Talk about "a fool and his money are soon parted".



This scammer had 105 e-mails and passwords in his database! People actually fell for this pathetic scam. But the scammer wasn't even trying. A blank page with 2 fields? Seriously?

That's like fishing with a bare hook, and coming home with a box of 105 fish!

You know what? These people *deserve* to be robbed blind. When you are this stupid, you shouldn't be loose. You need to be under the authority and protection of someone with an IQ over 90, who can take care of you. You shouldn't have control over more than a child's allowance.

And if they're not that stupid, just painfully stupid about online/computers, then SERIOUSLY they need to stay offline. Or at least DO NOT mix finances and online AT ALL. No ecommerce, no e-banking, no online auctions, none of that. As I said above, they need someone with average smarts to be their guardian online. Have a grandchild hold your hand when you go on the computer, as it were. Demeaning? Yes. But when you can't handle something, you need hand-holding. A 15 year old needs hand-holding when he learns how to drive, later when he gets his own finances set up, etc.

Some people are severely lacking in the common sense department. I remember getting similar scam emails when I just started using a computer as a kid, and even then I had the cop on to not oblige. People just fall for this stuff from carelessness and not stopping to think for a minute. It's like those old scam ads you'd see on websites that said "You got mail!". If you stopped to think, it should be obvious that some random website shouldn't be able to know whether or not you received an email. And even if you were unsure you should have the sense to just check your email normally instead of clicking on the ad. If you did happen to have mail then the coincidence might unnerve you, but a few quick Google searches as to why such and such a site seemingly had access to your email should reveal the scam to you.

A lot of scammers are getting smarter now though, in that they're able to set their display names to match that of Apple, Google, etc. in your inbox. Clicking into "more details", or whatever the equivalent on your email provider is, reveals their real email address which is often randomly generated mumbo jumbo. Even if it was a realistic looking email address, you can then just Google it to verify if it was the real one or not.

And if you ever get any links that say something like "Click here!" and don't actually reveal the address, you should right click, hit "copy link address", and paste it into a text editor like Notepad. That will reveal the real url of the link without risking accidentally opening up the site. And the url is almost always some obvious fake mumbo jumbo too.

Sadly, some people are both stupid and greedy, a scammer’s dream come true.  Many years ago, I received a phone scam in which a man from a fictional building supply informed me that his company’s “spotters” had chosen my home for 50% off on basement waterproofing. All I had to do was send $600 to a certain post office box, then call a 1-800 number to set up an appointment.  When the work was complete, I’d receive a refund of $300.  

At that time, I lived in a rented mobile home.  

In retrospect, I should have invited them over to preview my basement, then handed them a couple of shovels.