Be Careful Where You Post Your Personal Information

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I did not know where to post this information. This is an informational post. The reason I am posting this to tell everybody not to post their email address on any social media, boards or things of that nature. I had to learn the hard way. Esme is the one that is always telling users to be careful of that! Thanks:kiss.

To make a long story short, I posted my email on this website in response to a thread before. I am assuming the spammer saw my information and probably saw other people's email as well that may have publicly posted it on allnurses, and s/he decided to take advantage of that. I received an email from [email protected]. S/he formally introduced herself under her incognito as Diane Zzadi. Users Beware!!! She sent me this letter at first:

Hi, i am ms. Diane , is my pleasure communicating with you . though, i have seen your profile here, please kindly get back to me via my email so that i will detail you my purpose of writing you . i have something very important to share with you . i will be waiting to hear from you. thanks and have a blessed day.

In the subject line, it was titled allnurses.com with the name Diane, so I assumed a member from allnurses was sending me an email. So I replied back to s/he and sent this:

Hello Ms. Diane,I am replying back to you.

In a few days, I received this letter:

Hello, my dearest , foremost, please accept my heart full of love and caring . Please permit me to introduce myself better . I'm Ms. Diane Zadi ,19 years old girl from Cote d'Ivoire , daughter to late Bernard Zadi Zaourou,he was a politician and one time minister of culture in my country. He died on March 20, 2012 . And my biological mother died some 4 years ago .

I pray you to put aside xenophobia, tribalism, regionalism and racism . I need your assistance , my father secretly deposited the sum of US$3,600,000.00 ( Three million and six hundred thousand dollars ) in one of the leading banks ,in custody of my name as the next of kin. I therefore write that you partner with me over the transfer of this fund to your account and it's investment . After the fund is transferred to your account , I will then join you there .It is my intention to compensate you with 15% of the total money.

Before I proceed, please permit me to say I followed my intuition in chosen you amongst the multitude, this forms the basis of my confidence in you . I never get misled whenever I followed my intuitive directive .In my next message I will tell you more about my present condition ,the reason I want to have this fund transferred to your position , and why I wish to migrate to your country.

As soon as I receive your positive response showing your interest I will put things into action immediately . Please do keep this secret only to yourself ,I beg you not to disclose it to a third party till I come over, once the fund has been transferred into your account. I hope my explanation is very clear but if you need further clarification, then send in your question(s) . I have attached scanned copy of my picture and I look forward to have yours.

My regards

Diane

I also took the liberty to google s/he, and I found out that other social media websites have also been infested with s/he spam. In addition to all this, s/he was also listed at thebestspam.tumblr.com/. This confirmed my suspicions about s/he. I hope everybody can learn from my situation and not post any emails or important information publicly.

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Specializes in HH, Peds, Rehab, Clinical.

Everyone I know and everyone THEY know has gotten one of these spam emails SOMEWHERE along the line. What hard lesson did you learn? Unless you actually FELL for her story and disclosed your banking information, I'm not sure what the warning here is about....

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Specializes in nursing education.

The warning is, don't post your email on AN or other websites. Trollers would not continue to send spam if nobody fell for it.

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Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.

Read the Terms of Service and follow them. A lot of time and effort has gone into them to strike a balance between self-expression and protection of you and those who you may discuss in your posts. I'm sorry you had to deal with the consequences of not following TOS, sebig.

Colleen, I know two nurses who fell for e-mail scams and actually sent money!! Incredible.

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In reply to Colleenrn2be--- I did not fall for her story. Like I said before, this was an informational post...and this is not the first spam I have received in my life. The point of this thread was to inform members to not post their email publicly. This spammer got my info from allnurses due to my ignorance.

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In reply to hey_suz---Thanks! Atleast somebody understands me :)

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Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.

Actually, I was getting a little bit lax about telling people not to post their e-mails, so this is a great reminder that people who want to take advantage of others never stop trying. I hate that there are people in the world who do this.

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Nursel56---Thanks! But no need to apologize for my carelessness. Who reads the TOS these days?

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Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
Nursel56---Thanks! But no need to apologize for my carelessness. Who reads the TOS these days

Yes, you have a point there, lol. Truthfully, people may glance at them, but there are so many Terms of Service on the internet these days. I admit I have sometimes checked the "I agree" box without actually reading it . .

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when i have to post my email here or any social media network, i use my other email address, which i made purposely for things like this, i don't even use my name on that email address, because some while search you on facebook and start stalking you..

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
. Who reads the TOS these days?

You should read the TOS before agreeing to it. My Dad always told me "Never sign anything you haven't read" and it is wise advice.

Thank you for posting this.....anyone who is posting their e-mail address here for tips, study sheets, test stuff and links are asking for trouble.

The posting of your own email is not prohibited by AN. Posting your friends e-mail, however, is prohibited.

The posting of your e-mail is strongly discouraged to protect "your" (the collective you not you, you) privacy. Privacy is of the utmost importance at AN.

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