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Beware of New Email Scam! Although I don't Understand What the Purpose Is...

thought I was starting to pick up more hits from people interested in obtaining information related to the tax credit, home buying, etc, but apparently it's a new scam. The only thing is...I don't know why they are doing it.

Is it simply email harvesting so they can sell my address to a million other people that want to spam me or is it something even more sinister?

It seems the activity has reduced considerably as of 8-25-09. I don't see as many posts being indexed with Google so they've probably moved on to using new addresses or filled their site with enough content.

Just received a message (7/31/09) from a NEW account originating from a different IP Address: teronspoons@gmail.com claiming to be "Lacey" with originating from IP address 69.89.18.16

Just received a message from another new address today (7/24/09), petrov.gazprom@gmail.com from "Tony":

From: "petrov.gazprom@gmail.com"
To: chandasellsindy
Sent: Friday, July 24, 2009 9:10:44 AM
Subject: How long it take for the 8000 first home buyers refund

How long it take for the 8000 first home buyers refund?
Before I go ahead, is there any pointers you might have?
Please help me.
Thank you for your help.
Gratefully, Tony

Just received a message from a new address today (7/21/09), iris.accountants@gmail.com from "Janet":

From:"iris.accountants@gmail.com"
To: chandasellsindy
Sent: Tuesday, July 21, 2009 2:41:33 AM
Subject: Would you consider giving me a couple pointers

I would like to find out about the would you consider giving me a couple pointers. There are so many factors to consider. Would you be kind enough as to give me some pointers as what to look for or avoid?
Any help would be appreciated. Thank you in advance. Sincerely,
Janet

Last week I received an email from "Frank" regarding the tax credit. I thought "Mike/Frank" found my blog about the tax credit and had additional questions about how the credit works. I thought it was odd that he signed as "Frank", but the email address was "Mike"... I searched the internet for this particular address, but didn't come up with much so I responded...

Here's "Frank's" message:

From:"mike.power200@gmail.com"
To:chandasellsindy
Sent: Friday, July 3, 2009 10:04:24 AM
Subject: How much of a tax rebate will i get for buying my first home

How much of a tax rebate will i get for buying my first home? I was thinking that your advice would be very helpful. I know you must be very busy so any pointers would be very much appreciated.
Please point me in the right direction. Thank you in advance.
Thanks, Frank

This morning I go to check my mail and see I have an email from "Janet". The wording of the message sounded very similar to the one I got from "Frank" last week so I thought I'd look this particular email address up. This one yielded results. Various people were saying this same email address was sending messages with inquiries related to whatever industry they were in...

Here's "Janet's" message:

From:"andri.manager@gmail.com"
To:chandasellsindy
Sent: Tuesday, July 7, 2009 10:31:13 PM
Subject:Do homebuyers pay sales tax

Hi,
Do homebuyers pay sales tax? I don`t know if you are the right person to ask, but any advice/pointers you might have would be very much appreciated.
Would you consider giving me a couple pointers?
Thank you for your help. Gratefully,
Janet

So here I thought I was being a good Samaritan when in reality I was being scammed. ARGH! I don't know what will happen as a result of responding to "Frank" but I wanted you all to be aware in case you've received similar inquiries! DON'T RESPOND!!!

I'll keep adding the bogus messages to this post as I receive them....

From "Leanne":

From: andri.manager@gmail.com [mailto:andri.manager@gmail.com]
Sent: Saturday, July 11, 2009 11:38 PM
To: chandasellsindy
Subject: What is the average homebuyers credit score

What is the average homebuyers credit score?

What things should I be considering before going ahead? Please point me in the right direction. Thank you in advance. Thanks, Leanne

From "Larry":

From: andri.manager@gmail.com [mailto:andri.manager@gmail.com]
Sent: Monday, July 13, 2009 9:40 AM
To: chandasellsindy
Subject: How much down payment do i need to buy a house for conventional loan

Hi,

How much down payment do i need to buy a house for conventional loan?

