Damn those Scams

I got a call yesterday for a defunct domain I used to own and another woman on the other end with an Indian accent butchered my name and then proceeded to ask me if I owned the aforementioned domain. Again, butchering the domain name pronounciation. I told her it was expired, and that I did not want to continue this conversation and hung up.

Seriously people, are they that hard up to make a buck that they’re dumpster diving into expired domain registrations? I’m also wondering who’s selling these lists. Is it Yahoo? Since that’s who I registered the domain with (back in 99 or 2000, I don’t even remember.) Is it Network Solutions or ICANN that handles most of the domain registrations? I don’t know, but its making me pretty peeved that once I pay these hucksters for my domains, they feel completely feel no responsibility to guard my privacy.

Another 001819 scam? Sounds like it after I googled it and found so many people having the same issue. I just got the call from this phone number, 866-383-0986, and I didn’t know, so I picked up. Luck was on my side though, since I was out at one of my favorite burger joints in Virginia (Elevation Burger) and it was extremely loud, so I couldn’t hear anything. From what I could decipher, it sounded like an Indian accented woman, but I kept screaming, “I can’t hear you” into the phone. After a few seconds, I guess she gave up and hung up. Karma was on my side for once.

I know Verizon and Cingular have already started suing these scammers, but I’m glad T-mobile has jumped on the bandwagon, since I do use their service.

From yahoo news:

BELLEVUE, Wash.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Jan. 23, 2006–In an effort to restrain the unlawful activities of entities that attempt to fraudulently obtain confidential customer information, T-Mobile USA, Inc. is bringing legal action against online data brokers the company believes are involved in illegitimately obtaining and selling call records. Acting under Washington State criminal profiteering laws, T-Mobile today filed suit in King County, Wash., Superior Court seeking an injunction to stop Locatecell.com, as well as related companies and individuals, from allegedly engaging in such illegal behavior. T-Mobile also is prepared to take similar legal action against other believed violators.

Even the most technical-savvy people get scammed.  Russell Beattie got phished last week, and now he’s getting a barrage of scam/spams.  I had this happen to me last month.  A nigerian scammer won an auction of mine, and asked me to not use pay pal.  He had the audacity to use a netherland’s address/yahoo account, then proceed to ask me to send it to his son as a gift down in Nigeria.

After contacting Ebay, they were pretty apathetic about it. All they did was refund me the percentage of what I would’ve had to pay if the person actually did pay, but they did not offer to refund me the listing fee, and wouldn’t even let me relist the item.  They told me to use the “second-chance” offer to other bidders, so basically, I would have to sell my product to someone else for a lower price.  If Ebay isn’t incited or angry about scammers infiltrating their site, how am I supposed to believe they even care to police themselves that well.

I’ve always wondered how these scammers are starting to get cell phone numbers as well as any relevant referential information from those numbers, now I know.  Damn these scumbags

From engadget:

Your cellphone provider may have a detailed privacy policy that would seem to protect your calling records and other personal data from data brokers. But it looks like the data pirates have the upper hand as they’ve begun stooping to tactics like pretending to be handicapped customers and service provider employees, with the aim of wresting your info from gullible call-center workers