Internet scam/internet security. Should I be worried?

[the snail]

I applied for a job through online job agency Indeed and I have a suspicion (that I am about to go and investigate) that they may have plastered my CV all over the internet......

I'm still getting unwanted emails from recruitment agencies 5 years since I put my cv up on agency sites. Once the info is up there it's pretty much impossible to remove. If I ever need to do this again, I'll be much more careful about what info I include in a cv, and set up an email account for the purpose etc.

 

[ufkacbln]

Google "Gilbert Murray" of "Gypping in the Marsh" for some fine replies and conversations with these Gentlemen

 

[Crackle]

They've gotten cleverer haven't they. I've had a few with my address on and a much more focused outstanding invoice request. I worry when I get old and dotty that I might not spot them, so I'm going to start using my son's address then.

 

[Gasman]

I once got an offer of a large commission for assisting with the transfer of some dead person's money. I would have ignored it but it came from someone called 'Wang Qing'. Surely, they wouldn't have made that up!

 

[classic33]

I once got an offer of a large commission for assisting with the transfer of some dead person's money. I would have ignored it but it came from someone called 'Wang Qing'. Surely, they wouldn't have made that up!

Nothing to do with an ex army officer was it?

 

[keithmac]

Recruitment agencies are also known for advertising fake roles with the sole intention of collecting data.

Also, a good tip for email is that if you have an account with GMail or GoogleMail. You can add +whatever onto it and you will still receive the email. So if your email is MyName@gmail.com you can send an email to MyName+cyclechat@gmail.com or MyName+RecruitmentAgency@gmail.com or MyName+facebook@gmail.com and they all come through to your MyName@gmail.com account.

It makes it easy to filter out spam that way too, and also lets you identify who exactly has passed your details on.

I'll have to try that later, thanks for the tip!.

My AOL email was beautifully spam free for over 10 years before I sent one email to a reputable company, it all went down hill after that.

Presumably one of their staff was selling email profiles on the side..

I block the domains of all the Nigerian spam mails and slowly but surely they've just about stopped again.

 

[Globalti]

Never mind all that - what about the poor Naija astronaut who's still whizzing round and round in the ISS for lack of dollars to bring him home? Can't something be done?

 

[Drago]

I would have ignored it but it came from someone called 'Wang Qing'. Surely, they wouldn't have made that up!

He's not alone http://www.waynekerrtest.com

 

[Profpointy]

He's not alone http://www.waynekerrtest.com

I'd forgotten about them. It did always raise a titter in our test bed when we saw their kit.

 

[Flick of the Elbow]

The spelling is a red herring. There are loads of far more sophisticated scams out there, with perfect spelling and very convincing use of specific details, e.g. mentioning mutual friends/colleagues by way of introduction. Often the sender details look like they've come from legitimate contacts/organisations.
Moral of the story, beware of everything and never click on an attachment unless you are 100% sure. Especially attachments that you haven't asked for. If they need you to visit their website use your usual url, the one that you would use if it was you initiating the enquiry.

 

[classic33]

Never mind all that - what about the poor Naija astronaut who's still whizzing round and round in the ISS for lack of dollars to bring him home? Can't something be done?

Sent my bank details, nothing heard since.

 

[irw]

I received an email yesterday. At first glance it looked like the typical pathetic scam attempt like "I have a family member who is a high ranking African government official and needs to transfer money out of the country etc...." but when I looked more closely it was much better than the usual attempts (although not without the spelling/grammatical errors )

I received almost exactly the same email the other day to my main account- now I like to think I'm exceedingly clued up when it comes to these things, but this even had me almost writing an email (from a disposable account) to the sender. The thing that aroused my suspicion was that is stated an address I lived at 3 houses ago. No idea who has sold or had stolen what for this data to appear (I tried various google searches with different combinations of name/address data and couldn't match anything up)

 

[classic33]

I received almost exactly the same email the other day to my main account- now I like to think I'm exceedingly clued up when it comes to these things, but this even had me almost writing an email (from a disposable account) to the sender. The thing that aroused my suspicion was that is stated an address I lived at 3 houses ago. No idea who has sold or had stolen what for this data to appear (I tried various google searches with different combinations of name/address data and couldn't match anything up)

Dropping the address to the simplest you can. Might help.

 

[jonny jeez]

It's a revelation to me though - I wouldn't have expected an agency to sell or pass-on my details to anyone other than prospective employers, so it's a sobering reminder to all CC'ers to be cautious and perhaps use a temporary or disposable email address for such things (especially as a lot of online services want your email address as your login these days).

Everyone should have at least three mail addresses, other than work.

And three separate passwords!

 

[I like Skol]

[QUOTE 4743384, member: 259"]a site where you can enter your email and see if it is connected to a site that has been compromised in a data breach: https://haveibeenpwned.com/[/QUOTE]
Wait! So I am supposed to go to a website I know nothing about and GIVE them a list of my various email addresses? I can't possibly imagine a way that could be abused......