Ed Mezvinsky, a former Democratic Congressman from Iowa, is serving a seven-year sentence for fraud after getting caught up in a series of Nigerian e-mail scams.
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2006/12/father_of_chels/
Some people will take the bait.
Murphy Siding ... When stuff like this happens, use the *Report Abuse* function to alert the moderators. The function is under the *more* button, upper right, by the *reply* button. Use any post to report it. Once you hit the button, there is a dialog box to type into- just like replying to a post. State what the issue is, and in which thread, or in this case where, the problem lies. Also please give the name of the bad boy, and a time. ... If you simply post a problem on the forum, it only receives attention if a moderator happens to see the post. As of right now, the 2 moderators are Model Railroad Forum guys, and may not see it on this forum. Luckily, (or unluckily) the same issue was brought up on the MR forum, so they did see it there. That, and they probably recieved the PM as well.-Norris former moderator on the Trains Forums.
...
When stuff like this happens, use the *Report Abuse* function to alert the moderators. The function is under the *more* button, upper right, by the *reply* button. Use any post to report it. Once you hit the button, there is a dialog box to type into- just like replying to a post. State what the issue is, and in which thread, or in this case where, the problem lies. Also please give the name of the bad boy, and a time. ...
If you simply post a problem on the forum, it only receives attention if a moderator happens to see the post. As of right now, the 2 moderators are Model Railroad Forum guys, and may not see it on this forum. Luckily, (or unluckily) the same issue was brought up on the MR forum, so they did see it there. That, and they probably recieved the PM as well.-Norris former moderator on the Trains Forums.
Oh great and powerful Norris/Murphy Siding (oh, you're a former moderator ...)
As the one who simply posted the problem on the forum initially, I do apologize for creating the public bru-ha-ha. I did not realize that I could use the "Report Abuse" button to report something not related to the post as hand (since our Nigerian friend had posted no posts), and couldn't find any other non-post-related way of bringing it to someone's attention.
Thanks for the clarification. I'm fairly new to this site (but I do love it!).
I'm not a 'puter expert, but I did stay in a Holiday Inn last night... As I see it, there is no problem. The e-mail I opened was from Kalmbach Publishing, alterting me to the fact that some dork dohene had sent me a PM. When I opened the PM, I was then on Kalmbach's forum system, which would have to have anti-virus protection. *full disclosure here- I'm a computer dummy. I asked our IT guy at work.
Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.
Norris: Or anyone with more experience on puters than my turn it off and on - since I think most people probably opened the e-mail for obvious reasons - could there have been a nasty bug behind the e-mail? Something that waits and infects later?
Or would my anti-virus have taken care of it?
Mook
She who has no signature! cinscocom-tmw
Here's how the system is set up: Once you join these forums as a member, all your posts go into a moderator's que, awaiting approval. Once the moderator looks at the post, he can approve, edit or delete it. A new member stays in moderated status until the moderators are comfortable that the new poster is on the up and up. At that point, the member's status is changed to unmoderated, and his posts go directly onto the forums. A fair amount of spammers and troublemakers get caught in the moderator's que and sent packing before anyone else even sees their posts. I'd say something close to 99% of the junk gets weeded out before ever seeing daylight. But, like any system, there's always some trouble-maker trying to figure out how to work around the established rules. When that happens, the powers that be then go and plug the latest hole in the fence. Apparantly, the folks that set up the system didn't see the need to moderate the PM's of new members. Who saw that need coming? I guess with all that money needing to be liberated from Nigeria, this was bound to happen. As the moderator system is set up now, if someone misbehaves badly, the moderators can hide their posts in the moderator's que until a Kalmbach employee can show the troublemaker to the door. Only a Kalmbach employee has the power to ban a member. In the case of what just happened, the moderators couldn't put the new member on moderated status, because, as a new member he was already(still) there. All they could do was put up the bat signal, and wait for the exterminater to arrive. When stuff like this happens, use the *Report Abuse* function to alert the moderators. The function is under the *more* button, upper right, by the *reply* button. Use any post to report it. Once you hit the button, there is a dialog box to type into- just like replying to a post. State what the issue is, and in which thread, or in this case where, the problem lies. Also please give the name of the bad boy, and a time. Example: Oh great and powerful moderators (never hurts to suck up a little ) please look at the post by Murphy Siding in the " Bad Apples" thread. In his post of 10;30a.m. Sept 4th, he said that Zugman eats puppy chow.............etc. If you simply post a problem on the forum, it only receives attention if a moderator happens to see the post. As of right now, the 2 moderators are Model Railroad Forum guys, and may not see it on this forum. Luckily, (or unluckily) the same issue was brought up on the MR forum, so they did see it there. That, and they probably recieved the PM as well.-Norris former moderator on the Trains Forums.
