Well today saw another random 419'er drop on my virtual doorstep.

Here is a link explaining What a 419'er is

He violated no less than 75% of my IM rules.

My IM rules are basically sent to anyone who IM's me that I don't know. Within 2 lines they get the URL (which officially will change to a tinyurl ref: http://tinyurl.com/2nprbg)

Personally, there are a couple of things I wish you could do in the IM world:
1) Hit a spam button which gets your IM account and IM's temporarily monitored
2) Auto send a link, document to anyone who IM's you for the first time.
3) have some recourse other than "Block" against abuse.

Just my $0.02 for the day.

-me

Tags: 419, im, scam, spam
Current Mood: annoyed
Current Music: Death March

By now we've all be 419'ed in our email. If you're really lucky, someone has tried to 419 you via IM.

Today I learned about a new 419 variant. Now, a 419 no longer has to do with dead relatives. It is simply a scheme designed to extract money illegally from you as an overseas business arrangement. The reason they are called 419 is because they typically originate from Nigerian Cybercafes where people are told what to type and how to run them.

They are becoming more and more effective because they prey on holes in our system.

This was today's experience: click and return here to comment.

Tags: 419, hoax, internet, spam
Current Mood: impressed