scam alert
@GardenGerty (160663)
United States
January 11, 2007 4:24pm CST
To all people who request me as friends. Until today I have readily accepted anyone who asked to be my friend. As of today, when I received a private message from a "friend" that is a scam about a Nigerian estate. What a bunch of malarky. I was not born yesterday. My new standards are that you will have a rating of at least one hundred, and have posted five discussions before I will accept you as friends. I hate to be this way, but the sharks are lurking everywhere. I am glad I am experienced enough not to be scammed. If you are on my friends list and you would like the name of this crook, I will message it to you.
20 people like this
93 responses
@Alexandria37 (5717)
• Ireland
11 Jan 07
Same here GardenGerty. I accepted one MyLot user as a friend and he had no points, but as a matter of courtesy I accepted him. Within minutes I had a pm from him with the same message as yours. I immediately deleted him from my friends list and within another few minutes I had another friends request from him. Needless to say, I denied it. I had another pm from a MyLot user offering to help me make some money. She requested that I open a PayPal account and send $3 to the first person on the list of people which she had sent to me. I will send you a pm with the name of my spammer and if they are one and the same person, maybe we could report them for misuse of the site. Good thing you brought this up for discussion, I would just have assumed that everybody with an email address would be used to these scams.
3 people like this
@GardenGerty (160663)
• United States
11 Jan 07
People who do not get these all the time might be fooled. I would absolutely HATE for that to happen to anyone, just out of ignorance and innocence.
@enchantedemerald (454)
• United States
11 Jan 07
Thanks, GardenGerty, for keeping us posted about these lurking sharks. Just last night I was on the phone with a relative in Georgia who has gotten five of these scams in her mail in the last two weeks alone. Her mailman told her to take the letters into their local post office so they can try to start an investigation. It's a shame that these scams are now coming into our email as well.
@djshocker (400)
• United States
12 Jan 07
They have been coming into my email. LOL I haven't recieved any in regular Postal Mail. But thanks for the warning. Hopefully there is something that can be done about it
1 person likes this
@aggiejoe (799)
• United States
11 Jan 07
I get those all the time now too I usually delete them. I have reported them a few times but nothing ever happens with it. All I get is an email saying that it is a scam to avoid giving them your personal information. Thats like a big DUH. So I keep deleting them and they keep sending them. I'm not really sure its linked to any friends here in mylot but it is annoying to say the least I have more important thing to deal with without dealing with scam artists. But thanks for posting a discussion on the topic it is a big issue with all the scams out there now a days.
@GardenGerty (160663)
• United States
11 Jan 07
I have had them in my e-mail for years, and my provider filters out a lot of them. I was really surprised, and a little hurt, that someone who was on myLot would try to use this forum as a scam. I sure hope that some of the less experienced people do not fall for it.
@spiderman77 (132)
• Israel
12 Jan 07
You are my friend and thats fine I have not asked to be anyones friend and will not do it Mostly because i seldom post discussion topic 95% of my work here is replies maybe even more I have about 12 topics last 3 weeks 8 have 0 responses and 3 have less then 4 and i have learned to accept that I have only sent one message to a friend and it was not a spam That word makes me angry and i hate spam With the 50 friends i have I receive notification in my email account ..one day i had 45 emails about this and i only work until i get 25 credits then i am off to other sites good Luck Gerty was a good friend of my mother-in-law so i am drawn to that name
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (160663)
• United States
13 Jan 07
This post is a prime example of a copy and paste spam. This is actually a post from the beginning of this discussion.The current poster copied it and pasted it into the discussion as his own. I do not know why.
1 person likes this
@whiteheather39 (24403)
• United States
12 Jan 07
Hi Gerty, yes please let me have the name. I had kind of packed up for the night but I got email telling me you had posted so here I am.
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (160663)
• United States
12 Jan 07
To all my friends, and my community, I realize that the laws in Nigeria are what make this so common, and perhaps attracts crooks to reside there. The thing is, they can say Nigeria, or the UK or any place else. On my home e-mail I get things like this and you look at the @something.something else and it will be from France, Italy, Indonesia, or lots of other places. I am not accusing a country, just a person. I also realize that anyone can scam, even with a good history. It will just give me something to look at. Really of all of the people I have accepted as friends this one, one that wanted to message me a bunch of referral links, and one that rapidly posts senseless discussions, make that two like that, are the only sour experiences. For everyone's info. I copy and pasted the entire message into a message to myLot, and demanded that he be banned. At least one other person has had that same message, by that same person.
@whiteheather39 (24403)
• United States
12 Jan 07
They had a person on the Today show a while back about Lottery scams in Nigeria and they actually spoke with some-one represented themselves as being with the FBI and this man stayed on the phone and said he was doing no harm it was just business.
1 person likes this
@OOHCUTE2340 (761)
• United States
11 Jan 07
Thank you, I a "newbie" and I appreciate when a more seasoned mylot poster gives the heads up about such things, fortunately I haven't come across any "scammers" that I know of, I think I worry sometimes that because in the past I have been pretty gullible, putting trust before I should. I try to be extra caution on the internet. Many years ago, I fell for a "magazine" scheme and gave my banking info over the phone before I knew what had happened they had drained my account of my last $500. and I never ever saw one magazine, I was so embarrassed I didn't tell anyone about it except a friend at the bank who reported it for me. Live and learn the hard way - or take heed of a warning. So again thank you.
