Reporting very dodgy email

[spurslady]

Hi, I have received a very dodgy email asking for my bank details from someone who I do not know.

I have no intention of sending them, or replying but I would like to know the email address that I can forward the message to, to report it as being fraudulent.

TIA.

[Pippa68]

It wasn't a Nigerian scam was it? I had one of those (again) yesterday.

I usually send them on here ~ there is an email address on the page. Unfortunately they don't do much with it, unless you have actually fallen victim to the scammers ~ but it's worth a try!

http://www.oft.gov.uk/Consumer/Scams-archive/R eporting+a+scam.htm

[Peter Pedant]

just ditch it

I think it is called phishing - make sure you do not answer it.

I tried giving the email to the Bank concerned hahahaha and the clerk said, something like, why are you giving it to us, we didnt send it. [so I wrote to the Bank and said I hope they suffer crippling losses and they had a hissy fit]

Otherwise go onto their web site and see if there is a email address for these emails -I think Barclays does

I get about three or four a week

[spurslady]

Hi Pippa, Yes I think it was. The thing is I know it has got to have been sent by someone Via the AB as this is the only place I have given out my email addresss. It is not my official one soit does not contain my name or anything. Did you post your email on here too? Answering joshieboyo's post?

[Pippa68]

Funny you should say that, spurslady. I have had them in the past through my other email, but not for absolutey ages.

I did post my AB email on here the other day, and lo & behold I get the scam. I have had the email address for almost a year, and never had scammers before...

[steve2010]

you should know better,never give your email address out on this sort of site

[spurslady]

Its not my proper one though. It's just one that I use to keep in contact with some of the others off the site. I would never give out my proper address as that would be daft

[Pippa68]

Me too ~ I set up the AB one for this reason.

When I leave the site, the email address will go. It's only Hotmail, and of course these are the ones which are targeted the most easily.

[brachiopod]

Hi spurslady

Spam e-mails are generated automatically so it won't have "... been sent by someone via AB.."

Some spammers just automatically produce millions of random combinations and variations of letters and words coupled with popular domain names (eg. hotmail.com). Most of these will not exist, but a proportion will. You could receive this type of randomly generated spam even if you have never given your e-mail address to anyone!

Other spammers compile address lists by automatically scanning millions of web pages for anything that looks like an e-mail address.

Your spam is probably a result of the latter.

Don't worry yourself that there is literally someone secretly lurking on AB deliberately targetting you, though be aware that an e-mail address in the public domain can be picked up by anyone.

[Nether Edge]

You need an anti-spam thingy to filter these out.
Try SPAMfighter: free one-month trial, and limited version free even after that.

[joko]

just a tip

if you ever need to post an email address, write it as -

fred*a*hotmail.com

- that way the phishers cannot detect the @ symbol, people will know to substitute the symbol

i know some job sites etc that i use do this to stop bulk emails being sent.

[spurslady]

Thank you all for your responses. I will use the advice in the future.