It's like the scammers aren't even trying anymore

[dannylion]

This afternoon, I received a scam email purporting to be from the US Postal Service informing me of a problem with delivery of a package.  It provided a link, which I was to click on to update my information.  

Of course, this is a well-known scam, and maybe it was felt to be unlikely to produce much response anyway, so perhaps the perpetrators didn't feel like putting much effort into their message.  It wasn't even necessary to examine the originator's email address or evaluate much of anything about the message to determine it was a scam.

Because it was in was in Chinese.  

[billisonboard]

You read Chinese? I'm impressed. 

[dannylion]

Aug 21, 2023 19:43:04 GMT -5 billisonboard said:

You read Chinese? I'm impressed. 

Also Russian, French, and some Italian, Ukranian, and Spanish too.  I was a professional linguist for nearly 40 years.  Since I retired, I need to resort to the dictionary more and more, and speaking skills are fading fast, but it comes back with some practice.  Figuring out that email was actually fun as it had been a long time since I had to read any Chinese.  

[Tennesseer]

On August 15, 16 and 17, I received an email supposedly from lifeLock from three different people telling me they charged me for renewal of their services. Three different sender addresses, the different invoice numbers, three different amounts, three different account numbers.  Hmmmm....

Never had a life lock account and never would.

[laterbloomer]

Aug 21, 2023 19:53:42 GMT -5 dannylion said:

Aug 21, 2023 19:43:04 GMT -5 billisonboard said:

You read Chinese? I'm impressed. 

Also Russian, French, and some Italian, Ukranian, and Spanish too.  I was a professional linguist for nearly 40 years.  Since I retired, I need to resort to the dictionary more and more, and speaking skills are fading fast, but it comes back with some practice.  Figuring out that email was actually fun as it had been a long time since I had to read any Chinese.  

Wow! Do you speak them too? And if you don't mind me asking, where were you born.

[TheOtherMe]

Aug 21, 2023 19:02:45 GMT -5 dannylion said:

This afternoon, I received a scam email purporting to be from the US Postal Service informing me of a problem with delivery of a package.  It provided a link, which I was to click on to update my information.  

Of course, this is a well-known scam, and maybe it was felt to be unlikely to produce much response anyway, so perhaps the perpetrators didn't feel like putting much effort into their message.  It wasn't even necessary to examine the originator's email address or evaluate much of anything about the message to determine it was a scam.

Because it was in was in Chinese.  

I get these about once a week, but never in Chinese.  

Today I received a message purporting to be from Amazon.  Problem is I know Amazon doesn't call out of the blue and I have their number in my contact list.  It was from my area code.  

[dannylion]

Aug 21, 2023 20:20:09 GMT -5 laterbloomer said:

Aug 21, 2023 19:53:42 GMT -5 dannylion said:

Also Russian, French, and some Italian, Ukranian, and Spanish too.  I was a professional linguist for nearly 40 years.  Since I retired, I need to resort to the dictionary more and more, and speaking skills are fading fast, but it comes back with some practice.  Figuring out that email was actually fun as it had been a long time since I had to read any Chinese.  

Wow! Do you speak them too? And if you don't mind me asking, where were you born.

My work involved translating scientific and technical materials and some transcription.  That was where my strengths lay, so I stuck with that as much as possible.  When I was working, my spoken Russian and French were pretty good.  I didn't have a large enough active speaking vocabulary to make me feel qualified to claim to be "fluent," though.  I can understand more than I produce as original expression.  I haven't had much practice since I retired, so I've lost much of that.  I was never very good at speaking Chinese.  I was 42 when I learned Chinese, so I had life experience and translation experience from other languages, which helped a lot with learning written Chinese and enabled me to do very well with translation and comprehension of written communications, but speaking was a challenge, and without the opportunity to get a lot of speaking practice, it just wasn't going to happen.  I have always maintained that spoken and written Chinese are almost two different languages.  It was interesting that my younger classmates (sometimes a lot younger) in Chinese courses were nearly always better at speaking than I was, but I was always better at comprehension and translation of written Chinese, I suspect because of more life experience and more experience with translation of other languages.  A lot of translation involves comprehension of the subject matter, anticipating what the document probably should be saying, and simply understanding that the people who wrote it were almost certainly not insane, so the finished product should make sense.  If it doesn't make sense, it isn't because the writers were crazy and just produced a bunch of random, rambling crap.  If a translation does turn out to be a bunch of random, rambling crap, it's because the translator has misunderstood something or made mistakes or just lacks skill.  A lot of people never manage to learn that lesson.  

