Windows

Brand New Scam

Posted by on May 10, 2006 | 6 Comments

By this time, most of you should know that the job hunting sites are fertile ground for identity theft. The thieves pose as companies looking for help in order to gain access to personal info on applicants. This is a double disaster for those poor people: they’ve lost their jobs and now they have their identity stolen. Now the thieves have hit a new low on the Scum Scale.

Thieves are no longer content to harvest their victims from online job-hunting sites. Now the smaller operators have found a way to cash in on your gullibility.

Today I received am e-mail that claimed to come from the popular job-hunters’ site Monster.com. The truth couldn’t be further from that. Instead, the URL displayed by Outlook for the sender showed that it came from someone in DENMARK, a long way from the California headquarters of Monster.com. There were a few small internal inconsistencies, but those might be missed by someone desperate for work. One was that the job required a “stable Internet connection at home.” Obviously, the thieves also wanted to plant a virus or two on the victim’s home system and they wanted to make sure that the virus wouldn’t be slowed down by any measly dialup access.

Let this be a warning: if you’re a job hunter or not, read incoming e-mail with a close eye to details and apply a healthy dose of sense to the contents!

[tags]virus,identity theft,scam alert,monster.com,scum scale[/tags]

  • http://ryanhayes.net Ryan Hayes

    This post is worth it just for the “Don’t buy a box” tip. A year down the road if you reinstall from a disk you’re going to have to sit through 5 hours of updates anyway for a game that is probably fairly different from the original manual. No need for it.

  • http://ryanhayes.net Ryan Hayes

    This post is worth it just for the “Don’t buy a box” tip. A year down the road if you reinstall from a disk you’re going to have to sit through 5 hours of updates anyway for a game that is probably fairly different from the original manual. No need for it.

  • http://twitter.com/FrugalGeek The Frugal Geek

    Thanks, Ryan.

  • http://twitter.com/FrugalGeek The Frugal Geek

    Thanks, Ryan.

  • http://www.twitter.com/rothsothy Roth Sothy

    I read the entire article and this seems to be just another simple drawing app. Same standard and limited features. Where’s the File Open, Effects, Layers? How do I know what file type is supports and converts to and etc.? I’m talking about the Advanced stuff for advanced artists..

    If you want a real program (I don’t wanna call it app), check out MyPaint for Linux/Maemo OS.. and potentially MeeGo in the future.

    // Roth

  • http://www.twitter.com/rothsothy Roth Sothy

    I read the entire article and this seems to be just another simple drawing app. Same standard and limited features. Where’s the File Open, Effects, Layers? How do I know what file type is supports and converts to and etc.? I’m talking about the Advanced stuff for advanced artists..

    If you want a real program (I don’t wanna call it app), check out MyPaint for Linux/Maemo OS.. and potentially MeeGo in the future.

    // Roth