WARNING! Carlos' eMail seems to have been hacked.

I received an eMail this morning claiming to be from our OTF Carlos. In the eMail, the writer states that they are stranded while on a trip and need funds to get home.

This is a classic scam. I've dealt with them before. If you'll notice, the eMail says it is from "Carlos", but is actually from "Carl0s" (with a zero instead of an O). That fits right in with the scam pattern.

At this point, I am 99.9% sure that the message is NOT from Carlos. If you respond to this eMail, the sender will then want you to send them money via Western Union or some other such wire service.

DO NOT SEND ANY MONEY unless you have with absolute certainty verified that you are indeed communication with Carlos. Make the sender tell you something that only Carlos would know about you (such as something relating to Oly Talk, if that's the only way you know him).

As I said, I've dealt with this exact same scam before in a law enforcement capacity. They somehow hack an eMail account and then send a spoof message to everyone on the list. I've seen well meaning friends fall for this over and over, sending thousands of dollars to some stranger. This smells exactly like one of those scams.

Proceed with caution!

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And, of course, I posted this here because I assumed that some of you that know Carlos from Oly Talk might - like me - be in his address book and may have received the same request, and I wanted to put out the warning of the probable fraud being attempted on Carlos and his contacts.

I have also, of course, sent a warning message to the legit address I have for Carlos, but as of this post I have not heard back from him.

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I NEVER SENT THE MESSAGE.

Early this morning, someone hacked my email and sent an email to everyone of my contacts, telling them I was stranded in Cordova, Spain because I (with my family) was robbed of cash, credit cards, etc..etc. asking to send up to 2,600 Euros to pay the bills...

I started receiving phone calls at 04:30 am to verify the veracity of the message...

Please don't respond to the message, and please DON'T SEND any money to this scam...

It took me a few hours to get back control of my email account, but lost all the messages and contacts...

Had to change passwords in several other places as a precaution...

Thanks

Carlos

Maybe you sent me the message when the scam was still in control of my account...they are no longer...I even responded to the message, and got an address in Cordova Spain where to send the money to.

Carlos

I've had some luck in cases like this convincing Yahoo to restore the deleted address book from backup, so you can alert those in your address book that are the potential targets. It's kind of hard getting them to move quickly though.

I hope you've been successful so far in thwarting the criminals.

Good luck!
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Thanks for the heads-up beacs - and glad to hear that Carlos has managed to sort things out. E-mail scams are ten a penny at the moment. There's several different types:

Those that claim to want to do business with you and wish to deposit million of dollars/pounds/euros (delete as appropriate) into your account because they trust you. But enough about the World Bank.

Then there's the ones that wish to inform you that you have just won the lottery and need to fill in the details on the link provided.

If you have ever advertised a car for sale online, you'll know that within minutes of the ad going up, someone from a distant part of the world claiming to be a citizen in your country("I am in country X for an important meeting at the moment - so can't be there myself to collect the car") wants to buy the car outright - and will send a friend or arrange for a courier to pick it up. All you have to do is provide your bank details so that the payment can be made immediately. Of course - because lets face it - someone so senior in the corporate ladder attending an important international meeting desperately wants to buy a clapped out 17 year old Peugeot doesn't he ? (hmm...come to think of it - that might actually have been beacon...)

Now - if any of you are feeling genuinely charitable and want to help an honest guy out, why not make a small donation to the "Impoverished Research Scientist Needs To Eat Caviar & Drink Champagne" appeal ?? Its a good cause - PLUS you get to feel better about yourself.

;-)

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AH

photophile said:

All you have to do is provide your bank details so that the payment can be made immediately. Of course - because lets face it - someone so senior in the corporate ladder attending an important international meeting desperately wants to buy a clapped out 17 year old Peugeot doesn't he ? (hmm...come to think of it - that might actually have been beacon...)

Click to expand...

Wasn't me. Peugeots have to be at least 18 before I'll have anything to do with them.

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I'll donate if you promise to sell a book of tickets in my raffle with 2 major prizes 1st. The Sydney Harbour Bridge and 2nd. The MCG ---Full and total rights transferred to the lucky winners , providing lifetime income opportunities just $100- per ticket, Books of 20..You can kick it off by sending me the first $100 take whichever no.ticket you fancy.
You know this is legit you've been here and seen these facilities first hand.
Are you in??
Cheers,
John

Here's your opportunity to win an income producing bonanza for a pittance, not just a clapped out17 YO car--Abid puts up such pathetic prizes!!
Cheers,
John

I'm in John, I could do with a Harbour Bridge, LOL

Ian
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http://www.pbase.com/photog1

LOL

I've been thinking about the same thing, get a lottery going to sell pieces of the Golden Gate Bridge



Carlos

Hi Carlos, do yourself a favor mate, buy one of my tickets, if you win you get the whole bridge (lol) The MCG incidentally is our major sports stadium here in Oz, and holds about 110,000 at capacity not a bad 2nd prize.
You can send your money via Paypal it's really all that easy.
Cheers,
JB

Ian,If you buy a book you get a 20% discount---JB

John Byrne said:

I'll donate if you promise to sell a book of tickets in my raffle with 2 major prizes 1st. The Sydney Harbour Bridge and 2nd. The MCG ---Full and total rights transferred to the lucky winners , providing lifetime income opportunities just $100- per ticket, Books of 20..You can kick it off by sending me the first $100 take whichever no.ticket you fancy.

Click to expand...

Well, I wouldn't really know where to put the bridge (plus it might inconvenience daily commuters trying to earn an honest living banking and finance) - but the MCG option is just too good to pass by. What with the Euro on its way out, even Aussie Dollars would be safer currency! ;-)

John Byrne said:

You know this is legit you've been here and seen these facilities first hand.
Are you in??

Click to expand...

Oh yeah - put me down for 20 books! ;-)

I was club secretary for a couple of years for my cricket club (2002-2004). It was hard enough trying to collect the annual membership fees (let alone match fees!) - but you should have seen the crowds scatter for cover at the mere mention of a raffle. The same people were only too glad to spend 10, even 20 pounds on post match drinks - but ask them to donate a single measly pound on a raffle ticket (to raise money for the ground etc) then all of a sudden it was every man for himself! OK, perhaps our raffle prizes could have been a bit more glamorous (usually a jam and raisin cake that someone's mom had made) but surely that was no reason to abandon the club-house faster than a cheeky single flicked down to short fine leg!

:-D

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AH

I'm 99.9% sure that he doesn't actually have the authority to allow us to move the bridge if we win the raffle. This is a very common scam. I've dealt with it before in Brooklyn.

Be advised -- if you win the raffle, you'll likely have to just enjoy your new bridge right where it is. Proceed with caution!

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Have you seen the new 3 D printers? I am sure you would be getting a fake :]

Henry

With respect to the Bridge and should you win, it just stays where it is ,and you, the winner collect the tolls, minimum 3 mill per day 365 days per year and the Aussie Dollar is trading today at $1.08 US. Now you do want more than just 1 book of 20 tickets, don't you?

There's an added bonus too, sight seeing trips from the top of the bridge, another huge revenue earner but for the winner and their families are free--

What a prize and so cheap to enter---PayPal is my preferred method of receiving payments.

Cheers Guys and Gooooood Luuuuuck.
John.