I was born in Southern California.  I studied French from 7th grade through college, learned Russian at the Defense Language Institute when I was in the Air Force, and many years later learned Chinese at a State Department language school.  Along the way I picked up some proficiency in related languages and even taught some language courses.  Sorry to ramble on so much; I had a wonderful career and still cannot believe how I managed to be so lucky.  

[bean29]

Aug 21, 2023 19:59:10 GMT -5 Tennesseer said:

On August 15, 16 and 17, I received an email supposedly from lifeLock from three different people telling me they charged me for renewal of their services. Three different sender addresses, the different invoice numbers, three different amounts, three different account numbers.  Hmmmm....

Never had a life lock account and never would.

I get a lot of those at work, but if I don’t recognize the sender, I am not opening the document. I figure if you don’t tell me to expect it, I file it in “Junk”. We are in the stone age for our accounting system.

[toomuchreality]

I always wonder if the people that sold the poorly written scam emails, to the people who send them out, are taking advantage of the newbies to the world of scammers. And the newbies are maybe just hopeful, or haven't realized how poorly written the emails are.

They're so annoying. Even though I don't read them.

[dannylion]

Aug 21, 2023 23:59:12 GMT -5 toomuchreality said:

I always wonder if the people that sold the poorly written scam emails, to the people who send them out, are taking advantage of the newbies to the world of scammers. And the newbies are maybe just hopeful, or haven't realized how poorly written the emails are.

They're so annoying. Even though I don't read them.

This could very well be the answer to the multiple iterations of the same stupid scam email arriving from different points of origin.  Just scammers being "resourceful" and turning it into a sort of Ponzi scheme with newbie scammers as the targets.  

[toomuchreality]

Aug 22, 2023 8:17:38 GMT -5 dannylion said:

Aug 21, 2023 23:59:12 GMT -5 toomuchreality said:

I always wonder if the people that sold the poorly written scam emails, to the people who send them out, are taking advantage of the newbies to the world of scammers. And the newbies are maybe just hopeful, or haven't realized how poorly written the emails are.

They're so annoying. Even though I don't read them.

This could very well be the answer to the multiple iterations of the same stupid scam email arriving from different points of origin.  Just scammers being "resourceful" and turning it into a sort of Ponzi scheme with newbie scammers as the targets.  

That's what I think they do. Get the most bang for their buck. Then target "rich" Americans, they're not likely to get prosecuted by, if caught. But maybe I've watched American Greed too many times. 🙃

[swamp]

Aug 21, 2023 19:02:45 GMT -5 dannylion said:

This afternoon, I received a scam email purporting to be from the US Postal Service informing me of a problem with delivery of a package.  It provided a link, which I was to click on to update my information.  

Of course, this is a well-known scam, and maybe it was felt to be unlikely to produce much response anyway, so perhaps the perpetrators didn't feel like putting much effort into their message.  It wasn't even necessary to examine the originator's email address or evaluate much of anything about the message to determine it was a scam.

Because it was in was in Chinese.  

I've gotten several voicemails in Chinese.  Perhaps I should forward them to you so I know what scam is being perpetrated on me. 

