Webdude
November 16th, 2003, 12:22
This was posted in our forums by one of our clients...
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New Aussie Scam!
We have all had some experience of Internet scams, mainly via email. However a new breed of scam is spreading, using "snail mail" as it's vehicle, and gullible internet users as it's victims.
We all remember the Nigerian scam, which evolved from a simple snail mail scam to an email scam. (Basically, you would receive a letter/email from a high ranking official from the former Nigerian government, prior to the latest revolution. Because of "your trustworthiness", you would have been selected to host 26 Million US dollars of unaccounted-for funds in your bank account! After several letters/emails back and forth, the deal was all set to go through!
Suddenly, there was a slight hitch! A couple of minor officials required bribes to turn a blind eye... if only you could send the Nigerians a measly couple of thousand dollars... etc... lol!
Unlike the Nigerian scam, the current Aussie one is perfectly legal (if rather unethical).
I first found out about it when I cleared out the Post Office Box of the Bendigo Chess Club, and found a rather "official looking" letter from an organization known as "Domain Registrations Australia".
It looked like a bill, indeed it even had a "re-usable" envelope, where you could send your payment to them, (just like a Telstra [local telephone company] bill).
On this letter it had in big red warning letters: "Domain Name Currently Unregistered! XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX".
For the princely sum of only $240.00 odd Aussie dollars, we could "protect" our online name for a total of two years!
Hmmm... I am sure that I could to a better deal with Worldzone for better than 1/8th of that price when it comes to domain name registration.
Initially I chuckled at the thought of any organization that would pay such a fee for the service offered. Then I stopped to think... if only one organization in a hundred falls for it, then it would more than pay for itself.
A recent 'alert' about this scam appears here:
http://www.auda.org.au/about/news/2003071703.html
Another recent Aussie snail mail scam involves someone offering to immediately buy your shares for about 1/3rd of their current market value. If only a handful of people fall for it from a bulk mail, again, it more than pays for itself.
Whilst these scams are not exactly illegal, they are also not entirely ethical.
I am reminded of the 'money back guarantee psychic' from Queensland, who could unerringly predict the gender of your unborn child. If his prediction was wrong, he would cheerfully refund your money! (How could you possibly go wrong!?)
He made a heap of money out of it, without any demonstrable psychic powers of prediction, simply because he had a 50% chance of being right all of the time.
Sigh, of course, people fell for it bigtime.
One would hope that the wealthy and gullible would have learnt their lesson by this... sadly it seems that B.T.Barnum's edict is as accurate today as it was when he elicited it: "There's a sucker born every minute".
##################################
New Aussie Scam!
We have all had some experience of Internet scams, mainly via email. However a new breed of scam is spreading, using "snail mail" as it's vehicle, and gullible internet users as it's victims.
We all remember the Nigerian scam, which evolved from a simple snail mail scam to an email scam. (Basically, you would receive a letter/email from a high ranking official from the former Nigerian government, prior to the latest revolution. Because of "your trustworthiness", you would have been selected to host 26 Million US dollars of unaccounted-for funds in your bank account! After several letters/emails back and forth, the deal was all set to go through!
Suddenly, there was a slight hitch! A couple of minor officials required bribes to turn a blind eye... if only you could send the Nigerians a measly couple of thousand dollars... etc... lol!
Unlike the Nigerian scam, the current Aussie one is perfectly legal (if rather unethical).
I first found out about it when I cleared out the Post Office Box of the Bendigo Chess Club, and found a rather "official looking" letter from an organization known as "Domain Registrations Australia".
It looked like a bill, indeed it even had a "re-usable" envelope, where you could send your payment to them, (just like a Telstra [local telephone company] bill).
On this letter it had in big red warning letters: "Domain Name Currently Unregistered! XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX".
For the princely sum of only $240.00 odd Aussie dollars, we could "protect" our online name for a total of two years!
Hmmm... I am sure that I could to a better deal with Worldzone for better than 1/8th of that price when it comes to domain name registration.
Initially I chuckled at the thought of any organization that would pay such a fee for the service offered. Then I stopped to think... if only one organization in a hundred falls for it, then it would more than pay for itself.
A recent 'alert' about this scam appears here:
http://www.auda.org.au/about/news/2003071703.html
Another recent Aussie snail mail scam involves someone offering to immediately buy your shares for about 1/3rd of their current market value. If only a handful of people fall for it from a bulk mail, again, it more than pays for itself.
Whilst these scams are not exactly illegal, they are also not entirely ethical.
I am reminded of the 'money back guarantee psychic' from Queensland, who could unerringly predict the gender of your unborn child. If his prediction was wrong, he would cheerfully refund your money! (How could you possibly go wrong!?)
He made a heap of money out of it, without any demonstrable psychic powers of prediction, simply because he had a 50% chance of being right all of the time.
Sigh, of course, people fell for it bigtime.
One would hope that the wealthy and gullible would have learnt their lesson by this... sadly it seems that B.T.Barnum's edict is as accurate today as it was when he elicited it: "There's a sucker born every minute".