OK, in the last two days we have had some really odd emails, and I was wonderdering if anyone could shed any light on either of them.
My husband won a rather inexpensive and not-at-all rare, though out-of-print, book off of Ebay (I think he bid $3 or something). A good while later–around a week, we get the following email forwarded through Ebay’s proxy service:
Now, the second this showed up my “scam” sensors went off–the book involved is a fairly technical one, not something that would appeal to many people, and is not rare. Furhtermore, attempting to borrow a book through the mail (even offering to pay) from a complete stranger because it “looks very interesting” seems bizarre–I mean, if we had gotton an email from someone saying that they were a student somewhere and that they needed the book for the research they were doing and they couldn’t find a copy and blah blah blah it would have seemed more genuine. It also makes one wonder why the girl in question didn’t just outbid my husband: like I said earlier, the bid was like three dollars. I don’t think she could have found the listing after the auction is closed–it wouldn’t have shown up on search.
Anyway, that was strange. What was even stranger was that 17 minutes later we get another email from the same Hotmail account that reads in its entirety:
I don’t even begin to know what to do with that. We have not responded in any way. Anyone have any insight into what the deal is? Is this a weird attempt to scam us somehow? How?
This happened last night. An email showed up (directed to my husbands account) with the subject line “Mandy, why are you sleeping with my man?”. As I go by Mandy, this definitly caught my eye. Inside was a picture of a naked woman and links through to (I assume) more porn. There was a disclaimer at the bottom that said “This is not spam. Someone must have signed you up for this list” My husband hasn’t signed up for any porn lists, and he certainly wouldn’t have used that email address, as it also dumps into his mailbox at work.
Here is what I think happened: The subject line with my name in it is a coincidence, someone trying to make it look like I recieved misdirected email from some stranger and hoping I would open it just out of voyerism about other people’s gossip. The email IS spam, and all that “someone signed you up for a list” thing is BS. What I am really looking for here is conformation that someone else has gotten that exact same email, so I know it wasn’t personalized at all. The only other alternitive is that my husband has a really, really weird stalker.
This is a weird one. I can’t think of any reason behind those emails, but you’re right to think that something smells fishy about the whole thing. Either it’s some sort of scam, or you’re dealing with a weirdo. I’d ignore both emails.
It’s spam. Spammers will tell you any number of lies in order to make you think the email is personal, requested and not spam. They’re spammers. They lie. I’d say the ‘Mandy’ is purely coincidental. Even if it’s not, the best advice involves the same course, ignore it. The worse thing you can possibly do is reply.
1a) Lisa could be legit, but it is strange that she didn’t just buy it. Maybe she missed the closing time to outbid your husband or some similar logical explanation. In any case, I’d ignore it and, if she presses, politely decline. Alternatively, tell her the book is valuable to you and have her post a fairly exorbitant deposit. If she’s on the level, she might be willing to give you a couple of hundred, refundable on return of the book. Then it’s a matter of her trusting you, not the other way around.
1b) Perhaps Lisa inadvertantly used your address when replying to something else. Was the “[email address]” cited yours, hers, or someone elses? It’s also possible that someone cracked her Hotmail account and sent inflammatory mail to people in her Out box. This is fairly common if you leave a public terminal logged in to your Hotmail account and the next person who happens by decides to mess with you.
It is very common for spam to arrive “personalized” with your name. In many cases, spammers harvest names or nyms along with addresses when they scan web pages, bboards, Usenet etc. They’ll build a database of emails with associated names and then use those names in the subject or body of the email to lend credibility. It’s also very common for spammers to use the “you signed up for this” ploy. In most cases, you didn’t and they’re just trying to cast enough doubt in your mind to make you not bother pursuing them.
Thanks guys. As far as the personalization thing goes, the email came to my husband’s account, not mine, and in any case I don’t use “Mandy” anywhere on line: my own email adress is just my last name. (Plus a yahoo account with “Amanda” in the title, but that is totally unrelated). I am pretty usre the name thing is 100% coincidence, I just wanted the reassurance of someone saying “yeah, I get that one once a week!”. Ialso dislike getting actual naked people–not just promises of naked people—in unsolicited email.
With the first situation, the email address in the second email was that of the sender. I like the idea of someone walking off and leaivng thier hotmail account open at a public terminal. That sounds right. I am just curious what kind of scam this could possibly be–I am definitly ignoring it, but what sort of information or advantage could this person be looking for?
I think that this Lisa is most likely legit. I also think she has a virus on her computer. My sister had a virus that would automaticly send out an email to the exact email address she just sent an email to.
