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Don't know if anyone else got an email from Monicacare202 to their chapala.com inbox. THIS IS A SCAM. Flags for me are "TOGO", "permit you to take 10% of the fund", and the grammar sucks.  Too much like the exiled crown prince of where ever emails that were sent around a few years ago. Am I cynical - you bet; do I sympathize with the 'plight' - yes; do I know this person - hell no.

"The reason I write you this letter is because I needed a trust worthy person that can handle this issue with care and carry out my instructions and directives with sincere heart I am Mrs Monica a Greece citizen living in Lome Togo, I’m 42 years old widow suffering from a long time cancer of the breast in addition to high blood pressure. Reference to the doctor’s confirmation that I have less than three months to live, So I have decided to Donate €3.000.000.00, which I deposited in my bank for the help of orphans and the less privilege through you for the work of humanity in the society as I don’t have a child that will inherit my wealth when I’m no more alive, I know too well that this project will make you have limited access to your own activities, so I permit you to take 10% of this fund for your faithful time/commitment and use the rest for the work of humanity to fulfill my last wish on earth.reply E-mail (monicacare6@gmail.com)"

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I read an interesting article about why these scam emails are so incredibly dumb sounding. The perps are very cunning, not dumb at all. The cost to send these out are negligable. They are intended to weed out anyone with half a brain. They have to pay dearly to skilled people to converse back and forth to get them to actually send money so they are trying to "qualify" their prospect pool before spending the big bucks. Now it makes sense to me.

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Why does anyone even open these emails?  Not only are they a scam, but they could be infecting your computer with viruses.  If I don't recognize the name of the sender, or even if it seems like a familiar name but just looks suspicious, I hold my cursor over the sender name (without clicking on it), and it shows the email address that it's coming from (most of the time).  If you don't recognize that email, don't open it!

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24 minutes ago, ComputerGuy said:

Just to ease everyone's mind, opening an email will not cause a problem. Clicking on a link or a file within the email is when the trouble starts.

Thank you for the info.  I thought if you opened an email, the sender receives some sort of confirmation that it was read, therefore,thinks the receiver is a target.   

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That can actually happen, but you would have to agree to it before it happens. And if it actually happened to go through, you would simply be confirming that you have an active email address, but nothing else.

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I remember about 12 years ago when a person, perhaps 68 years old, fell for such an email, and sent first a small amount and then later more and more money. He was coming around begging to borrow just a few thousand dollars. He promised he would pay me and others back once his millions arrived.

To make a long short we were able to get ahold of his relatives who had to come down and take him back home up north. It was really sad,

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1 hour ago, ComputerGuy said:

That can actually happen, but you would have to agree to it before it happens. And if it actually happened to go through, you would simply be confirming that you have an active email address, but nothing else.

Whew !!!!  Thank you very much for the info.   ?

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As I pack to come back home from Seattle I got the phony Microsoft call, where they said they had discovered I had a serious virus and stating how they needed access to my computer to fix it and (really get bank account passwords etc) and I always tell them I have and apple or a banana computer or something stupid.

In Mexico, I have gotten the "this is Mike" call and also this is your oldest grandson call. If I am in a hurry, I say BS or something like that and hang up. If I am bored I play with the caller trying to keep him busy so he will have a less productive day.

When it is about my computer the guy calling always has an accent. When they say this is Mike or your oldest grandson, there is no accent. 

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23 minutes ago, johanson said:

As I pack to come back home from Seattle I got the phony Microsoft call, where they said they had discovered I had a serious virus and stating how they needed access to my computer to fix it and (really get bank account passwords etc) and I always tell them I have and apple or a banana computer or something stupid.

In Mexico, I have gotten the "this is Mike" call and also this is your oldest grandson call. If I am in a hurry, I say BS or something like that and hang up. If I am bored I play with the caller trying to keep him busy so he will have a less productive day.

When it is about my computer the guy calling always has an accent. When they say this is Mike or your oldest grandson, there is no accent. 

When I lived in Canada, I used to get the phoney Microsoft call at least once or twice a week, for over a year!  I tried to tell them every time that I actually had a Mac (which was true), but they wouldn't leave me alone.  I tried calling the telephone company several times, they wouldn't do anything, and caller ID didn't help, because they'd use different phone numbers each time.  I even threatened that I'd call the police, but they kept calling.  Finally, they gave up after many, many months!

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On 6/26/2017 at 0:25 PM, ComputerGuy said:

Just to ease everyone's mind, opening an email will not cause a problem. Clicking on a link or a file within the email is when the trouble starts.

Not quit true. According to Virus Basics | US-CERT:

Most viruses, Trojan horses, and worms are activated when you open an attachment or click a link contained in an email message. If your email client allows scripting, then it is possible to get a virus by simply opening a message. It's best to limit what HTML is available in your email messages.  https://www.us-cert.gov/publications/virus-basics

Apparently it all depends on how you open the email. Some clients will block scripts embedded in an HTML email, others will not.

 

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I cannot find a single case where that has happened, and if it was possible, every scammer would be doing it. The site is wrong and outdated. Email clients cannot run Javascript, which would trigger such a thing, and web-based email such as HotMail, Yahoo and GMail absolutely has any "activating" functionality blocked.

Sites like this often childishly suggest you turn off HTML, don't display previews, etc. Well, that cuts off about 90% of the functionality of the program. It's like saying "Don't go for a walk if you don't want to get hit by a bus".

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On 6/27/2017 at 2:17 PM, moderator-2 said:

I wish someone had sent me a heads up on this Spammer.

They've been erased.  Sorry for the inconvenience.  This one was pretty tricky, not posting but instead using PMs.

FYI - I used the "report" option before I posted this thread so.... if that isn't adequate then perhaps that option needs to be deleted.

 

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