Pardon this rather didactic message. Below is a recent successful attempt I
made at having some Unsolicited Bulk Email (SPAM) blocked -- one that also
falls under the category of the West African advanced fee fraud. It is true
here that acting locally -- to reduce your own spam, also acts globally -- to
reduce everyone else's spam, because at least temporarily another spamming
account is shut down.
Briefly, I look at the full headers of the SPAM message. Most email clients
such as Eudora and Outlook hide them by default but can be configured to
display them.
I check to make sure the doman name ("rediffmail.com" as seen below) is the
same across the "From:" field, the "Message ID:" field and at least one of
the "Received:" fields. In this case it is. Because the are, the chances
are that these headers then are not forged (they can be).
I sent a complaint to the originating ISP, rediffmail.com, and my ISP,
attbi.com. The default email address to send complaints can be generated the
following way: append the domain name to the word "abuse" with the ampersand
gluing them together.
e.g. abuse@rediffmail.com and abuse@attbi.com
For further reading of the grim reality of this West African advanced fee
fraud, the best website I have found is for the London police:
http://www.met.police.uk/fraudalert/index.htm
Read their cases. People actually do fall for this stuff.
bb
---------- Forwarded Message ----------
Dear user,
Thank you for contacting us regarding spam received from a Rediffmail user.
We have a strict spam policy, and according to this policy, the offending
user's account will be blocked.
Please feel free to contact us incase you have any further queries or
suggestions.
Warm regards,
RediffMail Customer Care
-----Original Message-----
From: Bill Barowy (wbarowy@attbi.com)
Date: Sunday, February 23, 2003 10:30 PM
To: abuse@attbi.com (abuse@attbi.com); abuse@rediffmail.com
(abuse@rediffmail.com) Subject: Fwd: URGENT & CONFIDENTIAL.
Please stop the sender of this UBE
Thanks!
---------- Forwarded Message ----------
Return-Path: <gguie99@rediffmail.com>
Received: from rediffmail1738.com ([62.194.21.181]) by sccrgwc02.attbi.com
(InterMail vM.4.01.03.37 201-229-121-137-20020806) with SMTP
id
<20030222123037.LMCR13604.sccrgwc02.attbi.com@rediffmail1738.com> for
<wbarowy@attbi.com>; Sat, 22 Feb 2003 12:30:37 +0000
From: DR. GILBERT GUIE <gguie99@rediffmail.com>
To: wbarowy@attbi.com
Reply-To: gguie99@rediffmail.com
Subject: URGENT & CONFIDENTIAL.
Date: Sat, 22 Feb 2003 13:30:37 +0100
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/mixed;
boundary="c155d383-7881-4b02-93f6-90178ad5426d"
Message-Id:
<20030222123037.LMCR13604.sccrgwc02.attbi.com@rediffmail1738.com> Status: R
X-Status: N
FROM: DR. GILBERT GUIE
E-MAIL:gguie99@rediffmail.com
I AM DR. GILBERT GUIE, THE FIRST SON OF LATE ROBERT GUIE, EX-MILITARY HEAD
OF STATE OF IVORY COAST, WHO WAS MURDERED AALONG WITH THE INTERIOR MINISTER
ON THE 19TH OF SEPTEMBER 2002. I CONTACTED YOU BECAUSE OF MY NEED TO DEAL
WITH PERSONS WHICH MY FAMILY AND I HAVE HAD NO PREVIOUS PERSONAL
RELATIONSHIP WITH. SINCE THE MURDER OF MY FATHER, I HAVE BEEN SUBJECTED TO
ALL SORTS OF HARRASMENT AND INTIMIDATION WITH LOTS OF NEGATIVE REPORT
EMANATING FROM THE GOVERNMENT AND THE PRESS ABOUT MY FAMILY. THE PRESENT
GOVERNMENT OF LAURENT GBAGBO HAS ALSO ENSURED THAT OUR BANK ACCOUNT ARE
FROZEN AND ALL ASSETS SEIZED. IT IS IN VIEW OF THIS, THAT I SEEK YOUR
CORPORATION AND ASSISTANCE IN THE TRANSFER OF THE SUM OF FIFTEEN MILLION
UNITED STATES DOLLARS (US$15M)BEING THE VERY LAST OF MY FAMILY FUND IN MY
POSSESSION AND CONTROL. AFTER THE MURDER OF MY FATHER, THE PRESENT
GOVERNMENT SEIZED ALL OUR PROPERTIES AND FROZE ALL OUR ACCOUNTS BOTH LOCAL
AND INTERNATIONAL. MY ONLY HOPE NOW, IS THIS CASH MY FATHER CAREFULLY
PACKAGED AS ARTIFACTS WITH A SECURITY/FINANCE COMPANY IN THE NETHERLANDS.
THIS SUM OF US$15M CAN EASILY BE WITHDRAWN OR PAID TO A RECONMENDED
BENEFICIARY. THE SECURITY COMPANY BASED ON MY INSTRUCTION OR THAT OF MY
LAWYER WILL RELEASE THE FUNDS TO YOU WITHOUT ANY HITCH. YOU WILL BE
PRESENTED AS MY BUSINESS PARTNER WHO WILL BE FRONTING FOR ME IN SUBSEQUENT
VENTURES AND IN TRUTH YOU WILL BE FRONTING FOR ME, IN THE AREAS OF BUSINESS
YOU DEEM PROFITABLE AND NECESSARY. TO SHOW MY PREPAREDNESS AND APPRECIATION
TO CONDUCT THIS BUSINESS WITH YOU,I SHALL GIVE YOU AND YOUR FAMILY 25% OF
THE TOTAL FUNDS AND 5% FOR ALL EXPENSES INCURRED DURING THIS TRANSACTION,
WHILE THE REMAINING 70% WILL BEFOR MY FAMILY AND ME AND THIS WILL BE USED
FOR INVESTMENT PURPOSE IN YOUR COUNTRY UNDER YOUR MANAGEMENT. PLEASE I NEED
YOUR FULL SURPPORT AND C-O-O-P-E-R-A-T-I-O-N FOR THE SUCESS OF THIS VENTURE.
I PLEAD WITH YOU TO TREAT THIS VENTURE AS URGENT AND CONFIDENTIAL. THIS IS A
SENSITIVE ISSUE, WHICH DEMAND HIGH DEGREE OF SECRECY. YOU SHOULD PLEASE HAVE
MY CURRENT POLITICAL STATUE IN MIND. ALSO ENDEARVOUR TO FORWARD ALL
CORRESPONDENCE TO MY E-MAIL ADDRESS
gguie who-is-at rediffmail.com. IF YOU PROVE YOURSELF TO BE INTERESTED AND
TRUSTWORTHY, THAT YOU WILL NOT RUN AWAY WITH THE WHOLE FUND.
IT IS PERTINENT FOR ME TO MENTION THAT PRESENTLY, I AM IN THE NETHERLANDS AS
AN ASSYLUM SEEKER. I AWAIT YOUR URGENT RESPONSE.
YOURS TRULY,
DR. GILBERT GUIE
-------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------
-----Original Message-----
From: Bill Barowy (wbarowy@attbi.com)
Date:
Sunday, February 23, 2003 10:30 PM
To: abuse@attbi.com (abuse@attbi.com); abuse@rediffmail.com (abuse@rediffmail.com)
Subject:
Fwd: URGENT & CONFIDENTIAL.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sat Mar 01 2003 - 01:00:06 PST