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The clever reason scammers can’t spell (2019)

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Re: The clever reason scammers can’t spell (2019)

#71

Post by skissane »

citizenpaul wrote: post #64
hanoz wrote: post #51

This is bollocks. Speaking for Britain, and I think I can, there are hoards of would be victims to this kind of scam, particular of the current retirees generation, who are extremely vulnerable to having the wool pulled over their eyes about technical and internet security best practice matters, but for whom just so much as a poor turn of phrase or some unusually laid out punctuation is an absolute dead giveaway. If…

>because at the end of the day they don't speak English very well and don't have access to anyone who can. You believe they don't have access to fiverr or any of the numerous sites that will copy edit for a couple dollars of the thousands bucks they are scamming?

They probably don't realise their English is bad. Are you going to pay for a copyeditor if you don't realise you need one?

Re: The clever reason scammers can’t spell (2019)

#73

Post by constantcrying »

hanoz wrote: post #51

This is bollocks. Speaking for Britain, and I think I can, there are hoards of would be victims to this kind of scam, particular of the current retirees generation, who are extremely vulnerable to having the wool pulled over their eyes about technical and internet security best practice matters, but for whom just so much as a poor turn of phrase or some unusually laid out punctuation is an absolute dead giveaway. If…

>because at the end of the day they don't speak English very well and don't have access to anyone who can.

They have access to spell checkers. I somewhat agree that current retirees may be very sensitive to spelling mistakes, but spammers often aren't even putting in the minimum amount of effort to produce an error free E-Mail. I think that both theories aren't satisfying.

Re: The clever reason scammers can’t spell (2019)

#74

Post by hutzlibu »

hattmall wrote: post #67
SturgeonsLaw wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am another data point that would agree with you on this. I would classify myself as a sophisticated computer user (if I don't say so myself), and I fell for a phishing page once. They recreated a pixel-perfect copy of the Steam login page in a fake browser window with a pretend address bar etc. I entered not only my creds, but also my 2FA code, before realising that it was not legit. Got an email shortly afterwards…

Yeah, actual credential phishing attacks can be sophisticated and well put together. The ones where they will make mistakes on purpose to weed people out are the ones where they are REALLY looking for a target to squeeze. They will keep some of these people on for extended periods of time and get loads of money from them. I have a friend that got a message from a "girl" over the summer. It was like "Hello Dear Joseph…

"So far I think he's 8 grand into helping her. I'm sure it's more now because that was like before Halloween and it's impossible to convince him that it's a scam."

Scams work, because people want to believe in them.

Re: The clever reason scammers can’t spell (2019)

#75

Post by jstummbillig »

hanoz wrote: post #51

This is bollocks. Speaking for Britain, and I think I can, there are hoards of would be victims to this kind of scam, particular of the current retirees generation, who are extremely vulnerable to having the wool pulled over their eyes about technical and internet security best practice matters, but for whom just so much as a poor turn of phrase or some unusually laid out punctuation is an absolute dead giveaway. If…

Like... Google Translate? I am not claiming the explanation is true, but it seems roughly as plausible as the alternative.

Re: The clever reason scammers can’t spell (2019)

#76

Post by 4gotunameagain »

hanoz wrote: post #51

This is bollocks. Speaking for Britain, and I think I can, there are hoards of would be victims to this kind of scam, particular of the current retirees generation, who are extremely vulnerable to having the wool pulled over their eyes about technical and internet security best practice matters, but for whom just so much as a poor turn of phrase or some unusually laid out punctuation is an absolute dead giveaway. If…

Why would you say that here, there are so many indians browsing hackernews.

Don't help them get better at scamming.

Re: The clever reason scammers can’t spell (2019)

#77

Post by [deleted] »

4gotunameagain wrote: post #76
hanoz wrote: post #51

This is bollocks. Speaking for Britain, and I think I can, there are hoards of would be victims to this kind of scam, particular of the current retirees generation, who are extremely vulnerable to having the wool pulled over their eyes about technical and internet security best practice matters, but for whom just so much as a poor turn of phrase or some unusually laid out punctuation is an absolute dead giveaway. If…

Why would you say that here, there are so many indians browsing hackernews. Don't help them get better at scamming.

[deleted]

Re: The clever reason scammers can’t spell (2019)

#78

Post by xg15 »

Sounds like a perfect use case for text generators to me. If you receive a mail that you're 100% sure is a scam or phishing attempt, you could pass it to ChatGPT and have it teergrube the scammer into some endless conversation that binds as many resources on the scamner's side as possible.

(emphasis on "100% sure" though. If such a system was widely deployed, it could also quickly turn into a Kafkaesque horror show if legitimate messages get caught in it)

Re: The clever reason scammers can’t spell (2019)

#79

Post by kabes »

colejohnson66 wrote: post #21
anon_cow1111 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is true but also... In my experience[1] a large majority of facebook-level romance scammers use the same copypasta messages when possible, because they actually are from (e.g.)Nigeria and really do have poor English. This is especially relevant to your point because facebook could EASILY be flagging people based on known pasta messages, for review or shadowbanning etc. They presumably don't do this because "not…

> They presumably don't do this because "not my problem". They don’t care. It’s that simple. I’ve (on Facebook/Instagram) reported scams, and they always say it doesn’t violate their community guidelines. But it turns out the computer “reviewed” my report, so I appeal it, and it’s always “sorry, but we don’t have enough people, so we’re ignoring this appeal. Here’s the report ID for the ‘review’ board.” On the rare c…

Exactly my experience as well. Even for the most obvious scams. Either they really are so incompetent or they don't care at all

Re: The clever reason scammers can’t spell (2019)

#80

Post by Eleison23 »

version_five wrote: post #53
johndhi wrote: post #3

I was wondering that recently. But I don't know -- I feel like they'd catch even the discerning people if they did a better job of it. Why don't they exactly replicate what a Google or Chase email looks like? I don't see how I wouldn't fall for that.

I get phone calls sometimes that are almost certainly legitimate, such as from my insurance company, and if they ask me to give them any information (like my address for "security purposes") I always refuse and tell them I can call back. The same is true with email. You should never be giving any information away, even if it appears to be a completely legit communication from your bank or whatever. The exception (and…

When the doctor's office phones me, they must immediately learn my DOB or they can't reveal any information. Unfortunately the person calling is sometimes a nurse who's working on test results or some followup and they don't have a direct number. But it's kind of a stalemate if I won't reveal anything to them, and they won't reveal anything to me.

At this point if they manage to have the correct caller ID and I'm more or less expecting the call, it can't hurt to divulge my DOB. Scammer's going to find that out easily anyway.

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