I don`t know if you are the right person to ask, but any advice/pointers you might have would be very much appreciated. A little advice would go a long way right now. I really appreciate your help. Thank you, Larry

From "Kim":

From: "petersons.production@gmail.com"
To: chandasellsindy
Sent: Thursday, July 16, 2009 12:18:07 AM
Subject: How long to wait on first time home refund

Hi,
How long to wait on first time home refund? I don`t know if you are the right person to ask, but any advice/pointers you might have would be very much appreciated. Any info much appreciated. Thank you very much.
Thanks, Kim

I guess I can deal in Canada now...From "Lacey":

From: "andri.manager@gmail.com"
To:chandasellsindy
Sent: Friday, July 17, 2009 2:05:23 PM
Subject: How much money needed to buy a house in canada

How much money needed to buy a house in canada? I was hoping maybe you could give me a few hints as to what I should be looking for and what to avoid.
Would you consider giving me a couple pointers?
I really appreciate your help.
yours truly,
Lacey

Chanda Barrick, REALTOR®
1st Choice Real Estate Group
(O)317-889-1111
(C)317-572-7770
(F)317-889-9198
www.chandasellsindy.com

Posted by Chanda Barrick REALTOR (Indianapolis, Avon, Greenwood) on 07/08/2009 07:47 AM

Comments (48)

Scam Alert in the ActiveRain Channel

andrimanagergmailcom, mikepower200gmailcom, spammers, scammers, petersonsproductiongmailcom, irisaccountantsgmailcom, petrovgazpromgmailcom, terons

This post has been included in Indiana Information Marion County, IN Information Indianapolis, IN Information
Post is included in group: The Lounge at Active Rain
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Post is included in group: LATE NIGHT - EARLY MORNING AT ACTIVERAIN
Post is included in group: Diary of a Realtor

48 Comments on Beware of New Email Scam! Although I don't Understand What the Purpose Is...

JUL

Thanks for the heads up. There are so many scams going on right now, and people trying to get into your computer. It's scary. Although, like you, I don't get the point of this one.

Thank you for the headsup... I have not received any of this trash yet, hopefully now that I am aware, thanks to your blog post, I will be fore armed and trash it immediately.

Thanks for the warning. Looks and sounds innocent enough.

Hi Chanda, there are more and more of those type of emails surfacing. Sometimes you don't realize it's a spam scam until you get another similar one. I inadvertently answered one recently only to receive a return email trying to direct me to some site.

I received an email from andri.manager last week about down payment amounts. He signed it "Frank"

I have no idea what type of spam email this is, other than perhaps a way of verifying our email addresses to be added to another database?

Write back asking for a phone number and see if you get a reply. If not....delete.

I personally think it's safer to not respond than respond and ultimately find out they were trying to scrape your IP address from the header or harvest your email address...

Chanda,

Thanks for the heads up. I must say this is a new on me.

Geez how stupid am I? I just realized I responded to yet another message like this. This one was from Fred...I wonder what the purpose of this is...

From: petersons.production@gmail.com [mailto:petersons.production@gmail.com]
Sent: Saturday, June 27, 2009 3:23 PM
To: chandasellsindy

Subject: Can you get the 8000 credit with bad credit

Hello,

Can you get the 8000 credit with bad credit?
I am trying to figure out what is important. I was hoping you might be able to give me some insight. Any help appreciated.

Thank you so much.

Thanks, Fred

JUL

Chanda,

I just got this email and I always google the email addresses and your link came up.

Thank you so much for posting this. I almost responded, but I now know better.

Have a great week.

Jeff, I'm happy to see this post was helpful to some. I received another message today from another email address with similar wording. It seems this is becoming a daily occurrence for me. I still would like to know what the purpose of fooling people into answering bogus questions is...

