[Reader-list] cybercrimes et al

[TaraPrakash]

In fact, this kind of messages are not new. Such messages have also been 
sent from various ministers' and their private secretaries' accounts to 
their well wishers. The content of the messages have been same -- they are 
stuck in a foreign land and need your help. Why foreign land because then 
you will pay in dollars using your credit card.
I hope nobody paid to rescue you. Not only that person has lost his/her 
money, the credit card details of that person have also gone to the 
fraudsters.

Regards

TaraPrakash
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Debjani Sengupta" <debjani62 at gmail.com>
To: <reader-list at sarai.net>
Sent: Thursday, July 10, 2008 1:04 AM
Subject: [Reader-list] cybercrimes et al


> yesterday, i woke up to a scamster's world. i received calls from friends
> all over that they have received mail from my email id asking for money as 
> i
> was stranded in the UK. some of them were alarmed and called me. others 
> were
> more net savvy and deleted the mail. when i asked them about it they said
> they knew that i couldnt write a mail that was so poor in english and
> second, the mail was too hysterical. one friend said he thought it was a
> student of mine playing a prank! god forbid!
> but yesterday, was  a new day for me. i was born again...
> my old yahoo mail id was hacked into and i want to share this experience 
> so
> that people like me who are still grappling with so much new on cyberspace
> may take heed. i had received a mail from Yahoo customer care asking me to
> verify my pass word; without checking i answered the mail and of course, 
> all
> hell broke loose. the lesson that i learnt was never, ever give out your
> password even if the President or God asked for it. The second lesson that 
> i
> learnt was never ever trust an email id, behind it may hide a Joker, a
> Prankster, a Fraud, a Madman, a Hacker, a Psychopath,a Delinquent, a
> Misnomer, a Gangbuster, a Mailman, a Sick Person, a Cyber Geek, a
> Carpetbagger, a Republican, a Fundamentalist, and the list goes on and
> on....
> yesterday's experience was in many ways a lesson in good manners, 
> something
> that we are increasingly foregoing. i had calls from so many people, some
> laughed outright at my predicament ( i could not access my yahoo mail id 
> and
> all my contacts were lost, years of hard work and building up trust), 
> others
> sniggered at my idiocy, and many others reiterated their love and 
> friendship
> for me. i was born anew. i had to create a new mail id and painfully try 
> to
> get my contact ids together. most imporatant of all,i had to call many 
> whom
> i only knew through work and assure them of my integrity. it is something 
> i
> will have to do for months to come but i will do it. whoever hacks into
> personal mails like this is sick. but what they do not realize how much
> suffering they cause with one little flick of their finger.
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