Nerve Endings Firing Away

It is a pity that spammers are getting more smarter than the ones responsible for preventing it. Reports trickled in last week that spam had almost doubled and making a reentry into people’s inboxes prompting them to ask their sys admins whether their spam filters were working.

Apart from the occasional and obvious spam, I never really get much, thanks to GMail’s excellent service. However, I noticed a sneaky way in which they tried to get past. As the semester ended, I decided on a bit of spring cleaning and refurnishing. I put up my writing table and chair up for sale on the campus mailing lists; desi and non-desi and also tried out the College Station section of Craigslist.

Yesterday, I got an email from a certain Rose Teller saying that she was interested in the desk that I had advertised and asked me to send my account number to process payment. Mind you, no demand for pictures or any further negotiation on the price. I got a bit suspicious and didn’t respond. The next day, I got an email from seemingly another person expressing an interest in my items; but also mentioned that he/she lived in Switzerland. Now who in their right mind would ask for a second-hand desk in a foreign country couple of thousand miles away.

Of course, some people might fall for it and wanting a quick sale might respond thereby confirming the existence of your email id (remember, Craigslist protects your email id by providing a masking service) or still better, get your account number to perpetuate their fraud. So if you are selling any of your household items online, be extremely cautious of people agreeing instantly to the sale. Also, never give out your account number. Insist on a Paypal payment if necessary and ship your item only after you get the full payment. Relying on known merchants such as Amazon or eBay is probably the best option. Contact with a real person who is willing to come over and take a look and pick up the items is also much better.

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