I jut got it as well, WTH is up with that, kind a makes me mad and want to go ot and punch someone

JUL

I got the same!

mike.power200@gmail.com to webmaster@rome-rentals-co.com

date 10 July 2009 21:1

subject How many euros do you need for 4 days in rome hide

details 21:17 (42 minutes ago) How many euros do you need for 4 days in rome? Since you have experience, I was hoping you could give me some clues as to what you look out for. Any help appreciated. Thank you very much. Kind Regards, Susan

I just got the same type email. I did do a blog regarding "Costs to Build" so he question did seem legitimate.

Glad I googled before I responded. What made me suspicious was, the email adress was different from the name that signed the email. Glad I did not respond. Don't know what would have happen if I did.

Here is what my email said:

From: mike.power200@gmail.com

RE: How much does it cost to build 1000 sq ft

Hi,

How much does it cost to build 1000 sq ft?

I am trying to figure out what is important. I was hoping you might be able to give me some insight. Would you consider giving me a couple pointers?

Thank you in advance. yours truly, Terry

JUL

I got this today from mike.power200@gmail.com as well. Another blog I read about this said it was an IRS agent trying to entrap me for giving tax advice. ugh. Thanks for posting this!

They seem to alter the message based on the person's profession.. I received two more from the Andri Manager address...I'll post them up in the main part of my post...

I swear there is a new scam created every minute. I am sorry this one snared you. Better luck next time!

JUL

Just received two identical emails at two different email addresses I haven't used in a long while from mike.power200@gmail.com signed from "Terry". As you noted, the email sender asked a question about my industry, which is health. It seemed odd, so I Googled. So glad I did because I found your blog. Thank you for the important heads up!

Thought this looked suspicious. I googled it (not sure why, just had a feeling?), anyway came up with this post. Good stuff. Thanks for the heads-up!

Thank you for posting this!! I got an email from the same email address today. I still don't understand what the scam is but thanks to you I won't respond!! Here's the message I rec'd: From: mike.power200@gmail.com [mike.power200@gmail.com] Sent: Tuesday, July 14, 2009 12:27 PM Subject: What realty companies do rentals What realty companies do rentals? I need a little help/direction before I can start. Any nuggets of wisdom would be absolutely great and very much appreciated. A little advice would go a long way right now. Thank you in advance. Thanks, Julie

Seems they would've disabled these gmail accounts by now...

JUL

Thanks for the heads up. Here is another one for you.

From: mike.power200@gmail.com [mailto:mike.power200@gmail.com]

Sent: Thursday, July 16, 2009 5:14 PM

To:

Subject: What does a relator make in ohio

Hi,

What does a relator make in ohio?

What are the best options in your opinion.

Please help me. Thank you so much.

Sincerely, Susan

You'd think they'd at least try to spell Realtor right...

Chanda - I just got a similar e-mail from this e-mail, from Janet ... I Googled the email AND GOT YOUR BLOG AS #1 - so I know two things now ... AR is still awesome and you have helped me understand that this guy is a phony. I appreciate you posting this. I had just responded with ... "How am I talking to?"

I flagged this since other people might want to know - I also found the same e-mail address on many other websites ... ???

Active Rain members,

Thank you very much for the information. I'm in Shanghai. China and we received an email from Jerod with email mike.power200@gmail.com. I thought it was strange. The question just seemed too general compared to most emails we get. Below is the mail in its entirety. Hope no one got taken in.

Paul Salo

http://www.salohomes.com/

"On Sat, Jul 18, 2009 at 7:42 AM, mike.power200@gmail.com wrote: How much office space cost to rent it? There are so many factors to consider. Would you be kind enough as to give me some pointers as what to look for or avoid? Please help. I am very grateful for your help. Kind Regards, Jerod

JUL

I received:

Hello,
What to pay for referral fee finder fee?
What are the best options in your opinion. Please point me in the right direction.
Thankyou. Sincerely, James

from andri.manager@gmail.com

While the question might appear legitimate I was wary that there was not sig line or other identification -- not something my readers would normally do. On checking here, I handled it the way I handle all abusive emails, delete, after forwarding it to abuse@gmail.com.

