Weird email: either it's a scam or something that I would never spend time at

[thewayne]

I received the following email today, Yahoo politely routed it to my bulk mail folder:

From: AmyPerez200@hotmail.com
Date: Thu, 30 Mar 2006 5:56:30 -0500
Subject: hello phxclicker))

Dear phxclicker
www.Stephanie.vipdateweb.com
sends you his kindest regards!


I used PhxClicker on some dating web site or another, I don't remember which. I also haven't used a dating web site in over two years, basically since I met Russet in person. The user name was an allusion to me living in Phoenix and being a photographer. So apparently Amy Perez likes me. Does Amy Perez go by the stage name Stephanie? And why didn't VIP Date Web give Amy/Stephanie her own email account on their domain? But the thing that I found most disturbing at this point is that Amy/Stephanie was sending me "his kindest regards!".

I don't recall having ever noted an interest or preference in TS/TV.

Interested in seeing how horrible this web site would be, I went ahead and opened it. Their splash page had the following verbage:

"WELCOME

On-line dating is exploding in popularity! Everyday more and more people are logging on for love, so stop waiting and start connecting. Simply click "enter" and fill in a few details about yourself, and within minutes you'll be on your way. Have fun and best of luck in your search!
We represent integrity and quality in online dating. Every member's profile and photo is verified through a two-step computer and human screening process to ensure legitimacy and seriousness. Privacy & Saffety is firmly committed to protecting the privacy of our members. For this reason, members select an anonymous username and password. Unless you give out your real name or e-mail address, it will never be disclosed."

Hmmm. So they're concerned about "Saffety". Isn't that precious?! I go to the contacts page and find two links, one for "Abuse Service", the text of which is "If you dissatisfied by our work and want to complain - contact here." Now most of the time when I see an Abuse Service my first thought is that it is where you go to complain about some psycho who is harassing you. I've never seen one that encouraged you to complain about their site, generally they just have links for sending comments or contacting the web administrator. Now another layer to the domain shuffle mystery is added: the link points to the domain LookingForPartner.com. That site looks a little more legitimate, but considering where I learned about it from, I don't think I'd stop there.

The other link on the contact page is very useful! The link says Support System and the text for it says Support System! WHEEE!

This is one of my personal favorites. If you click on the Privacy tab, you are taken to the page that describes their privacy policy. The page header even tells you this: it says "Pryvacy policy".

Sigh.

Oh, and at the bottom of the privacy page: "How To Contact Us: Should you have other questions or concerns about these privacy policies, please send us an email at support@looking4partner.com. Please send us your login and password." Yes. Please send them your password!


You'd think that people trying to create scam sites would at least use a spell-check program. I wonder how many people they suck in with this crappy site.

Comments

[apostate-96.livejournal.com]

Sadly, I'd bet they catch a decent number of them. Just in the businesses I've seen in town here, I've noticed some rather glaring (at least to me) mistakes of spelling and grammar. It's a lot easier to get away with on the 'Net, especially as you can potentially have people surfing it at 2 or 3 in the morning when they're bleary-eyed, horny, frustrated and missing about 40-70% of their IQ points.