Norm,
I think the traffic is high enough on the Kalmbach forums to make manual admission of new members impractical. The forums are set up to make it easy for newcomers to join and then join in the discussions, which is usually a good thing - this is the first time that I've been spammed in the nearly six years that I've been a member.
One possible way of keeping spammers at bay while encouraging newcomers would be to limit the pm's to one per day for the first week after joining.
- Erik
P.S. It was blindingly obvious that the e-mail I got was a run of the mill Nigerian scam - OTOH, there have been a couple of cases where the scammers got scammed by their intended victim.
Norm48327 Guys and gals, I am an administrator of an aviation forum. My task is admitting new members while keeping spammers at bay. Some days it feels like a full time job I should be paid for, but that is not the case. I'm very cautious about who I let in. Simply put, do not respond to any unsolicited emails or PM's. There are many phishers who place some bait out there. Hopefully the mods have put this dude out of business.
Guys and gals,
I am an administrator of an aviation forum. My task is admitting new members while keeping spammers at bay. Some days it feels like a full time job I should be paid for, but that is not the case. I'm very cautious about who I let in.
Simply put, do not respond to any unsolicited emails or PM's. There are many phishers who place some bait out there.
Hopefully the mods have put this dude out of business.
I miss the BaC-111
Norm
tree68 Word from the customer support folks is that this spammer is long gone.
Word from the customer support folks is that this spammer is long gone.
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
Seems that just about everyone in Nigeria wants to leave me in their will.....
I have also been told that I won the Hong Kong Lottery about 15 times.........Well over 100 million.......
Johnny:
I think we must be on a similar wave length....
I was thinking they went on pole dancers.
They must be one of those Foreign inventions.
' Better quit before I hear the sirene of the Forum Police.
zugmann tree68: And pasties on a coal scoop. I'm glad you provided a link. I had a whole other image in my head.
tree68: And pasties on a coal scoop.
And pasties on a coal scoop.
I'm glad you provided a link. I had a whole other image in my head.
The Wiki article tells us that beef pasties must have rutabagas (yellow turnips) in them. I found that rutabagas required long cooking before they were edible, so I seldom used them; instead I added Irish potato and carrot to the onion and beef.
When I was quite young, I enjoyed eating rutabaga--until I learned that they are yellow turnips (and I have never liked white turnips). In later years, I realized that rutabagas not only have a different taste, they are much more nutritional than turnips are.
Johnny
zugmann Murphy Siding: You know, if I had a nickel for every time I saw this scam, I'd have about $14.5 million right now. And if you ever need help moving that money out of South Dakota....
Murphy Siding: You know, if I had a nickel for every time I saw this scam, I'd have about $14.5 million right now.
You know, if I had a nickel for every time I saw this scam, I'd have about $14.5 million right now.
And if you ever need help moving that money out of South Dakota....
tree68 And pasties on a coal scoop.
It's been fun. But it isn't much fun anymore. Signing off for now.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.t fun any
Murphy Siding You know, if I had a nickel for every time I saw this scam, I'd have about $14.5 million right now.
Modelcar .....Received my "scam" message via email. Hit the spam button.
.....Received my "scam" message via email. Hit the spam button.
As already mentioned, if you get email notification of personal messages from the Forum, then that's not wise. You may find that all such notifications from Trains (including those you want to see) could be labelled as spam.
I sent a message to the Trains webmaster. Odds are the spammer hit other forums as well, and if (he) didn't, (he) will...
Laugh all you want, but when I get my 40% of the $14 million I will be the one laughing!
