How do scammers from Africa find out my email account - and even my full name?

Question

How do scammers from Africa find out my email account - and even my full name?
How can I protect myself from anyone breaking into my email account?
I even received documents such as from Citybank and even a British court, putting millions of dollars in my name. This is obviously a criminal act, and I need to know who I can turn to, to have the initiator of such scam be traced and investigated.

Answer 1

Because the internet is free and companies sell your email address to make money.

Use a good secure password (letters and numbers) and change it frequently.

Never respond to unsubscribe from something. Dont participate in chain letters. Check the ftc website for more suggestions

Answer 2

First, you need to understand something about email. ANY email message is like a postcard, in that anyone (server) who handles it can read it. This means every net server which handles email, and there are many from the originator to the recipient. Most do not care to read everything which passes through, but there are some, who take advantage of this to scan and gather email addresses to make these lists which they sell. It is not against the law anywhere to gather email addresses in this manner. So, if you sent or received an email, it may have been scanned for the address without your knowledge. I tried an experiment. I created a fake address at hotmail dot com. I sent exactly one email, to myself at this fake account. Within a week, I was getting spam from all kinds of places. Up to several hundred a week. The point is that someone gathered this fake address from the one email I sent to self, and the spam started flooding in. This is probably how your address got out and onto the lists the spammers use. Unfortunately, there is NOTHING you can do. Once on a spammer list, there is NO getting off. Simply delete the spam as it comes in. You have no other alternative, unfortunately.

Blame Congress, for not acting to make this an illegal practice. The had the chance, and they failed to act. Vote the bastards out.

Ok, so what you can do, the easy answer is NOTHING within the law as they exist today. However, I take advantage and I reply to the money schemes by offering my services for a fee, 1% up front in cash instead of the offer they make, to do as they ask of me. So far, no one has taken me up on my offer of a straight up fee instead of a percentage of the profit. I do my best to string them along and it is amusing to see the replies and how they try to get me to send them a fee before the fact of getting anything. I always play along and try to steer them into paying me a fee up front instead os sending them money. Inevitably, they back down or simply stop making a reply. If you get an email saying you have money coming, be suspect. If it seems too good to be true, then it most likely IS a scam of some kind.

Answer 3

fun is correct. If you want you can buy CD on the Internet with Email addresses. It will cost you a pretty penny, but, you can buy it.

You can forward the emails to the FTC:

Should you receive an email that you think may be fraudulent, forward it to the FTC at [e-mail], hit delete, and smile. You'll be doing your part to help put a scam artist out of work.

Answer 4

Somewhere in the past, you ordered something online, or subscribed, or didn't read all of a "Terms", or just entered your e- addy in the wrong place. That company sold it to 10 companies... they sold to ten more people... who sold it to 10 more people AND companies. OR you have bots or adware inside your computer that are running around "mining" for information. One good free product we use at my job is Ad-Aware SE Personal Edition 1.06 http://www.download.com/Ad-Aware-SE-Personal-Edition/3003-8022_4-10399602.html?tag=tab_rev and another is SpyBot Search and Destroy http://www.download.com/Spybot-Search-Destroy/3000-8022_4-10122137.html They're both free and work! Follow their directions though so that you updated before you run a scan. I think you'll be surprised how much crp is running around in there...

Change all passwords NOW. And start another e-mail account. Don't lose your old e-mail acct yet... until you think you have to. But starting a new one will let you start contacting friends with it sooner than later if you go through with shutting down the old one.

From the Feds...
"If you get spam email that you think is deceptive, forward it to [e-mail]. The FTC uses the spam stored in this database to pursue law enforcement actions against people who send deceptive email."
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/edcams/spam/index.html and there's a link for a complaint form.

Answer 5

copy and paste it with full headers to the Federal Trade Commission. or to the Citibank people themselves under contact us. They need to know whats going on whos impersonating them.

My email been hijacked too. I heard someone wrote a program that picks up emails and they copy it to other people who are willing to the buy the listing.

Sometimes you just give out buy filling out forms with your email address when you go for those pop up ads or you gave it out someone you know, they gave it out. Or someone is reading over your shoulder duirng your email business at a local library or school.

Answer 6

i dont know but i get similar e-mails from a nigerian gang called tina pallato or something like that. my e-mail has a function where it scans it and tells me how catious i should be about opening it. i never open it. i just click the button that says report scam. i also get some from malaysia and a lot from langsing michigan.

Answer 7

They buy lists of names of people who have responded to spam or other scams. That makes you one of the "chosen ones".

Answer 8

[FUN_IN_CH]. I AGREE WITH ON THIS MATTER AS WELL?