please send me a few thousand dollars to help along the process.

If you haven't gotten one of these yet, you will. This was the first one I got on my mehl.nu account (non-cousin Nathan's email server thoughtfully marked it as spam), but I have an older-than-spam email account, and it gets these daily. If you don't know the style of the letter, or are tempted to take some of the money that has been sitting in the account of a deceased oil executive since 1980, go to the Nigeria 419 Coalition Website and read up on it.

Then (if you're in the US, and if you haven't sent in any money), send the email to the U.S. Secret Service at 419.fcd@usss.treas.gov. They won't stop this spam from entering your mailbox, but they will keep the letter on file as they build their database on the scammers.

If you have sent money to these people, check out the second paragraph of the Secret Service site mentioned above.