Fax machines

[Corry]

Anyone else here get junk spam faxes and scam letters by the ton??? Anyone know what to do about them???

One imparticular that we recieve quite often says it's from the 'Nigerian Central Bank' or some variation. I've looked it up and I'm finding tons about it...it's a HUGE scam that has cost people literally BILLIONS of dollars! I just want them to stop sending the stupid faxes. It ties up the phone line and costs me ink and paper, damn it! Ok, I guess this is more of a rant than anything else, cuz I've searched all over the internet on how to make them stop, but am coming up pretty shorthanded. Grrr...it makes me so mad though!

[TPF Sponsor]

[malachite]

You stick them in your co-workers In-boxes and desk drawers. How could anyone pass up a $99 trip to Cancun, 0% mortgages, the cheapest life insurance known to man, a weekend singles cruise, or wholsale priced ink cartridges?

Oh and BTW, there ain't much you can except wad them and throw them at people you like

[Corry]

Heh heh...well, the only person that works in my office is a 70 something year old man named Ed, so throwing things at him is out!

I'm actually looking around to find somewhere I can send these Nigerian scam faxes, though. From what I've read it's a worldwide multi-billion dollar scam in which people who actually believed the scam have even been kidnapped and some have committed suicide. Some of the letters and faxes they send out are threats...saying 'pay us or we will kidnap you and force you to commit suicide' and things like that. It really freaks me out. I've never recieved one of those, but ya never know...we recieve these faxes a lot. If you have Adobe Acrobat Reader, here's some info in pdf form. I am shocked yet fascinated with all this. http://www.state.gov/www/regions/africa/naffpub.pdf

If you scroll down to page 25 you'll see that threat letter I was talking about.

They even RE-victimize people. They call and say they are government officials investigating the incident...and...I can't remember exactly what it said...I've read so much now! But anyway, they get victimized twice.

Ok, I'm off to do more research for now.

[hobbes28]

find the number that the fax came from and report it to the Federal Trade Commission. They will take care of it pretty quick.

[Corry]

There is no number. And because of the way the phone lines are in Lagos, Nigeria (where a lot of these are believed to be originated) are TOTALLY screwed up, so it's very difficult to trace.

[Jeff Canes]

What about caller ID or that “*” last call tracking service

[ferny]

Yup. It's a well known scam and has been in the press here for years. But still people fall for it. And there is nothing that you can do. Do report it though. Hopefully, if you find someone who is interested, they'll be able to make a public announcement making people aware of it. Have you thought about contacting you local and national newspapers?