Quentin
tree68 ericsp: zugmann: ericsp: Apparently Trains.com turned into a dating site. I like long walks in the ballast at night, snoot noses, and dinner by LED lantern. (worth a shot). I was thinking a can of beans and a bottle of water, 1999 vintage (I hear the water was really good that year). And pasties on a coal scoop.
ericsp: zugmann: ericsp: Apparently Trains.com turned into a dating site. I like long walks in the ballast at night, snoot noses, and dinner by LED lantern. (worth a shot). I was thinking a can of beans and a bottle of water, 1999 vintage (I hear the water was really good that year).
zugmann: ericsp: Apparently Trains.com turned into a dating site. I like long walks in the ballast at night, snoot noses, and dinner by LED lantern. (worth a shot).
ericsp: Apparently Trains.com turned into a dating site.
Apparently Trains.com turned into a dating site.
I like long walks in the ballast at night, snoot noses, and dinner by LED lantern.
(worth a shot).
I was thinking a can of beans and a bottle of water, 1999 vintage (I hear the water was really good that year).
You guys are such romantics!
This is known as an "advance fee" or "419" scam (419 being the section of the Nigerian legal code that deals with frauds). It all looks so obviously fake and false that you think, why are they wasting their time? But the amazing thing is, people do fall for it. In fact at least one person in the US who fell for it went right to Nigeria to find and punish the scammers -- and ended up dead. And as I understand it the local authorities did not seem too interested in doing much about the scam or the murder.
Often if you Google the names in the scam message you will learn either that 1) it has been used often before and folks posted joking messages about it or 2) it is very close to the name of an actual government authority.
The funniest one of all was the woman in the US who got the message and replied, playing coy, but eventually she established regular contact with the scammer. She pretended to be "interested" in him and sent a photo which she claimed to be hers. In reply he sent a photo which WAS of him! Which she promptly posted on hte internet with the entire "romantic" correspondence. I seem to have lost the link or I'd post it here.
I work for a large firm and we get hit a lot by these and similar scam messages. Back in the day they'd arrive by mail and the envelopes would have beautiful Nigerian stamps which I'd give to the stamp collectors, so at least there was some good that came of it.
Dave Nelson
ericsp zugmann: ericsp: Apparently Trains.com turned into a dating site. I like long walks in the ballast at night, snoot noses, and dinner by LED lantern. (worth a shot). I was thinking a can of beans and a bottle of water, 1999 vintage (I hear the water was really good that year).
Dragoman RudyRockvilleMD: I got it in my e mail also. I am going to report it asspam, and then delete it. It'sa classic scam message allright. Thanks for the warning. But the big question is how did the person who sent it get our e mail addresses? Be careful about "reporting it as spam." Since it came from the Trains.com server (at least mine did), by telling your email service that it is spam, it may treat all messages and notifications from these Trains.com forums as spam
RudyRockvilleMD: I got it in my e mail also. I am going to report it asspam, and then delete it. It'sa classic scam message allright. Thanks for the warning. But the big question is how did the person who sent it get our e mail addresses?
I got it in my e mail also. I am going to report it asspam, and then delete it. It'sa classic scam message allright. Thanks for the warning. But the big question is how did the person who sent it get our e mail addresses?
Be careful about "reporting it as spam." Since it came from the Trains.com server (at least mine did), by telling your email service that it is spam, it may treat all messages and notifications from these Trains.com forums as spam
The guy (or more likely computer program) did not send the e-mail to me. It sent private messages. The server at Kalmbach then sent e-mail notifications of these private messages to me.
"No soup for you!" - Yev Kassem (from Seinfeld)
zugmann ericsp: Apparently Trains.com turned into a dating site. I like long walks in the ballast at night, snoot noses, and dinner by LED lantern. (worth a shot).
ericsp Apparently Trains.com turned into a dating site.
RudyRockvilleMD I got it in my e mail also. I am going to report it asspam, and then delete it. It'sa classic scam message allright. Thanks for the warning. But the big question is how did the person who sent it get our e mail addresses?
Look to the left of this message you will see my user name. Click on it and you can send me a message and the web site will forward it to me via my e-mail address. It is also in the "Conversations" feature of the web site (look to the right side where your avitar always shows with a list of links, the 3rd one down is "Conversations").
All this poor fool had to do was open any posting, click the first user name, paste in his blathering, and click Send. Then click the next name and do it again. It is something that any illiterate animal can be trained to do. It does serve the purpose of making them feel like they are doing something and it keeps them from sitting on the curb all day.
Semper Vaporo
Pkgs.
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