TCS - Your credit card has been successfully charged for $69.95

Your credit card has been successfully charged for $69.95

by Don Singleton
Tulsa Computer Society
From the April 2004 issue of the I/O Port Newsletter

That subject of an email really gets your attention, doesn't it? You know you have not just charged something on your credit card, so how did someone get your number and what did they charge against your card?

Actually no one charged anything against amy credit card. It was just an attention getter to get you to read the spam email. I received 6 copies of that email overnight (amongst 225 spam email messages I received since the previous evening), and I thought it would be interesting to take a look at it.

Here is the important part of the email:
Administration of ***.**********.*** online store would like to thank you for your purchase of ....... (an adult oriented pharmaceutical product)

If you never purchased this product please contact us at: 1.888.***.****
To cancel this purchase please contact us at: 1.408-***-****
To change the shipping address on the order: 1.877.***.****
If you suffer any side effects please contact: 1.866.***.****
For bulk purchases please contact: 1.703.***.****

Thank you for choosing ***.**********.***
We are the first - the best.

Interestingly the email offers a number of different telephone numbers, all in the United States. Using Melissa Data Phone Number Lookups I see that they have three different nationwide toll free numbers, plus one number in California, and one in Virginia: 888 is a nationwide toll free Area Code, 408 is in California (San Jose area), 877 is a nationwide toll free Area Code, 866 is a nationwide toll free Area Code, and 703 is in Virginia (Arlington area), but the email appears to have originated in Brazil.



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Tulsa Computer Society 4/01/2004
Don Singleton, President