"Perhaps the FBI might be
interested?"
Several years ago, when I got my first scam email
from Nigeria, I hadn't yet heard about the scam but could at least
recognize there was something decidedly fishy about the email. I called
the local FBI office. They said, "Oh, yeah. The Nigerian check
scam. Here's a phone number for the Secret Service. Report it to
them." (I guess the Secret Service isn't all that secret.)
I called and talked to an agent. He explained
how the scam worked and asked me to forward the email to him. I never
heard any more about it. I frequently still get emails that are most
likely scams or phishing. You know, the ones that say there's a problem
with your account at a bank you've never heard of, or the "From" column
in the Inbox shows a person's name but clicking on Properties shows a
strange email address, or the subject is something like "Here's something I
think you'll be interested in". I simply don't open them. I click
once on the subject in the Inbox and then hit shift-delete. It's kept me
out of trouble so far.
Tom Gourley
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