h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

You know, the emails saying "Dear lovely person, i am Mr/Mrs XYZ & i need your help to transfer oodles of dosh from A to B because some awful tragedy/administrative cock up/whatever has befallen me, if you just send me XXX$ i can sort it out & give you a cut of the proceeds;"

Obviously i just delete them straight away, i never open emails from anyone i don't know, certainly not attachments.

But wonder if there is any way of stopping the wretched things for good? Where do they get the addresses from? I am in one yahoo group, could that be it?

zdt

What ISP are you using? Most have some kind of spam filter.

RF

I was reading about some guy who managed to actually get those Nigerians to give him money. He was saying something about how he wanted to store the money in his account, but a small sum was needed to be paid to the bank to make it possible. He managed to get a 100$ or so out of them.

You could always bait them

http://www.419eater.com/

...if you have the time.

RF

What sort of e-mail account do you have?

If you're using Outlook Express you can stick in a list of words and if the mail contains any of these words in either the subject line or the text of the mail itself it can automatically redirect them or even delete them.

"How can i stop the Nigerian spam scam?"

The simple answer is that you can't. You'll never stop them from doing it.

You can't even guarantee not to get the emails, but you can always minimise your chances. Not posting your email address anywhere on the net is the first line of defence. Having a good spam filter and/or an ISP with a similarly good filter is the second. Keeping one or more email accounts solely for whenever you have to give an email address in order to sign up for something is a third.

Oh, and eventually they'll go away. Never, EVER, reply to one. After a few months they'll stop arriving...time was, I used to get 2 a day, now I don't get any (yahoo! mail user).

What I found quite flattering is that I've never been offered penis enlargement. Obviously, the word is out...

RF

Well, i've been offered Viagra & i am female (last time i checked...but then i am told it works on females too)

I use Mozilla, which is a great improvement on Inlook Express.

I will check out that link now,; doubt i will actually do anything about it, but you never know

zdt

Hey!! Reddyfreddy!!.. Good to have you back


Terri..

I used to receive a lot of Nigerian post for my boss.. you know the one..

Dear sir.. I am entitled to X£'s and if you could help me by investing in my scheme.. I will sign over my inheritance.. blah, blah, blah..

I used to ignore them.. and keep the stamps for the boss's son!


lil xx

I've not gotten the Nigerian one for a while, but I get plenty of others on simular lines and I get tons and tons offering various drugs to do with 'stamina' 'size' 'power' etc... I used to get loads about breast enalargement too but they've seemed to ahve stopped now currently I'm plagued by the OEM cheap rip off software ones; and lots and lots 'your accoutn 38235623548967' type wanting me to giv eover my bank details... and simular such stuff.... I actually got a genuine Email from my credit card a while ago; but I was so scepticle, I wouldn't click on the link in it as it looked a bit 'dodgy', I called them though, with the number I already had (not that from the Email), turned out it was* genuine, and to do with activation of my new card, so I did it over the phone, and warned them of the 'dodgy' looking nature of the Email Oh, and good news; I jusk checked my hotmail acocunt I've not used for a while, earlier to day, and added up all my winnings on teh lottery:

£392,000,000,000! who wants a share of my winnings?

Heyyayyy!! I am your best friend 2legs.. don't forget lil ol' me!!

how could I forget you? though sadly I think those Emails were all scams ... hence why I always delte them

I managed to stop one scammer by spamming him. Once I got his email address I cut and pasted entire pages like this one:

http://www.scambusters.org/NigerianFee.html

and emailed them over and over again. I usually headed it with (in caps):

*The information you seek from me is included below*

After a while I got a pleading email asking why I was accusing them of this horrible thing. I then proceded to the next phase, the cutting and pasting of sites like this:

http://www.nigerianscambuster.com/termsofservice.html

and

http://www.interpol.int/Public/FinancialCrime/FinancialFraud/NigerianLetter.asp

They needed one more push so I asked for all available information from and about them in order to start a video documentary on the dangers of internet scams.

I haven't heard from them since.

Nice one! Will they meet us at the airport with hand written signs saying "All h2g2 researchers" do you think?

Hey, more seriously, cl zoomer, my stepson's a cameraman too, i wonder if you've ever worked together? Small world 'n all that....

http://www.mercurial.demon.co.uk/

zdt

Great reel! I'm not in that league I'm afraid, I started in sports and commercial work and I've added docs in the last ten years or so. The only Brits I've worked with were a fellow from Wales and some techy types from London who dealt with remote systems. Say hi for me and ask him if he prefers altering rust or silver.

I used to get these e-mails quite a lot... usually from the same (or at least very similar) addresses. Funny how they stopped after I started replying in a highly abusive fashion.

I this photo:

http://www.419eater.com/images/trophy_room/tope3(t).jpg

I miss those pesky Nigerians..
I use the Yahoo emaill account with the spamguard, and just empty the bulkmail address without reading it whenever I remember. I skill get the "enlargement" and "stamina" ones now and again, although not much for the septic tank...used to get loads of them...