Too Suspicious?

Jim Kuzdrall gnhlug at intrel.com
Sat Oct 29 14:40:01 EDT 2005


    Thanks for the support and helpful suggestions.  For those who 
suggested this be reported to "authorities", let me add a little 
background.

    I almost deleted the email as part of the 500+ spam hits I get per 
day.  I was going to ignore it.  The next morning the potential misuse 
bothered me.  Despite the inconvenience I should at least report the 
possible phishing for the sake of my fellow citizens, if not the 
government itself.

    I called the office of Rep. Charles Bass, explained to the fellow, 
and asked him to confirm that it was legitimate or report it.  He said 
he was not quite sure what to do and would call back.

    About an hour later, he told me "When you have complaints about 
email call the Consumer Protection Agency.  They investigate such 
things."  I don't think he "got it".  Anyway, who knows.  I will call 
them.  Calling intermittently over 3 hours, the line was always busy.

    The Bureau of Export Enforcement, part of the Dept. of Commerce, has 
very professional agents, and I had been involved in setting up a sting 
with them a few years ago.  So I called the agent's number.

    There are good people in the government, it is just a matter of 
finding them.  A new fellow answered, but he immediately got serious, 
checking the names against the given numbers; the names and numbers 
were good.  But, he suggested that the calls might get diverted or the 
phisher might count on getting most of the info before the BIS realized 
why they were getting the calls.

    He sent me a "test" email to which I "replied" with the original 
email attached.  He would check it out.

    In the meantime I get a call from a person claiming to be one of 
those mentioned in the email.  He wanted to know if I had received an 
email requesting information.  (They are checking URL's downloading the 
embedded html graphics, I thought; I had read the html in text.)

    To see where the emphasis was, I told the guy that I manufactured IR 
equipment, but it was not useful for military purposes.  Must I report 
anyway?  "No, you are 'absolved'; ignore the request."

    The agent forwarded me an email chastising the Statistics Department 
for using email for surveys.

    I thought that was the end of it until I got the email of the 
earlier post.

* * * * * * *

    If you sleep soundly at night assuming your government is 
competently protecting you, this indicates that you are only partially 
justified.

Jim Kuzdrall



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