The FBI and the CIA Are Both After Me!

I happen to be politically involved, but I'm not paranoid.

So I was more amused than fearful when I received the following e-mail:

Dear Sir/Madam,

we have logged your IP-address on more than 30 illegal Websites.
Important:
Please answer our questions!
The list of questions are attached.

Yours faithfully,

Steven Allison

*** Federal Bureau of Investigation -FBI-

*** 935 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Room 3220

*** Washington, DC 20535

*** phone: (202) 324-3000

I actually got three of these this morning, plus two from the CIA. I also got a bunch of e-mails supposedly from yahoo and various "mailbox administrators" telling me that they couldn't deliver my mail, or I needed to confirm "my registration."

All these e-mails directed me to open an included attachment.

Uh-huh. Think I'll pass.

These "phishermen"("phishing" is the internet name for such scams) are getting more and more creative. But they all want to scam you. A few ways to recognize them:

-The e-mail is addressed to a generic e-mail address, not yours.....the e-mail above was addressed to x-mail-list, not syryn.
-They use a generic greeting, not your name. (If the FBI or CIA is watching you, they know your name! LOL)
-The grammar is less than perfect. Note the incorrect use of capital letters in the e-mail example above, and the use of "are" instead of "is" in the sentence "The list of questions are attached."
-They want you to open an attachment, or provide a link for you to click on so you can "fill out a form" or, as above, answer a list of "questions".

Dump such e-mails in the trash, then dump the trash. Open the attachments or fill out the list of questions and you're giving a scammer access to your computer, or access to information they can use to steal you blind.

By the way, I contacted the FBI and offered to send them this e-mail with headers (address information that might let them trace back to the scammers) included. If the FBI contacts me, I'll let you know what happens.

Meanwhile, I think I'll go visit one of my favorite LEGAL political websites!
Cathryn Sykes
(Hey, wait a minute. How do these "phishers" know that I go to political websites? Maybe I should be a little paranoid?)