I write a fashion blog and got a similar e-mail from

petersons.production@gmail.com:

"What to wear on a sport vacation?
I don`t know if you are the right person to ask, but any advice/pointers you might have would be very much appreciated.
Please point me in the right direction. Thank you very much.
Regards,
Fred"

Definitely seems fishy!

Laura

JUL

I revieved as follow:

From: "mike.power200@gmail.com" <mike.power200@gmail.com>
Subject: How much does a cell phone cost in vietnam

How much does a cell phone cost in vietnam?
I was thinking that your advice would be very helpful. I know you must be very busy so any pointers would be very much appreciated. Would you consider giving me a couple pointers?
Thankyou. yours truly, Julie

Absolutely, it's boring engouh. Actually, i am a cell phone exporter. Like these emails will waste lots of my time to check they are scammer not.

According to the comments, i think my email should be be sold.

IP that they emailed from is: 74.221.221.68

JUL

Both Iris and Amber - what a bizarre viral spam experiment, eh?

JUL

It's just getting annoying now. I'm almost tempted to block any email from gmail users, but then I might lose an email that I really needed to receive...

JUL

Here is the IP Address Contact Information. There is an email address and phone number for reporting abuse.

OrgName:    GoWebman Corporation Network 
OrgID:      GCN-15
Address:    2650 S WolfCreek
City:       Columbus
StateProv:  IN
PostalCode: 47201
Country:    US

NetRange:   74.221.208.0 - 74.221.223.255 
CIDR:       74.221.208.0/20 
OriginAS:   AS31849
NetName:    GOWEBMAN
NetHandle:  NET-74-221-208-0-1
Parent:     NET-74-0-0-0-0
NetType:    Direct Allocation
NameServer: NS1.GOWEBMAN.COM
NameServer: NS2.GOWEBMAN.COM
NameServer: NS3.GOWEBMAN.COM
NameServer: NS4.GOWEBMAN.COM
Comment:    Please submit all reports of abuse to abuse@gowebman.com
RegDate:    2008-08-01
Updated:    2008-08-01

RAbuseHandle: GAD28-ARIN
RAbuseName:   GoWebman Abuse Department 
RAbusePhone:  +1-812-342-2991
RAbuseEmail:  abuse@gowebman.com 

RNOCHandle: GNO7-ARIN
RNOCName:   GoWebman Network Operations 
RNOCPhone:  +1-812-342-2991
RNOCEmail:  noc@gowebman.com 

RTechHandle: GNO7-ARIN
RTechName:   GoWebman Network Operations 
RTechPhone:  +1-812-342-2991
RTechEmail:  noc@gowebman.com 

OrgAbuseHandle: GAD28-ARIN
OrgAbuseName:   GoWebman Abuse Department 
OrgAbusePhone:  +1-812-342-2991
OrgAbuseEmail:  abuse@gowebman.com

OrgTechHandle: MGO11-ARIN
OrgTechName:   GoWebman Admin, Manias 
OrgTechPhone:  +1-812-342-2991
OrgTechEmail:  admin@gowebman.com

You're absolutely right, I went back through the ones I had saved and found that the IP was 74.221.221.68 just as John said. I'll send a report now along with the header info...

i have received three emails from iris.accountants@gmail.com. at first, i also thought it was a legitimate email. the first email was from janet, the second was from james, and the third is from jerod. i answered the first two emails because i thought it was a legitimate email. but now that i received the third one, i started to have doubts. i searched the net for the email address and found your site. i'm not going to reply to that email anymore. thanks!

Leela, glad to help.

I'd be interested to know if those of you that responded to the messages have seen an increase in the number of Adult related spam... I noticed I'm receiving a ton of spam pointing to adult related websites now. Wondering if this idiot, er person sold my email address to them...

for the past 3+ months, i've been receiving these stupid emails from the same account (iris.accountants@gmail.com). because the first one sounded semi-legitimate as they were asking general questions about products we sell, i took the time to write a lengthy, informative reply. as soon as i got an email from the same account with a different name in the signature, i knew something was off. now, i'm concerned that my reply may have provided them with details about my IP, location, etc. which can be used for something more harmful. i'd be curious to know what personal info contained in the data from my reply might be in jeopardy now. anyone have ideas? any info would be much appreciated.

