What's the Scam?
 

OK, I'm getting a rash of emails inquiring about advertising on various sites of mine. Each email has a "reply to" address different from the "sender's" address.

And a few days ago it was a rash of emails asking if I want to sell my sites.

Obviously there's some kind of scam going on but what is the angle? What is the scammer trying to accomplish?

Maybe just torment. Answer him and see how he wants to pay for your sites......Probably take over your sites and call his credit card company and get credit and he gets your sites for nothing...

does it recommend an appraisal service?

I responded to the first inquiry and nothing happened.

The latest inquiries are about them buying ad space on my sites, so there would be no opportunity to get something for nothing (I -- and I expect most webmasters -- wouldn't put up any ads without payment in advance.)

But it's pretty obvious something is going on with so many similar inquiries in a row. Are some of y'all getting them?

Nope... haven't seen this :)

yeah, got some for some of my mainstream sites

not going to reply to the spam of course

I get tons of casino spam.. as if I won't track down the IP of the sender and pass it to any ISP, suggesting the MTA is a bot and that they cancel their services until they call in for support.

I got a couple different emails asking if I wanted to sell a domain. I replied and asked for a price and a few days later they sent one. I counter offered and haven't heard anything since. Not sure if it is a scam or not but if they do want to buy the domain I will be careful with the transaction.

you mean like

Hello,
We are trying to popularize our new site via advertising, so I want to ask you do you sell advertising space on your *******.com? If yes, could you please tell me what is the flat monthly fee?

Kind regards,

kind of like that, here is one I just got:

Dear Webmaster,

I am writing to inform you of an exciting business opportunity for your website: My company, ************, would like to pay you for helping to promote one of our client's websites.

Our mission is to be the leading provider for web promotion solutions online and we are seeking reputable websites.

Please contact us for further details on how you can profit from our offer.

Best,
Mr. ***** ********
Advertising Consultant
Business Development Department

Are you using private domain registration? I always thought that was a trick to get the e-mail attached to the WHOIS so they could possibly steal it. Once you reply they know the e-mail.

ahah, interesting :thumbsup

good call on that, it was a private registry on that one

would attorneys use that method as an attempt to fish for information in potential lawsuits as well I wonder?

That's exactly what I'm getting, plus some variations on the theme.

They already have the email address that's associated with the domain, so that's not it . . .

Any other thoughts? Someone must know what these people are up to.

Maybe they are selling business lead email addies.