So, I obviously know to ignore emails that say "I'm a 95-year-old Yugoslavian duchess, and I need to transfer $10,000,000 into your bank account so that I can save 1,600 African babies from the horrors of AIDS. For your trouble, I will let you keep 35% of the money after I transfer it into my offshore account. Just send me all your personal information and a copy of your DNA." That is probably a scam. Everyone knows that.
But sometimes, I get emails that are COMPLETELY random, and totally benign... they are just clearly not meant for me. Do the tubes of the internets just get clogged? Am I just too stupid to see the scam? I just don't get it sometimes.... take this one, for example:
Frank,I noticed not many people have a personal curriculum vitae page or is outdated, one reason being of not being familiar with html or find modifying html files quite cumbersome. I believe cestagi would benefit them, as it is an easy to use web service where you can manage your CV online quite easily. Plus it offers export features into NSF/NIH word, latex, and pdf formats. I use it and believe others within the community would benefit from it as well.Best wishes,Steve
WHAT?!
The same thing happens to me. I don't have answers for you, but I have heard something about it being a "test" scam. If you reply, intrigued or offended, they know they have a "live" email address and proceed from there. Just a theory, and I have no facts to back it up. It was just a rumor I heard.
ReplyDeleteI just received a mail with exactly the same wording. Being suspicious, I googled cestagi and found your page among the first search results. Seeing as other people got exactly the same mail, I have to agree with the previous post - it's very likely a "test scam". The spammers seem to get more and more creative nowadays...
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