@GardenGerty (160663)
• United States
13 Jan 07
Spammers and scammers can come from anywhere, and I know there are good people from every where as well. I posted this discussion because we do have young and unexperienced people in this forum who might get excited and fall for these things. Important plan DO NOT GIVE OUT PERSONAL INFO, REAL E-MAIL, NAMES ADDRESSES PHONE NUMBERS unless you are really sure about the person you want to give it to.
@KrauseHome (36448)
• United States
12 Jan 07
Unfortunately, there are people like this on here. It is SAD to say the least, but what can we expect except a few on here who will not be of the Best quality. That is why we should also be VERY careful about making sure we do not give out our real address or phone number to people either on here unless we know they are our Friends, or someone we feel we can genuinely Trust with this information.
@doncris (637)
• Romania
12 Jan 07
I'm sorry that you got scammed. Could you perhaps detail what the scam was about, cause I didn't really get the whole thing from the posted discussion...Sorry for being so annoying. By the way, congrats for your number of posts. I can hardly wait to ahve as much as you do!
@GardenGerty (160663)
• United States
13 Jan 07
I did not fall for the scam, but was concerned, you know we have some young people in this forum, and some inexperienced people. Basically this "lawyer" said, let's split this unclaimed Nigerian estate. I am not even sure it was from Nigeria. He asked for personal information, which I hope everyone knows not to give out. It is against myLot rules to go online and post someone's name and say that they are doing something bad, defame them. For that reason I could not just go online and say "John Doe is a scammer", without risking being banned myself. I did report this to myLot, but thought he probably was targeting others. I have learned from my friends that he is. I have the number of posts because my hubby works nights, and my job had a long Christmas break, and I am absolutely hooked.
@crazynurse (7482)
• United States
12 Jan 07
Your new standards for accepting friends seems like a great idea. I think I will adopt the same policy for choosing myLot friends. As a relatively new member (just 2 weeks) I was under the impression that more friends was better. I am now seeing that fewer, yet quality friendships on mylot is actually better! Stange, just like in real life huh?! Thus far I have accepted all who sent friendship requests and I have been fortunate to have not had any spam. I'm sure my day is coming and I appreciate your bringing this to my attention!
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (160663)
• United States
13 Jan 07
I have accepted lots of friends, and it is almost always good, but I was careless, this guy had (0) ratings. I thought it strange, but accepted anyway. Look at it this way, we got to all talk about avoiding being scammed.
@GardenGerty (160663)
• United States
13 Jan 07
I post a few discussions now and then, and respond to lots of interesting discussions. You should do the same it is fun. That is how you build a good rating.
@lynninky (491)
• United States
12 Jan 07
I get them all the time in my email. Never give them any info about yourself. After finding my full name on email he call information got my phone number and address. I got call from him and postal mail. It is 13 and 14 year old boys doing this scam. You can look it up on nigeriannews.com. They use something to change voice..They are very smart I have to give them that. They have scammed a lot of people.I can not understand why they keep getting by with it.
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (160663)
• United States
13 Jan 07
You have posted information that is new to a lot of people, thanks a lot.
@carbonblack91 (78)
• India
12 Jan 07
hey .. i am new to mylot . so i was just wondering that if you could provide me with a bit more details on these frnd requests and scams
@tanwil787 (4)
• United States
12 Jan 07
I had the same thing happen to me in an email. They said something about paying them $5,000 and they would share a million dollar estate with me. I actually helped the police perform a sting on them. It was the craziest thing I've ever seen.
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (160663)
• United States
13 Jan 07
Good job. I never knew that anything was ever done except to block their internet. Thanks for sharing.
@lilttownmommie (1473)
• United States
12 Jan 07
thanks for the warning, exactly what kind of scam was it? I have always accepted any and all friend requests but everyone is begining to make me think twice about this, and to "clean up" my friends list. Any advice other tha a rating of atleast 100 and 5 posted discussions?
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (160663)
• United States
13 Jan 07
Look at the discussions and see if they appeal to you. Be very careful about giving out real personal information,
@ElusiveButterfly (45940)
• United States
12 Jan 07
Oh dang and I thought that I would become rich and own an estate and everything. What bozos. Thanks for bringing this up GG. There are many who still fall prey to these vultures.
@GardenGerty (160663)
• United States
12 Jan 07
I do not know if he is black, brown, yellow or green. He may be lily white, he may be a she. When it comes to making money and needing money people of all colors abandon their basic morals, if the morals are shallowly rooted. You have to know who you are in order to know what you stand for.
1 person likes this
@estherlou (5015)
• United States
14 Jan 07
In the beginning I felt like I had to accept anyone who asked me. Now, I look at their age and locale, look at their interests to see if they are interested in a lot of what interests me, and then I look at the discussions they've posted. If they don't have something in their interests I don't approve of, or a discussion I wouldn't want to see on the lists, then I'll approve them as a friend. I've gotten a little more discriminating since the beginning days I was here.
@GardenGerty (160663)
• United States
11 Jan 07
Better it come to me, or some of the others who know what to do and will do it, and will not be a victim. I do not mind, just feel sad that I have to be more picky and less kind.