WOW… that sounds wordy.
For example, she sent me an email… a standard email. It was immediatly followed by ANOTHER email to me that was sent by the virus. In this case however it was a copy of the virus itself in an email attachment. It wouldn’t seem far fetched that this lady has a virus that is sending that vulgar email randomly to people she contacts.
Thats my WAG.
The porn part is probably just coincidental spam. I get shit like that constantly with similar subjects and I’ve never signed up for any porn lists.
Two possibilities: Lisa really does happen to be interested in the hotpoint chromeopathic regeneration of nematodes, and she saw the book up for auction but wasn’t interested enough to go through the hassle of bidding on it. But when she later saw that someone really had bid on it, she was interested to discover that she’s not the only one interested in the hotpoint chromeopathic regeneration of nematodes, that there’s another HCRN hobbyist out there, who WAS interested enough to buy the book. So she’d like to read the book, but not enough to buy it herself, and she’s curious who the other HCRN enthusiast is. Is it the guy with the bleached blonde hair and Guns N Roses t-shirt who keeps hollering “Point of Order!” at the monthly meetings? Borrowing the book seems like a good way to find out without having to have coffee with the Axel Rose wannabe.
Unfortunately, Lisa has a teenager who thinks it’s funny to spam Mom’s address book.
Or alternatively, Lisa is a psycho who sees an opportunity to scrape an acquaintance with a (presumably) trusting stranger. People like this do exist, and she may send this e-mail to everybody who buys things on e-Bay, just to see what turns up.
Two possible explanations: The most likely is that you’re on a personalized spam list–“Mandy” is a common nickname for Amanda. If you happened to go by “Boopsie” or “Sasha”, you wouldn’t have thought twice about this–you’d have shrugged, “Eh, supposedly ‘personalized’ spam”, and you’d have deleted it automatically." But the “Mandy” got you going.
Alternatively, somebody really dislikes either you or Hubby, and thinks a good way to sow discord amongst you is to send you accusatory spam/porn. In an earlier era, it would have been an anonymous, block-printed letter with no return address.
I would definitely ignore both of these, make no response at all. Neither of them sounds legit.
This is also common when users sign up for IM accounts on public machines. I couldn’t count the number of times I have started up a machine at school and seen a student’s entire internet life displayed.
It seems unlikely that asking for the book was a scam. You bought it for three dollars; the volume required to make such a scam profitable seems prohibitive, especially if, as seems to be the case, the person is operating off of a school computer.
Does the title of the book sound like something that an ordinary person might be intersted in? In my experience, many young people have had little experience truly technical writing. Because they have only read works specifically designed for their age level, they assume that all writing and knowledge is that accessible. This person might have had an interest in the book, but didn’t really understood how to bid on the book or buy it from e-bay. He or she probably thought it couldn’t hurt to ask. After sending the e-mail, he or she left the computer adn some idiot decided to send the second one.
As for the “Mandy” email, there is no question that it is spam.
everything that you’ve already been told sounds right, but i just wanted to point out one thing:
if it turns out that the email about the book was legitimate, ignoring the first email isn’t going to hurt. if she really wants it, she’ll send you another.
Thanks everyone for your replies. I am going to ignore the book email: I was mostly curious if there was some way this could be a scam–I was trying to figure out how it could lead to me giving out actual useful information (my email address? my snail mail address?). I like hearing about nifty scams and thought maybe this was one.
And thanks, Opus, for the confirmation that that exact same email is making the rounds. I really think that sending pictures of naked people in the body of an email is tacky–what if I was a seven year old, and the first one to check the email in the morning?–but it originates from a yahoo account. Anyone know if I can forward it to the powers that be at yahoo?
For the book Lisa wanted, it is possible to do a search on completed auctions in eBay. Before I bid on anything I do a search on completed auctions to determine the going rate. I think that Lisa arrived on the scene a little to late, after the auction had ended.
Even though it is a technical book, the fact that someone was selling it on eBay (and that you purchased it) means that it’s not out of the question someone else would be interested in it. I think Lisa’s is legitimate.
To me, it sounds like she may have been at a library and couldn’t find the book, but found a refernce to the one you bought, left the computer and someone hijacked it (a la micco 1b.).
ebay.com monitors email members send to each other with the comment form. You could write safe harbor if you have questions about email you got. If you use your email address as a handle on ebay then they can get around that monitoring.
you could write Lisa a letter & ask her to search at amazon.com they have a huge selecton of old books.