[dannylion]

Aug 22, 2023 12:22:54 GMT -5 toomuchreality said:

Aug 22, 2023 8:17:38 GMT -5 dannylion said:

This could very well be the answer to the multiple iterations of the same stupid scam email arriving from different points of origin.  Just scammers being "resourceful" and turning it into a sort of Ponzi scheme with newbie scammers as the targets.  

That's what I think they do. Get the most bang for their buck. Then target "rich" Americans, they're not likely to get prosecuted by, if caught. But maybe I've watched American Greed too many times. 🙃

When I was driving up to Pennsylvania every weekend to see my dad after my mom died, the radio version of American Greed on Sirius was my road-trip entertainment.  One of the main things I learned from that program was that it is probably a better choice to do business with someone who has partners or is part of a large practice rather than individual practitioners for anything medical or financial.  The medical and financial scammers usually seemed to be in business alone without any oversight or accountability to anyone else.  

[dannylion]

Aug 22, 2023 14:55:13 GMT -5 swamp said:

Aug 21, 2023 19:02:45 GMT -5 dannylion said:

This afternoon, I received a scam email purporting to be from the US Postal Service informing me of a problem with delivery of a package.  It provided a link, which I was to click on to update my information.  

Of course, this is a well-known scam, and maybe it was felt to be unlikely to produce much response anyway, so perhaps the perpetrators didn't feel like putting much effort into their message.  It wasn't even necessary to examine the originator's email address or evaluate much of anything about the message to determine it was a scam.

Because it was in was in Chinese.  

I've gotten several voicemails in Chinese.  Perhaps I should forward them to you so I know what scam is being perpetrated on me. 

I get those, too!  I can get about every third or fourth word, maybe a common phrase if I'm lucky; spoken Chinese is definitely not my forte.  They speak so fast, and some of them are in Canotonese, which I don't understand (I learned Mandarin).  I have no idea what they think they are going to accomplish by leaving voicemails in Chinese on an American's phone.  

[toomuchreality]

Aug 22, 2023 15:00:57 GMT -5 dannylion said:

Aug 22, 2023 12:22:54 GMT -5 toomuchreality said:

That's what I think they do. Get the most bang for their buck. Then target "rich" Americans, they're not likely to get prosecuted by, if caught. But maybe I've watched American Greed too many times. 🙃

When I was driving up to Pennsylvania every weekend to see my dad after my mom died, the radio version of American Greed on Sirius was my road-trip entertainment.  One of the main things I learned from that program was that it is probably a better choice to do business with someone who has partners or is part of a large practice rather than individual practitioners for anything medical or financial.  The medical and financial scammers usually seemed to be in business alone without any oversight or accountability to anyone else.  

I didn't know there was such a program, on Siruis. Although I have all the channels available, I've only listened to music (usually 60s-70s stations). Do you remember/can you help me find it? That would be great! If not, it's not a problem.
Thanks!
I think you're right about scammers not wanting anyone checking their work. Accountability is not what they do best.

[dannylion]

Aug 22, 2023 15:39:18 GMT -5 toomuchreality said:

Aug 22, 2023 15:00:57 GMT -5 dannylion said:

When I was driving up to Pennsylvania every weekend to see my dad after my mom died, the radio version of American Greed on Sirius was my road-trip entertainment.  One of the main things I learned from that program was that it is probably a better choice to do business with someone who has partners or is part of a large practice rather than individual practitioners for anything medical or financial.  The medical and financial scammers usually seemed to be in business alone without any oversight or accountability to anyone else.  

I didn't know there was such a program, on Siruis. Although I have all the channels available, I've only listened to music (usually 60s-70s stations). Do you remember/can you help me find it? That would be great! If not, it's not a problem.
Thanks!
I think you're right about scammers not wanting anyone checking their work. Accountability is not what they do best.

It was several years ago, but I think it was on CNBC, the same channel that carries the TV show.  

