The Art of Defeating a PayPal Scammer - Part II

Saw this one on Digg:

"Among the files actually hosted by the scammer is this image. It is only 3k, but imagine the impact it could have if we all worked together? If you have Flash installed you automatically attempt to download that image once per second. The more users idle on this page, the greater the likelihood the that this scammer's tool will be brought offline."

Note you have to scroll down to see all the screen shots.

The Art of Defeating a Paypal Scammer

There are a lot of scam baiting sites out there. Just visiting these sites can lead to crimeware being installed on a system. It can be even more dangerous if personal contact is made with one of the scammers. In fact, many of the "scam baiting sites" specifically warn newcomers about this.

A Google search reveals how popular this "scam baiting" has become. Link, here.

While scam baiting might seem fun, it has little impact on the scammers. Most of the fake sites simply move on to another location. Moving (frequently) is part of their standard method of operation to confuse investigative efforts.

What will have a more (lasting) impact is getting the information to places that have the resources to put a few of them in "jail." There are a lot of places you can do this.

Here is where you can report phishing (as described in the Digg article).

PIRT Phishing Incident Reporting and Termination Squad

They make sure it gets to all the appropriate people.

Here is another collection of places to report Internet scams:

Report Fraud to the FTC
Internet Crime Complaint Center (FBI)
Internet Fraud (U.S. Department of Justice)
Report Internet Securities Fraud (SEC)
Interpol
Serious Fraud Office-UK
Phonebusters-Canada

The 419 Coalition Website has a lot of information on where to report Internet scams, worldwide.

Too many people ignore the scams they see on the Internet. And innocent people do fall for them. If everyone took the time to report scams, we would see a lot less fraud on the Internet.