WARNING FedEx threat?

[Deleted member 12539]

I thought I might warn people of a message I received today.

I got an e-mail from FedEx services today saying:

This is a post notification,

The delivery service couldn’t deliver your package.
The package weight exceeds the allowable free-delivery limit.

You have to receive your packagen personally.
Print out the "Invoice Copy" attached and collect the package at our office.

Please read carefully the attached information before receiving your package.

Thank you. FedEx Customer Services.

The wording seemed strange and did not make sense, so I checked the sender:

worldwide-services@fedex.com

The internet did not recognise it, and Norton picked up the attachment as carrying a Trojan virus!!
So it has been deleted......

 

[Admin]

This is a very common scam

 

[Deleted member 5759]

Had that one twice now plus loads of others, mind you they were all in 'junk'

Peter

 

[robbiec0]

I don't open any attachments because of viruses but do reply with abuse, such as go away naughty scammers (or words to that effect). A few come back as undelivered but most are delivered especially the Nigerian scam and lotto scams. I get a lot less now, coincidence? or do they really all talk to each other. Gives me a warm feeling inside letting them know they have wasted their time.

 

[Canalsman]

I don't open any attachments because of viruses but do reply with abuse, such as go away naughty scammers (or words to that effect).

I'd strongly advise against doing this ...

Far from reducing the spam that you get, it's likely you'll get more. You have confirmed that your email address is live, which is precisely what these malicious people want!

 

[Viktor]

Exactly Chris...never respond because then they just add the 'live' email address to the broadcast list and of course it is shared and sold on.

 

[Teutone]

I'd strongly advise against doing this ...

Far from reducing the spam that you get, it's likely you'll get more. You have confirmed that your email address is live, which is precisely what these malicious people want!

Second that. Probably the worst thing to do is to reply. And even IF somebody would read your emai, do you think they will feel offended by your comments? Most likely they are just laughing their a**se off when counting all the money they make illegally.

 

[woody]

I had this yesterday , just deleted it .

 

[Northerner]

I would have thought that the biggest give-away is that they are never address to you by name. The Nigerian ones usually begin 'My dear' or 'My Friend'. If they're going to trust you with their 50 million you't think that they'd at least know your name!

Get a good spam filter (I use Choice mail) and rubbish such as this is immediately consigned to the dustbin.

I do admit to having a go at one recently. I set up a gmail account with a false name and, posing as a wealthy widower who knew nothing about computers, I replied to one and spent two weeks having a dialogue with this person, who purported to be a sick woman in hospital in Spain. She wanted someone to take care of her fortune when she died but, when it came to the inevitable sting where she couldn't release the funds until I paid Fed-Ex £500, it turned out to be a bank in mainland China, not too far from Hong Kong.

I faked a letter from my bank manager, using Barclays' logos available on the web. It was a genuine branch address but a fake account and of course my name was fake. The con man went into the Chinese bank waving this letter but of course there was no money. Then I apologised for transposing two digits on the account number and he went to the bank again. In all I had him complaining to the bank three times before I sent him a final email telling him that he'd been scammed and that he was just a thieving scumbag.

Just to be on the safe side I did everything through proxy servers, but there's little chance of them finding you as they're on the other side of the world and how would it benefit them anyway!

It was great fun at a time when I was stuck at home with a broken wrist. In the end I reported the whole think to the local police in China and forwarded them the emails.

There is actually a small group of people who do this all the time in an effort to fool scammers and make them waste all their time following up non-existent marks!

 

[Northerner]

Thank you, but preaching to the converted! I have a Samsung Galaxy S2 and use GMail contacts, calendar and to-do lists. I still use my Windows Mail though from habit, as all my addresses and groups are on it, but Choice Mail forwards all non-spam mail to my GMail account and I then pick it up on my Galaxy S2. When away on holiday I send mail from my phone but set it to send as from my normal company domain email address, which like you I have had for many, many years.

I may look at what you do, but importing all my addresses into GMail may be dodgy as I have many that are already in Gmail and I worry about duplications etc.