[toomuchreality]

Aug 22, 2023 16:15:06 GMT -5 dannylion said:

Aug 22, 2023 15:39:18 GMT -5 toomuchreality said:

I didn't know there was such a program, on Siruis. Although I have all the channels available, I've only listened to music (usually 60s-70s stations). Do you remember/can you help me find it? That would be great! If not, it's not a problem.
Thanks!
I think you're right about scammers not wanting anyone checking their work. Accountability is not what they do best.

It was several years ago, but I think it was on CNBC, the same channel that carries the TV show.  

Thanks!

[Tennesseer]

Aug 21, 2023 19:59:10 GMT -5 Tennesseer said:

On August 15, 16 and 17, I received an email supposedly from lifeLock from three different people telling me they charged me for renewal of their services. Three different sender addresses, the different invoice numbers, three different amounts, three different account numbers.  Hmmmm....

Never had a life lock account and never would.

Two more emails, yesterday and today, from LifeLock telling me my subscription to lifeLock protection expired and they renewed it. Interesting that the yearly subscription price varies in all these emails from the $300s to $400s.

But then the email sender's email address and contact phone numbers change too.

[dannylion]

Aug 25, 2023 8:55:59 GMT -5 Tennesseer said:

Aug 21, 2023 19:59:10 GMT -5 Tennesseer said:

On August 15, 16 and 17, I received an email supposedly from lifeLock from three different people telling me they charged me for renewal of their services. Three different sender addresses, the different invoice numbers, three different amounts, three different account numbers.  Hmmmm....

Never had a life lock account and never would.

Two more emails, yesterday and today, from LifeLock telling me my subscription to lifeLock protection expired and they renewed it. Interesting that the yearly subscription price varies in all these emails from the $300s to $400s.

But then the email sender's email address and contact phone numbers change too.

This must be scam subscription renewal season.  I've had three emails supposedly from McAfee letting me know that my virus protection had been renewed.  I don't use McAfee and haven't for many years.  All of the originating email addresses were different (and none of them was remotely associated with anything that might have led me to believe it really was McAfee).  I wonder if all these renewal notices are coming from the same people.  Maybe each group of scammers has its own assigned fake renewal.  Nah, that would imply a degree of cooperation and integrity among the scammers that they likely do not possess.  

[Tennesseer]

Aug 25, 2023 10:43:21 GMT -5 dannylion said:

Aug 25, 2023 8:55:59 GMT -5 Tennesseer said:

Two more emails, yesterday and today, from LifeLock telling me my subscription to lifeLock protection expired and they renewed it. Interesting that the yearly subscription price varies in all these emails from the $300s to $400s.

But then the email sender's email address and contact phone numbers change too.

This must be scam subscription renewal season.  I've had three emails supposedly from McAfee letting me know that my virus protection had been renewed.  I don't use McAfee and haven't for many years.  All of the originating email addresses were different (and none of them was remotely associated with anything that might have led me to believe it really was McAfee).  I wonder if all these renewal notices are coming from the same people.  Maybe each group of scammers has its own assigned fake renewal.  Nah, that would imply a degree of cooperation and integrity among the scammers that they likely do not possess.  

I too have received several McAfee subsciption renewal emails too. I don't think I ever used them in 20-odd years. I might have received one free year subscription each time I bought a new desktop computer but never purchased anything from them in the past.

[toomuchreality]

I get them every single day, throughout the day. I always have.
I'm glad to be getting fewer scam phone calls, over the past few months. But I think that has more to do with me blocking numbers, than it does with them stopping.

[Tennesseer]

Aug 21, 2023 19:59:10 GMT -5 Tennesseer said:

On August 15, 16 and 17, I received an email supposedly from lifeLock from three different people telling me they charged me for renewal of their services. Three different sender addresses, the different invoice numbers, three different amounts, three different account numbers.  Hmmmm....

Never had a life lock account and never would.

Three new LifeLock renewal emails this morning. Different senders, different yearly $s, different invoice #s, different contact them phone numbers and different mailing addresses.

Sure am glad LifeLock is looking out for me.