SPAMMERS AND SCAMMERS

Anybody who has e-mail knows that one of the downsides of the Internet and its worldwideweb is the introduction to our shrinking world of spammers. Junk mailers who flood our inboxes with hundreds of unwanted and intrusive mail. And you end up spending valuable time and not to mention money to clear it.

I know I have often made the joke that somehow the whole world knows I need a penis extension, plus cheap Viagra and a cheap car loan. But it is serious.

And it is not just the spammers. It is the scammers. The Internet is an international alligator swamp trying to separate you from your money. Trying to get your credit card details. Trying to get your bank account numbers and passwords. Trying to get you to help the widow of a murdered African potentate get millions of dollars out of Nigeria or Zimbabwe or Zaire.

In the past 24 hours I have received e-mails purportedly from the ANZ and Commonwealth banks insisting that their accounts systems are no longer secure and I must re-submit my account numbers and passwords. And if don’t my account may be locked and I’ll have no access to my own money. The fact that I don’t HAVE a Commonwealth Bank account means that threat doesn’t really concern me.

But it is amazing, and says something about human frailty and human greed that many people have fallen for the Nigerian “hot millions” scam. I remember reading about one couple in Florida investing something like $250,000 on the promise of millions. They came up with even more money when the supposed “transfer” of their millions hit a snag. From memory they ended up something like $750,000 out of pocket after several fruitless, naïve, trips to Washington and Lagos.

Greed can obviously addle the brain.

The latest scam is not technically on the net but I bet it was hatched there. This electronic swindle involves supposed miscalls to people’s answering services.

The caller – by a “miscalled mistake” --leaves some financial advice telling a friend to buy a certain stock because it’s “like at 50 cents now but I know from some inside info that it will go to at least five or six bucks this week”.

You can’t believe your luck. You race out and buy the stock. Within days you unwittingly help ramp it shywards. And the shysters quietly sell. Take the money and run.

Remember Hinch’s Law: If it sounds too good to be true – it usually is.

Tuesday, September 28, 2004

©Copyright Derryn Hinch 2004