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I've just banned a user by the name of "Eliana" who joined the site on 3-11-2011 specifically to email people the old standby "Nigerian I'll give you MILLIONS of buckaroos" scam.
If you received an email from her through A.com, I'm sure you already knew to promptly delete it and move on. Please be assured that she does NOT have your email address and clicked on the "Email member" button from the profiles. No email addresses are given out by us or allowed access to directly unless you respond directly to an email or of course if you email someone yourself.
Please remember to report things like this as often it's the only way I know we have trolls! Thanks to Caths for this specific report!:prop:
Crick
Crick, I just wanted to point out that if members don't want other members to email them through adoption.com, they can opt out in their Control Panel settings. You can still leave the option set to "YES" to receive Private Messages (PMs), even if you set the Email option to "NO".
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RavenSong
Crick, I just wanted to point out that if members don't want other members to email them through adoption.com, they can opt out in their Control Panel settings. You can still leave the option set to "YES" to receive Private Messages (PMs), even if you set the Email option to "NO".
Raven, I know you can do that but I wasn't expecting to get a scam that way. I am happy to leave the email option in but if it happens again, I might change the option setting. I am not sure why the scammer settled on me in particular, perhaps I was the last person to have posted on a.com at the particular time the scammer was looking on the site (I'm often posting when the rest of you are fast asleep lol). I note when you get all those rubbish posts on a.com that I seem to be one of the few that probably sees them as they seem to be posted about 6-10pm Australian time.
Cath,
Yep, you're right about the time zone thing. As you know, I'm often up in the wee morning hours California time. And I've noticed that most of spammers and scammers show up between 1 am and 4 am. I keep busy hitting the "Report Post" button on them!
Thanks for the info. She has emailed me twice now. She has asked for my address. Yeah right! I told her she could use our paypal link to donate. Just wanting to see what her response is. If someone were to fall for this, what would she benefit from? Is it a scam that she will end up profiting from?
aprilhwth
Thanks for the info. She has emailed me twice now. She has asked for my address. Yeah right! I told her she could use our paypal link to donate. Just wanting to see what her response is. If someone were to fall for this, what would she benefit from? Is it a scam that she will end up profiting from?
It is what is called an "advanced fee" scam.
An advance-fee fraud is a confidence trick in which the target is persuaded to advance sums of money in the hope of realizing a significantly larger gain.
Last update on May 4, 2:51 pm by Miriam Gwilliam.
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If it makes you feel any better I got the scammer thing too. Of course I was not home, and by the time I got home it had been well reported and Crick was on the job. I have been a member here for a few years and this is the first time it has happened. (not to say I don't get lots of those from other sources, LOL. Just never before from A.com) They probably went after many people and didn't even look at who they were sending it to, since my sig says moderator. Hopefully everyone deleted it and didn't send them any info.
I received another one - this time "she" has changed her name to Eliana00 lol. I have sent Crick another message.
Also I checked the members and there is an Eliana0 also awaiting confirmation which is obviously the same person. Both Elianas say they are from Alabama.
Also, I note you say that if they send via that email button that she does not have my email address. However, I was going to send her a rude message that way (i.e. via the email button) and noticed it said down the bottom:
Note: By using this form, your email address will become available to the user who you are emailing.
Right, if you respond to her email, then she WILL have your email address. As long as you don't respond, she can only send through us.
Off to ban and put a different stop to it as she seems determined. Sigh.
crick
Right, if you respond to her email, then she WILL have your email address. As long as you don't respond, she can only send through us.
Off to ban and put a different stop to it as she seems determined. Sigh.
Actually, I didn't mean I would have responded to her email - there is no way I would do that. I meant sending her a separate email exactly the same way she sent it to me, i.e. by going to her MyPage and sending a new email that way. That is when the message came up, so I assumed that if she emailed me via my MyPage, that meant that message would have come up for her as well. Hope that made sense.
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I note when you get all those rubbish posts on a.com that I seem to be one of the few that probably sees them as they seem to be posted about 6-10pm Australian time.
:thanks: