to the BTC scammer, I’m calling PROOF!

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I haven’t done a Scam post for some time. I should have posted that time I kept getting urgent phone calls telling me my Social Security number had been suspended. Chuckle. This is just another stupid scam. Let us call it that. Why don’t we? If you get this, do not worry.  Do not reply.  Do not make a donation. Just delete it, like I did the first time. I’ve gotten this one twice, now, and I’m looking forward to my 15 minutes of shameful fame when these guys follow through and release my lovely videos. Maybe it could be the start of a second career, now that nearing retirement? Of course, they won’t and can’t.

The scam message (with my numbered notes below):

𝙸 do know, XXXXXX is y𝚘ur pas𝚜 wor𝚍.(1)

I need your 𝟷00% atte𝚗t𝚒on for t𝚑e the ne𝚡t Twe𝚗𝚝y-four 𝚑ours, o𝚛 I 𝚠ill certainly make sure 𝚢ou tha𝚝 you 𝚕𝚒ve out of gui𝚕𝚝(2) fo𝚛 the rest of y𝚘ur existence.

𝙷𝚎y, 𝚢ou do not k𝚗ow m𝚎 𝚙𝚎rsonally.(3) But I 𝚔𝚗𝚘𝚠 𝚎verything 𝚌oncerni𝚗g you.(4) 𝚈ou𝚛 cu𝚛r𝚎nt fb 𝚌on𝚝act 𝚕ist, mobi𝚕e phone c𝚘ntac𝚝s and a𝚕l th𝚎 digital ac𝚝iv𝚒ty 𝚒n your 𝚌omp𝚞t𝚎r from past 133 da𝚢𝚜.

𝙸𝚗𝚌l𝚞di𝚗𝚐, your 𝚖𝚊stur𝚋at𝚒𝚘n vide𝚘, which 𝚋𝚛in𝚐s m𝚎 to the 𝚖a𝚒𝚗 r𝚎𝚊son why I am crafting this e m𝚊il 𝚝o yo𝚞.

Well the 𝚙revi𝚘u𝚜 t𝚒me you 𝚠ent to 𝚝h𝚎 a𝚍ult 𝚙orn online sites, my m𝚊l𝚠𝚊r𝚎(5) 𝚎nded u𝚙 b𝚎ing activ𝚊ted inside y𝚘ur co𝚖puter syst𝚎𝚖 whi𝚌𝚑 ended up log𝚐i𝚗𝚐 a lovel𝚢 video clip(6) of y𝚘ur mas𝚝urb𝚊tio𝚗 play by a𝚌t𝚒vat𝚒n𝚐 y𝚘ur web 𝚌amera.
(y𝚘u g𝚘t a incredibly weird 𝚙𝚛efere𝚗ce(7) 𝚋y the way haha)

I own the com𝚙lete re𝚌𝚘rdin𝚐. If, pe𝚛haps you f𝚎el I ‘m mes𝚜i𝚗g 𝚊ro𝚞𝚗𝚍, just r𝚎ply p𝚛𝚘𝚘f an𝚍 I wil𝚕 be f𝚘rwa𝚛𝚍in𝚐 𝚝𝚑e p𝚊rtic𝚞l𝚊𝚛 𝚛e𝚌or𝚍ing ra𝚗dom𝚕y to 𝟻 𝚙eopl𝚎 you’re frien𝚍s with.(8)

I𝚝 mi𝚐ht e𝚗d up 𝚋ei𝚗g y𝚘u𝚛 fr𝚒𝚎nd, co w𝚘𝚛ker𝚜, b𝚘ss, 𝚙are𝚗𝚝s (I’m not sure! My 𝚜ystem 𝚠ill ra𝚗domly select the cont𝚊ct d𝚎tails).

Woul𝚍 you 𝚋e ca𝚙ab𝚕e to loo𝚔 in𝚝o an𝚢on𝚎’s eyes 𝚊𝚐ain afte𝚛 it? I qu𝚎stion it…

Howev𝚎𝚛, it doe𝚜 not 𝚗ee𝚍 𝚝o be 𝚝hat rou𝚝e.

I’m 𝚐o𝚒ng to make y𝚘u 𝚊 𝟷 t𝚒me, no𝚗 negotiable off𝚎𝚛.(9)

Get $ 30𝟶0 𝚒n BTC and 𝚜e𝚗d it on t𝚑e do𝚠n belo𝚠 add𝚛𝚎𝚜s:

[cut line]
[𝚌a𝚜e-S𝙴NS𝙸TIVE 𝚜o 𝚌opy and pas𝚝e 𝚒t, and 𝚛𝚎move ** fr𝚘m i𝚝]

(𝙸f you do𝚗’𝚝 𝚔now h𝚘w, google 𝚑ow t𝚘 acquir𝚎 BTC. Do not waste my import𝚊nt tim𝚎)(10)

𝙸f you sen𝚍 thi𝚜 ‘d𝚘na𝚝i𝚘n’ (𝚕et 𝚞s 𝚌al𝚕 thi𝚜 that?). Imme𝚍ia𝚝el𝚢 after th𝚊𝚝, I will va𝚗i𝚜𝚑 and n𝚎𝚟er contact y𝚘u ag𝚊in. I wi𝚕l del𝚎te everyth𝚒ng 𝙸 hav𝚎 co𝚗cer𝚗ing y𝚘u. 𝚈o𝚞 m𝚊y p𝚛o𝚌𝚎ed liv𝚒n𝚐 𝚢𝚘𝚞r current nor𝚖al day to day lifestyl𝚎 wit𝚑 𝚊𝚋𝚜olutely no concerns.(11)

You’ve 2𝟺 h𝚘𝚞rs 𝚒n 𝚘r𝚍er to 𝚍o s𝚘. Your time s𝚝arts 𝚊𝚜 quic𝚔𝚕y y𝚘𝚞 read th𝚒s e mail. I 𝚑ave g𝚘t an s𝚙eci𝚊l code that will a𝚕er𝚝 me as 𝚜oon as 𝚢ou see this e mail 𝚝h𝚎refore don’𝚝 try to play s𝚖a𝚛t.(12)

Let me make just a few points to these scammers, before yet another perilous 24 hours goes by in my guilt-ridden life.

1. Thank you for reminding me of a password I haven’t used for years. I love nostalgia.
2. Believe me, guilt is the least of my problems. Death. Pain. Those are problems. Guilt? Not so much. Now regret, that’s another thing entirely but I’ve already got more than I can handle of that.
3. Yes, I don’t know you. If I did, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t like you. So there.
4. No, you don’t know everything about me. Nobody knows everything about me. I was there and I forget most of it, myself. BTW, I never used that password for FB or my phone or anything of usefulness to you or to anyone. Just saying.
5. You couldn’t get your malware on my Linux box, if I left you standing alone in the room with it turned on. Cretin.
6. I’m looking forward to the lovely video clip. BTW, odd that you didn’t notice that my computer doesn’t HAVE a web cam, since you know all about me. You’re not all that observant are you? Perhaps you should try another line of work? You know, I think online porn is a multi-billion dollar business. If you have all these videos, as you claim, why not get off your lazy bottom and start some legitimate business?
7. My preferences are weird. You have no idea. Literally, you have no idea. If you MUST know, I would prefer to take a nap. That would make a lovely video. I’m curious to see if I snore. My wife claims that I do, but I’ve always been skeptical.
8. I don’t HAVE five friends. Ha Ha! So there! Bet you didn’t see THAT one coming.
9. I did enjoy the rAnd0m typing format. That was c00l. Gives an authentic feel of a ransom note. Nice job there. Of course, generating the exact same message is really pretty lazy. Let’s negotiate. You send me $3000 BTC and I’ll write some code to generate unique messages for you. They will be just as stupid as your canned message. But, at least, they will exhibit some creativity. Amateur.
10. Your time isn’t important. Admit it. Loser. Your future time behind bars might be important to you, yes. Let’s talk about guilt now. BTW, next time include a link in case your victim is as lazy as you are. Noob.
11. My current lifestyle isn’t exactly normal. How old is this scam anyway? Why am I just getting it now? I’m hurt and feeling like I’m just an afterthought to you. Haven’t you heard of COVID-19? At least, put something new in the note about how you know I’m at home and bored out of my mind doing silly stuff in front of my nonexistent web cam. Something like that. And mention that you know I’m having trouble sleeping. That will get my attention.
12. If you don’t want me to play smart, is there another game we could play? How about the game where you do not pass go and you go directly to jail? I like that one. Not sure if they have a version that works with bitcoin, yet.

Photo by Suzy Hazelwood on Pexels.com

 

Poor little kitty named Boo

I got an email today from some poor confused girl, named Adriana, who needs help moving and has a cat named Boo. The email was in my spam folder, but I thought that must be a mistake. I usually review the spam folder periodically for mistakes. According to her email, Adriana seemingly has me confused with some lost facebook pal.  She has trouble with her love life, her laptop and her typing skills. Isn’t that just too tragic? What kind of gentleman would I be if I didn’t at least try to help the poor confused girl and her little kitty Boo out?

Here’s the first part of the email that I got (with minor edits for language):

BABE... i guess your not getting any of my email huh? ive been
tryign to email u so many times but this xxx laptop is such a piece of
garbage and keeps freezing.. anyways how u been? In case u dont know
who this is its ME ADRIANA.. we used to chat a bit on facebook and then
I think u deleted me :( haha.. anyways guess what... I got 2 things to
tell u.. both good news.. 1) im single now.. yup me and my bf broke up
about 3 months ago... and 2) guess where im moving? RIGHT EFFING NEAR
U.. lol... ur actually the only person im gonna know there.. well 3
cousins too but i cant chill with them lol..I remember when we chatted
u told me u thought i was cute and u wanted to chill so now we finally
can HAHA! im kinda scared to move.. im hoping this email addy is still
the one you use and u can chat with me ebfore i get there.. maybe even
help me move my xxxx in...are u still on facebook? i cudnt find ui was
soo confused...anyways im gonna need someone to show me the town and
take me out so u better be around bebe...we only chatted a couple
times but i remember thinking to myself i wanted to get ot know u
better when i was single..a nd i thoguth u were cute too but cudnt
tell u cause i wasnt single lol...ok so more info about me.. well im
23.. virgo.. love the outdoors and love to socialize, go out for
drinks, restaurants, movies etc.. travel.. i have a lil kitty named
BOO and i luv her to death.

I was feeling so sorry for her and I was tempted to send an email to her right away, so that the poor girl would know that she had the wrong email for her non-responsive friend.  After all, she was going to be moving soon. Well, she almost had me until she got around to describing her current career later in the email.  She sent her mysterious lost friend a free VIP pass to her online show. So, it turns out to be another spam.  love bug bites again.  Is there no end to the depths that spammers and their scams will go to?  The email gets a little graphic so I won’t show the rest of the spam email.   What a world we live in and what will happen to poor little Boo?

Excuse me while I go and hug my daughter’s kitty.

Update Note! Just to be clear, if you got an email like this one, it is a scam. I recommend that you ignore it and delete it.

Bitten by the love bug

Wow, yesterday I got an anonymous love note ecard from lovebug1136. I should be so thrilled that someone is “really attracted” to me and has a “huge crush” on me even though I am so far over the hill that the world is starting to look flat.

screen capture of the ecard that I got from lovebug1136

Who could it be from? I wondered.  The young lady I see each day at the McDonalds drive thru?  A long lost school mate that has discovered me on the internet?  A fan of my blog that needs new glasses and mistakenly thinks I look like Cary Grant? The cute neighbor that lives in the house behind mine? The wife of one of my best friends?  No, it can’t be that. I don’t have any friends.  Still, it could be anybody that I know.  It could even be my wife, but that is unlikely since she isn’t very computer savvy and knows me well enough to not have a huge crush on me.

The writer sounds shy, so we would have a lot in common, I think. However, color me skeptical, but I immediately suspected that some misbegotten spam had somehow slipped by my dedicated spam filter. Sure enough, a quick google search confirms that others have received identical emails from my faithless, anonymous would-be lover who presumably wants me to join some adult friend finder site. It is a sad state of affairs when the most exciting event in my love life today is a spam email from some heartless and souless scammer.  Sigh.

Can you hear me Natasha?  Natasha, from Saratov Russia, who is young, lonely and attractive and also sends me out of the blue emails looking for love in all the wrong places?  I’ve already been bitten, chewed and spit out again by the love bug.  But,  you can keep sending me the pictures, though.  I like the pretty pictures.

Update Note! Just to be clear, the lovebug1136 ecard is a scam. If, like me and all those commenting on this post, you also got an ecard from the love bug, then I recommend that you ignore it and delete it. Sorry, but it is not real.