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だがそこは、ある種の無法地帯でもある。
Bamboozled by e-mail
Have you been bamboozled, whitewashed, flimflammed or had your leg pulled lately? Well, I have. I fell for an e-mail scam. I'm surprised that I was so gullible, because, honestly, I never fall for get-rich-quick schemes, "You just won a free something!" e-mails, and those kinds of things. But this time, I was bamboozled, and it was by an e-mail that I thought was from an old friend.
It was a very short message, an urgent appeal from a high-school friend for the e-mail addresses of everyone in our high-school graduation class. The sender's name was authentic, and it even referred to the sports team that we both played on. So I sent him the addresses.
What a mistake! My whole graduation class was spammed to buy pornographic material that appeared as though it were recommended personally by me! I knew nothing about the company that did the spam nor had I ever purchased any of their products or been to their Web site.
It appears that this company had found my name in an e-mail that I had written to a chat group. The e-mail included both my friend's name and mine, as well as information on our high-school baseball team. Not only was this a fraudulent scam, it wasted many hours of my time and that of my whole graduation class.
Later, I discovered that this was one of the newer hoaxes flying around the Web, and although I am still embarrassed, I am apparently just one of millions around the world who fell for it.
The Internet is a great tool for education, communication, commerce and so on, but for con artists and hoaxers, it is bliss. The Internet offers pranksters millions of chances to fool gullible and naive people every hour of the day, every day of the year.
Believe me, there is plenty to be afraid of. It is unbelievable how many different ways there are to fool people through the Internet into wasting their time and losing their money, reputation and goodwill.
Hoaxes are not only inconvenient and damaging, but even if we never open any of the spam or junk e-mail we receive, it still costs Internet users millions and millions of dollars each year, which are reflected in the priceof Internet service providers. Not to mention all of our time and efforts to erase and delete unwanted e-mails.
It is important that we confirm suspicious e-mails from friends or companies directly before we open them. It is sad that we have to be leery of hoaxes and spam every time we open our e-mail. But in some ways it is the price that we must pay for being able to have a world of information at our fingertips.
In order to stop more people from being bamboozled like I was, I registered the hoaxes at the Web site www.hoaxbusters.org that attempts to warn people of hoaxes and scams.
I even talked to a person from Hoaxbusters by phone who told me, "The Internet is a jungle, and only the witty and careful survive. As long as there are gullible people there will be hoaxes." Well, once bitten twice shy! From now on, I plan to be more careful.
Shukan ST: June 6, 2003
(C) All rights reserved
- Bamboozled
- だまされた
- (Have been)whitewashed, flimflammed
- ごまかされたり、ペテンにかけられたりした
- (Have)had your leg pulle
- 一杯食わされた
- I have.
- 私にはその経験がある
- fell for 〜
- 〜に引っかかった
- scam
- 詐欺
- gullible
- だまされやすい
- get-rich-quick schemes
- 一攫千金をうたった詐欺
- "You just won a free something!" e-mails
- 「無料の何かが当たりました!」と知らせるeメール
- urgent appeal from 〜 for 〜
- 〜を教えてくれという〜からの緊急の頼み
- authentic
- 実在の人物の
- referred to 〜
- 〜を持ち出した
- was spammed
- ジャンクメールを送られた
- pornographic material
- ポルノ商品
- as though it were recommended personally by me
- まるで私が自ら推薦したかのように
- did the spam
- ジャンクメールを送った
- (had)purchased
- 購入した
- It appears that 〜
- 〜のようだ
- fraudulent
- 不正な
- scam
- 悪徳商法
- wasted
- 浪費した
- hoaxes
- いかさま
- flying around the Web
- インターネットで横行している
- commerce
- 商売
- con artists
- 詐欺師
- hoaxers
- ペテン師
- bliss
- 無上の喜び
- pranksters
- いたずら者
- fool
- だます
- naive
- 単純な
- reputation
- 評判
- goodwill
- 善意
- inconvenient
- 迷惑な
- damaging
- 損害を与える
- are reflected in〜
- 〜にはね返る
- Not to mention all of our time and efforts
- 時間と労力は言うまでもなく
- erase
- 消去する
- delete
- 削除する
- confirm
- 確認する
- suspicious
- 怪しい
- leery
- 用心深い
- in some ways
- ある意味では
- price
- 代償
- have 〜 at our fingertips
- 〜をすぐ入手できる
- registered
- 登録した
- warn 〜 of 〜
- 〜に〜について警告する
- the witty and careful
- 賢く用心深い人
- once bitten twice shy
- 一度かまれたら二度目は用心しろ!