Possible new scammer technique

[Sculpto]

Ordinarily I would not post a letter from a lady.. however I just recieved this letter that I find highly suspect.  She made the first contact on a social network site.  I may post the link later, but, for now I have edited out the name of the social site this took place on as well as her personal email.  I googled the name and nothing came up.  I also did a whois search on the URL and it does come up with the owner in Kiev, and of course there is a phone number and the name does not match the name in the profile on the site where the letter originated.    I am just wondering what you all think...

******
I saw your profile and you sound like the kind of man that I might like to know... Hope to hear from u soon.. check out my pics of me here-- www.elkaln.ho.ua I was mistaken when I filled my profile. Actually I live in Ukraine, hope you don't afraid Ukrainian girl...please write me at ............... because at this momen I don't have a stable Internet connection... please do it asap, because ......... don't allow to send personal information in private messages and I think that they will kill my profile soon...Have a good day!

*******

Oddly I find the "accent" to be more African than Ukrainian.  Anyone else see that also?  Also she says she made a mistake when she filled out her profile, but, her profile says Kiev.. so.. WTF??

[I/O]

so.. WTF??

Amateur scammer. Delete. Next......................

I/O

[SANDRO43]

What is there of new in this 'technique' ? I receive similar e-mails at least 2-3 times a week. BTW, many African scammers have the habit of ending their letters with "Please remember that color and distance make no difference. God bless you. Ms. X" , or something to that effect.

[viking]

Concur with I/O. delete, next. Move on.

[Sculpto]

the two new components to this scammer are the approach from a social networking site and the "personal" page with "her" photos. 

The letter stunk from the start.

[ConnerVT]

I would worry more about it as an attempt to get you to visit their sites, and have a drive-by attempt at dropping a virus, dialer, or rootkit on your computer.

[SANDRO43]

the two new components to this scammer are the approach from a social networking site and the "personal" page with "her" photos. 

I don't know what you mean by 'social networking site', if that definition includes Yahoo, Google and such, not much of a novelty, neither the "personal" page in this game .

Anyway, as you pointed out, it's the contents of the letter that matter - its origin is rather secondary.

[Sculpto]

I mean facebook, myspace, vkontakt, and so on.  I have been using those kinds of sites succesfully for over a year.  Well I mean succesfully in the sense that there have not been any FSU scammers (there have been a number of nigerians and filipino scam attempts though) prior to this one and of course the ladies are not agency girls, just normal FSU women with internet access. 

The site with the pics was clean so I am not worried about the potential that it infected my computer, just wanted to alert others who might be using social networking sites that the scammers seem to have discovered them also.

[SANDRO43]

just wanted to alert others who might be using social networking sites that the scammers seem to have discovered them also.

Resourceful lot, aren't they? Maybe their usual hunting grounds are thinning out due to over-exploitation, hence they're looking for fresher pastures .

[Sculpto]

Back in in the 90's every site that featured cracked, hacked and jacked software.. "warez" sites.. all were pretty much in the FSU.  The scheme was simple.. a "user" had to click through a bunch of different "pay per click" sites to reach the goal of getting a bit of pirated software.  There were not a lot of sites but given the market at that time for pirate warez was huge I assumed they actually made quite a bit of money automatically.  Later, as software got more sophisticated and isps and hosts became more regulated or at least felt the threat of LE warez sites began to disappear.  There are still a few out there I suppose but they appear infinitely more difficult to use and who knows if you ever get to the prize of the free pirated software.  The point of all this is.. somewhere, somehow these scammer gangs came into existence.  I believe they evolved from the groups that pirated software.  I also believe that if someone had the time and patience and language skills they could track down these scammer groups through IRC chat.  All the hackers and crackers used IRC back in the day to communicate as it was free and unregulated.  DalNet is not longer so unregulated but there remain hundreds if not more totally off the map IRC networks, some of them functioning in the background on compromised computers and networks. 

If, as Sandro has suggested, the scam networks are starting to feel the pinch, because of the anti scam sites.. because guys are not so naive anymore.. or for whatever reason their ill gotten revenues are shrinking.. these gangs will evolve into something new.  Some other form of easy almost automatic money making that ultimately will have a victim.  dont want to be a NIMBY but if they have decided to leave us alone it would be good riddance.

[Shadow]

Sculpto you did not keep up to date with the pirated software scene.
Where a couple of years ago yu actually needed to get to a number of these sites to find a piece of software, nowadays it takes about 30 second to find the correct one.

While the gangs of scammers have risen this was due to availability of internet and the MOB business, fueled by a number of clueless but generous men.

[Sculpto]

You might be right Shadow.. I dont know.. i mean about pirate software.. I don't do that anymore. 

Anyway, I was just guessing that there might be a relationship between the "gangs".  I would also wonder what the relationships are between the MOB business, especially on the scam side of things, and the sex industry, specifically the web cams and international escorts.  Just thoughts.. not conclusions or opinions..

[Shadow]

Sculpto, on the darker side of things the video chat of the girls will be the same as the sex cam girls. Similarly international escorts can decide to choose a partner... or let them pay in different ways.

Such things happen, but that does not mean that they happen in all cases.