Still Another Email Scam

Blanket emails are sent allegedly from a company's Customer Support office. The wording of the first sentence of the email are meant to hook the reader.

We recorded a payment request from "Office Max" to enable the charge of $28.80 on your account.

Here's another similar hook

We recorded a payment request from "Mutual of Omaha" to enable the charge of $7008.18 on your account.

And here's another similar hook

We recorded a payment request from "Belk" to enable the charge of $28.10 on your account.

The wording of the remainder is the same. It tries to get the reader to download a spurious program attached to the email

The payment is pending for the moment.

If you made this transaction or if you just authorize this payment, please ignore or remove this email message. The transaction will be shown on your monthly statement as "Office Max".

If you didn't make this payment and would like to decline it, please download and install the transaction inspector module (attached to this letter).

It goes without saying, not to do so, but to delete the email.

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Scam Warning: Look out for the stock market numbers game

The old numbers game is a classic Stock-Market scam

Example: You receive in the mail a letter on expensive bond paper with a fancy letterhead. Or maybe you receive an email from a seemingly reputable sounding source of authority. In either case, a prediction is made to you of the future stock price of a company or the direction of the stock market will take in the immediate future.

Chances are you ignore the prediction in these first letters or emails. But then you receive subsequent letters or emails from the same source, and each time the forecast proves to be true. Now you're hooked.

So how does the scam work? It's just a variation of the old numbers game. Here's an example.

Tell fifty people that the stock price of ABC Company will rise tommorow and tell another fifty people the price will decline.

Whatever happens, you will be right for fifty of the people.

Repeat the process, and again you will be right for some of the people. Now you get the idea.

Herb