Fellow SGF members;

I has now been approximately 4 months since I began locking down the SGF against offshore scam artists. I have had very few reports about attempted scams over the past month, so I wanted to put out the word that if any member of the SGF, who has posted items for sale, should receive what is obviously a scam email offering to purchase your goods, would you please forward it to me as an attachment, at wizardodelasteel (@) hotmail.com (remove the spaces and parenthesis). There is also a link to my email above this post.

Here are several things that need clarification before you send suspicious messages to me:

• Only report attempted scams pertaining to goods you have posted for sale on the SGF, not eBay, or some other outside Forum;

• You absolutely must be sure that you are forwarding the scam email with it's full headers attached! See my security announcements at http://steelguitarforum.com/Forum13/HTML/001207.html for a complete description about displaying and forwarding the full headers with email messages.

• Be sure that the email is really an attempted ripoff. Poor spelling is not enough to condemn somebody, but the offshore scammers give themselves away on several counts. If in doubt send it to me anyway and I'll let you know if it is a scam, or just somebody who can't spell correctly.

• Only send new scam emails to me, and send them as soon as you receive them. I not only ban scammers from further access to the forum, I also report them to their ISP and all points that passed the email along, via my SpamCop reporting account. SpamCop only processes spam and scam messages that are less than 48 hours old.

• Do not forward viruses or virus produced messages to me for reporting. Delete them without opening the attachments.

  
  

• Keep your computers well protected with anti virus and anti spyware solutions, and keep those programs updated every day, or automatically. Scan for newly installed or downloaded threats often. You can find computer assistance on the SGF "Computers" Forum

• If you run any flavor of Windows please do us all a favor and run Windows Update often, accepting ALL Critical Patches and Updates, rebooting and checking for updates again, until you have all that are available.
  

As always, your questions are welcome here.

------------------
Bobby D. Hunter
Security for SGF
Hunting down Slimeball Game

[This message was edited by Bobby D. Hunter on 28 January 2005 at 03:34 PM.]

------------------
Bobby D. Hunter
Security for SGF
Hunting down Slimeball Game
Reporting member of SpamCop

[This message was edited by Bobby D. Hunter on 28 January 2005 at 03:53 PM.]

You're right up the road from me. Thanks for your efforts in keeping SGF slime free.

Drew Howard
Mason, MI

------------------
Gazornktron T-16 w/ FranistatSUX2000 mod

[This message was edited by Drew Howard on 29 January 2005 at 06:17 AM.]

If you are a seller and receive what you believe to be a fraudulant offer to purchase your goods, from an apparently off-shore inquiry, please read this security announcement thread before replying to that person: http://steelguitarforum.com/Forum13/HTML/001207.html

You will find a lot of helpful details in my posts in that thread, including details to help you to identify and forward the scam messages to me, for analysis and defensive action.

TIA

www.microsoft.com/technet/technetmag/
Here's another goodie too..
www.microsoft.com/technet/.../default.aspx

[This message was edited by Ray Minich on 01 March 2005 at 11:18 AM.]

------------------
Bobby D. Hunter
Security for SGF
Hunting down Slimeball Game
Reporting member of SpamCop

[This message was edited by Bobby D. Hunter on 01 March 2005 at 11:08 AM.]

------------------
Bobby D. Hunter
Security for SGF
Hunting down Slimeball Game
Reporting member of SpamCop

[This message was edited by Bobby D. Hunter on 10 March 2005 at 12:27 PM.]

The scam:

Hello ,
How are you today,I saw your advert on steelguitarforum.com,Am highly interested in purchasing your {Peavey Nashville 400 for $350.00 ok.which the condition is okay by me ok,Dont worry about the shipmen t i have a reliable shipping company that will take care of the pick -up for my,anywhere in the world and my mode of payment is through Money order or Cashiers check ,i want you to forward me with your full information for the payment such as your full name that will be printed on the cheque, your full address where the check will be send to ok.get back to me as soon as possible.
Expecting your mail back,
My Regards to you and your family,
Thanks.
Mason.