# Oh Noes! The FBI caught ON to me!! Need Answers Fast! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 13, 2010, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-noes-the-fbi-caught-on-to-me-need-answers-fast/532346 "2010-03-13T14:40:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2010, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-noes-the-fbi-caught-on-to-me-need-answers-fast/532346/21 "2010-03-16T15:23:52Z")
> [@enigmatic](#): > > This is where I get confused, I have never received a single scam of this type in the ten plus years I’ve been using the internet in any internet account I actually read. I maintain a single ablative yahoo mail account that I supply the address for if I ever need to sign up for a website that I don’t completely trust, but I hardly ever use this and never check the inbox (although admittedly looking at the amount of mail that’s in there, I am sure that it is indeed packed full of spam). The vast majority of stuff I do using my main addresses and I’ve never received any spam from a website I have not signed up with. > > Exactly what is it that the average user does to attract all of this spam? Especially considering these are university and work accounts, presumably people aren’t going to be using them to do anything dodgy. Guestbooks. Usually a particular 419er will stake claim on a guestbook by posting the word “mugu”. Sometimes two scammers will get into a territory fight, such as [here](http://www.horses.co.uk/guestbook/guestbook.cgi?country=TOGO) (“AM PLAESE KEEP OFF I HAVE FINISHED HERE UMU GUYMEN”). ---
**Author:** ![enigmatic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@enigmatic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enigmatic)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2010, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-noes-the-fbi-caught-on-to-me-need-answers-fast/532346/22 "2010-03-16T17:56:53Z")
> [@](#): > > Sometimes spammers just use \@domain.com, or \.\@domain.com to generate addresses. That might be the issue then as my username is deliberately not amenable to the wordlist approach. The point is though that it’s usually blindingly obvious which websites pose the most risk, I suppose a lot of people don’t necessarily see their email address as unsafe information to give out. The other thing I find a little surprising is the lack of effort that the authorities put into basic education about scams and malware. There is a lot of wringing of hands, and anguished speculation about how to deal with the botnets when it would seem that you could go a long way to impacting this stuff with some PSA type commercials. I would imagine that a lot of people would take computer security a lot more seriously if you could just communicate. 1. If your computer is running slowly or you have downloaded random crap from the internet your computer is quite possibly infested with viruses. 2. These viruses are probably stealing your cc details, passwords, bandwidth and allowing people to read your email. 3. Your computer may be suborned into a botnet and used in all sorts of illegal activity, possibly including stuff like the supply of child pornography via your computer. A lot of people who have virus infected computers are dimly aware they have a problem, they just don’t seem to see computer viruses as a big deal. Surely these things are a big enough factor in international fraud to pay for a Superbowl TV spot or two? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-noes-the-fbi-caught-on-to-me-need-answers-fast/532346.md?page=1)