Best report
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Sep 20, 2014
Update: Received a call from Symantec asking for the bogus person I gave to the above scammers. I declined the call and called the number back, which was indeed a Symantec employee. I was transferred to a manager and I asked where they obtained their information. I also explain that I never agreed to be solicited for services and declined the "free" whitepaper.
The manager at Symantec indicated they obtain their listed from a marketing firm. I explained I use the bogus name/address as a honeypot to figure out how these our names/contacts get sold. So they are going to backtrack the "honeypot" name and determine what company gathered the data. I also informed them that the agency collecting the data would falsely claim they worked for HP, Microsoft, or other such known brand names.
So what these guys are doing is gathering up information and sending you a whitepaper that puts you on spam list and then selling the contact data to marketing firms. Which in turn sell them to larger firms like Symantec.
Should be noted that the original call from Symantec they indicated that I was sent a whitepaper on Symantec Backup. Considering I never received such a email, I'm guessing this is what the scammers are doing to get around things. They make a claim indicating the these people were interested in such products.
The manager at Symantec indicated they obtain their listed from a marketing firm. I explained I use the bogus name/address as a honeypot to figure out how these our names/contacts get sold. So they are going to backtrack the "honeypot" name and determine what company gathered the data. I also informed them that the agency collecting the data would falsely claim they worked for HP, Microsoft, or other such known brand names.
So what these guys are doing is gathering up information and sending you a whitepaper that puts you on spam list and then selling the contact data to marketing firms. Which in turn sell them to larger firms like Symantec.
Should be noted that the original call from Symantec they indicated that I was sent a whitepaper on Symantec Backup. Considering I never received such a email, I'm guessing this is what the scammers are doing to get around things. They make a claim indicating the these people were interested in such products.