JUL

I get those emails just like Chanda gets. I just ignore them.

Hi,

I also got email from them:

Return-Path: <apache@gmail-mx2.com>
Received: from Unknown (HELO gmail-mx2.com) (74.221.221.68)
Received: from gmail-mx2.com (localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1])
by gmail-mx2.com (8.13.8/8.13.8) with ESMTP id n6VFHtnT032652
From: "iris.accountants@gmail.com" <iris.accountants@gmail.com>
Subject: What is the amount to pay to pass panama canal
Message-ID: e270eaaf652ddadd464a6eb39a547118@gmail-mx2.com

Hello,

What is the amount to pay to pass panama canal? I know you are probably very busy but I was hoping you could give me a couple pointers. Would you consider giving me a couple pointers? Thankyou. Regards, Susan

Very strange all this, what could be their purpose I wonder

I have been getting those emails too.

Just now I received another similar one from a new address:

LANACANESHEETS@GMAIL.COM

AUG

We have now received two of these emails at our firm. I googled the name of the second user, because that email sounded fishy, and i found your site. Unfortunately, the earlier one we got from iris.accountants@gmail.com seemed innocent enough.

We are a small investment banking firm. I am concerned... are they targeting finance/real estate firms? If so, why?

Now i know to put these in the trash. I'm also going to send an abuse note to gmail.

Thanks for posting this.

You need to report them to Gmail abuse. I just finished doing that for several of these senders. I Googled the "iris.accounts" email, which is how I found your blog post.

Anyone who receives these emails should report them to Gmail abuse. These people have been sending me the same stupid questions for over a month now. They won't go away -- so we have to get their Gmail accounts shut down. I've been going all over the Internet and trying to motivate people toward this end. We have to make their spamming strategy too labor-intensive for them, by getting all of their accounts shut down (as many times as necessary). It's the only way to make it stop.

-Brandon

AUG

Lets nail these fuckers, whoever they are!?

Heres the one I received:

From: teronspoons@gmail.com
Subject: How much is accommodation tax in usa

Hello,
How much is accommodation tax in usa? Would you consider giving me a hand or at least some advice based on your experience? Please help.
I really appreciate your help.
Kind Regards,
Tony

The answer is no, Tony, you can go fuck yourself and burn in hell.

Now Lanacanesheets is a new one. Haven't gotten that one yet. I'm sure I will eventually though...

Greetings, i just saw you blog about email spam. My humble advice is to avoid common emails like info@ sales@ admin@ etc. Try to use more secured emails like realesatebusiness@ of house4sale@ this is more hard for spammers to reach you.

I hope this migh help.

Regards,

John

AUG

I just was mailed by them to, I googeled "teronspoons"

,and found this here, thankyou for the info.

From: "teronspoons@gmail.com" <teronspoons@gmail.com>
Subject: If i needed assistance on my gap year in rome where could i go
Message-ID: <ac18d5b13378360e31c1500ba64145c5@gmail-mx2.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Hello,
If i needed assistance on my gap year in rome where could i go?
I am not sure what criteria are important.  Can you please guide me.
Please help.  Thank you for your help.  Kind Regards, Paul

I've received smilar from:

lanacanesheets@gmail.com

"
Before I go ahead, is there any pointers you might have? Any help would be appreciated.
I am very grateful for your help.
Regards, James"

Hi, somebody found out what they are after :

http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2009/07/23/what-weird-spam-is-this/#comment-4807

These spam emails are being sent to unwitting individuals and companies for “expert” opinions so that this company can publish content on their blog/website. They then run paid ads next to the answers, so they can make money off of other people’s expertise.

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