csouter Posted February 17, 2007 Share Posted February 17, 2007 Hi, all! I've just reported this piece of spam. Can anyone tell me what it is meant to be? It is phishing, some other kind of scam or just a chain letter? What's it about? What do they want? What do they hope to gain by sending out this crap? I've never seen one of these before, so I'm looking for opinions. BTW, it might be a bit hard to read, because of the HTML code. If you can, it might be easier to read via a browser, or some such. Thanks in advance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StevenUnderwood Posted February 17, 2007 Share Posted February 17, 2007 Hi, all! I've just reported this piece of spam. Standard Pyramid Get-Rick-Quick Scheme chain letter. Pay $10 and get thousands back!!!! They are not as prevelant as they used to be years ago, and theoretically, they can work if nobody breaks the chain, but I still believe (even though they state several times to the contrary) they are illegal in many places. They probably do work for the first few people if they get enough suckers to buy into it. BTW, 3 people have reported that spam from that IP address and it is currently on the BL. Good work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petzl Posted February 17, 2007 Share Posted February 17, 2007 Hi, all! What's it about? What do they want? What do they hope to gain by sending out this crap? Thanks in advance. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramid_scheme Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dra007 Posted February 17, 2007 Share Posted February 17, 2007 This scam has been around for some time so you can cut and paste in your friend Google to find out more: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=I...amp;btnG=Search I liked this quote: PYRAMID SCHEME Chicago, IL Reply » |Flag for Review Sep 9, 2006 Is this an illegal pyramid scheme? Do Ya Think Pompton Plains, NJ Reply » |Flag for Review Oct 31, 2006 ...of course it is, but do you think everyone who does something illegal......goes to jail?<grin> Despite what the news media reports......there are no victims in a con! There are just people that get "taken" by people that appeal to the level of greed which is acceptable to the mark. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farelf Posted February 17, 2007 Share Posted February 17, 2007 ...but I still believe (even though they state several times to the contrary) they are illegal in many places. They are certainly illegal in every state and territory of Oz, as the perpetrators might discover should they care to relocate their base of activity to the Commonwealth. Provided ACMA and the AFP and the Consumer Protection authority of the "base" state felt sufficiently motivated and co-operative enough and all had the funds to prosecute on the basis of any hard evidence - critically financial evidence, provided the financial institutions were resident and feeling helpful - against said perpetrators. Otherwise it might be a little difficult to enforce. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csouter Posted February 18, 2007 Author Share Posted February 18, 2007 Thanks everyone for all the info! I thought it might be a pyramid scheme, but I wasn't exactly sure, mainly because of the PayPal aspect of it. That actually set me thinking that it might also have been some kind of PayPal phishing scam. Yes, Farelf, you're quite right: those schemes (scams)? have been illegal in Australia for as long as I can remember. (Don't ask me how long that is; it's somewhere in the region of when Adam was a boy)! I haven't seen one of these for many years; the last one I saw was a letter I got in the old-fashioned postal mail about 15-20 years ago. At that time there were heaps of them going around. All you needed was a telephone directory, a photocopier, a good supply of paper, envelopes and stamps, and you were away! How people can get sucked into these schemes is completely beyond me. I thought they had disappeared ages ago! Anyway, once again, thanks to everyone for the info. Much appreciated! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rconner Posted February 18, 2007 Share Posted February 18, 2007 I thought it might be a pyramid scheme, but I wasn't exactly sure, mainly because of the PayPal aspect of it. That actually set me thinking that it might also have been some kind of PayPal phishing scam. In the U.S. (at any rate), what makes these schemes illegal is that they represent gambling through the mails (since the postal service is used to send the money). Using PayPal thus might be an attempt to move this scam off the mails and entirely onto the Internet. I got one of these some years ago, and it occurred to me that this was pretty stupid, since the perps are publishing their e-mail addresses for all to see (including PayPal, whose terms of service forbid the practice). -- rick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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