Online Scams Beware

[chinfo 0]

Just recieved this a couple of hours ago, I thought you should be aware of this.

From MR.MUSA AKIM Tue Aug 10 00:53:14 2004 X-Apparently-To: <EDITED>; Tue, 10 Aug 2004 00:53:19 -0700
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Date: Tue, 10 Aug 2004 09:53:14 +0200
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From: "MR.MUSA AKIM" <ibrahim.aliu1@virgilio.it>  Add to Address Book
Subject: VERY URGENT PLEASE REPLY IMMEDIATELY.
Reply-to: musaakimprvt@email.com
To: ibrahim.aliu1@virgilio.it
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REF: CONFIDENTIAL.
BUISNESS PROPOSAL: TRANSFER OF US$42.462M(FORTY-TWO MILLION,FOUR
HUNDRED ANDSIXTY TWO THOUSAND UNITED STATES DOLLARS) & BUISNESS
PARTNERSHIP.

Dear Sir,

Compliment of season,i do hope you recieve this email in good conditions of health. First, I must solicit your strictest confidents in this transaction, this is by virtue of its nature as been utterly confidential and top secret,I came across your contact through International Business Directory Service via Internet as i search for a trust worthy and reputable person abroad to assist us .

We are top officials from the Federal Ministry of Works & Housing (FMW&H),Federal Ministry of Finance and the presidency, making up the
contract review panel(CRP) set up by the Federal Government of Nigeria
to review contracts awarded by the past military administration. In the
course of our work in the CRP,We discovered that, this fund which
resulted from grossly over-invoiced contract executed for the FMW&H during the
last administration. The companies that executed the contract have been
duly paid and the contracts commissioned leaving the sum of US$42.462M
floating in the Escrow, I have therefore been mandated as a matter of
trust by my colleagues in the panel to look for an oversea partner to whom we
could transfer the sum of S$42.462M by legally subcontracting the
contract entitlement to your company. We have agreed that the funds will be
shared thus after it has been transferred into your account.

(1) 35% of the money will go to your account for acting as beneficiary
of the fund.

(2) 60% to us the government officials (we wish to commence an
incorporation business in conjunction with you.

(3) 5% has been set aside as an abstract projection to both parties for
incidental expenses that may be incurred in the course of this
transaction.


All logistics are in place and all modalities worked out for the smooth
conclusion of the transaction within ten to fourteen working days of
commencement after receipt of the following information from you. your
full name and company name, address, company details and
activities,private telephone & fax numbers. this information will enable us to make
application and lodge claims to the concerned ministries and agencies in favor of
your company and it is pertinent to state that this transaction is based
entirely on trust as the solar bank draft or certified cheque drawable in any of
the Central Bank of Nigeria correspondent Bankers in Europe is going to
be made in your name.

Please acknowledge the receipt of this letter through the Email for
now.

Thanks God Bless.

Yours faithfully,

MR.MUSA AKIM

ALHAJI.IBRAHIM ALIU

For those that fail to understand what this is, the above is another flavor of the infamous Nigerian online scamming scheme. Despite efforts to curbed this kind of swindling, they're still out there.

So how can we recognize its a scam, based on the example above? For one thing, they call themselves as "top" officials, but in reality no high-ranking government official - even the egomaniac ones - would label themselves as "top," simply "government official."

Another is that, if they truly are government ministers, then why on earth would they stoop on this kind of correspondence? Secretaries handle these and those have above-average skills in spelling and grammar, clearly not something like the above.

They also claimed that they learned of me from this International Business Directory Service, which I have never heard of before much less a member of. Note also that this time they had not asked for cash or payment up front...but the twist is they say they need your personal and company info, which is even more risky than coughing up money.

This is just one of many, many variations. Beware

[Argosoft 0]

puuh my email account is full of them! another bunch of people that don't have anything to do all day: THE SPAMMERS! Yesterday someone posted a message in my guestbook... full of links it was spam, so I deleted it. Maybe he thought that I could leave the message there?

[Greven il-Vec 0]

A scam that I have recieved a few times in my email is an Ebay impersonation email including pictures of the logos and stuff to make it look official, and it says that there is a balance of $137 on my Ebay account and to send a check to *insert some PO box in Texas*. Now that I think about it, I should have mailed him an old sock or something .

[Vacant 0]

Not wanting to offend anyone here of course, but who would fall for that? I mean, maybe its me just being over cautious but I wouldnt agree to anything over email, unless i was certain of the source. And especially nothing to do with adopting an ostrich.That last bit was random, i shall now go and discipline myself.

[arens 0]

especially nothing to do with adopting an ostrich.

 

That last bit was random, i shall now go and discipline myself.

Can't agree with you more! If I don't know them, they have no chance telling me anything. And I'm certainly not going to read whatever crap they think they should send me without my permission.

 

I used to get annoyed when I received one of these scams, or chain-emails, or hoax viruswarnings. Now I just let Mailwasher delete it from the server before I start up my mailclient. Water off a duck's back...

[Variablez 0]

I recived a same kind of message from some guy saying I won and he would split 50,000 USD with me, 25,000 for him and same for me, his name was so weird and I didnt think it was real and here is the messgae:

The Desk of Mr NIABBA KAMBUAudit/Remittance Department of
African Development Bank (ADB)
Auagadougou Burkina Faso
phone: 00226-70 642 10

Dear Friend,
(CONFIDENTIAL)
I know that this email will be a big surprise to you, but i want you to calm down and read very carefully.

I have a business which will be beneficial to both of us. the amount of money involved is ($5,700:000:00 five million seven hundred thousand us dollars) which i want to transfer out of the country to your bank account, all to my financial benefit and yours too. and also to take my wife abroad for treatment of liver damage.

This money is owned by a man called JIN SUN, a business commercialist in west-african regions. he has been dead since six years ago and since then, no claim has been placed on his bank account balance.

I want to transfer this money out of the country but such fund cannot be transferred without a next of kin attached to the fund. the fund could be transferred in these way; you shall present yourself as a business associate to the deceased person[JIN SUN) as details shall be that you are the care- taker business associate to mr. jin sun and his properties.

I shall make available to you materials and information with which a successful claim shall be placed on the fund. i shall also be your guidiance and instructor throughout the duration of this transaction so as to ensure a swift and sure transfer of the fund to your bank account. as to your benefits,you shall be entitled to 40% of this fund for your co-operation in this transaction while 5% will be set aside for expences incured during the course of this transaction.

So if you are interested, send a reply to me immediately and in your reply please include your [private phone and your fax numbers] urgency has to be implied and this business must strictly be a deal between both of us.

Waiting for your urgent response so that i can move ahead and give you the indept details concerning this transaction and also the steps to take for a smooth transfer of the fund into your bank account.

Best Regards,
Mr.NIABBA KAMBU

[HDuffRules 0]

My standard response to these guys is to sign up their e-mail for lots of spam and looking for online offers that don't require a credit card and using their e-mail address. It's great fun.

[Fractured.Logic 0]

*facepalm*

 

I had to share this one because he/she/it's not even trying to mask the blatant invasion of privacy... Let's forget, for the moment, that they obviously don't know who I am... or they wouldn't be calling me "Sir" ...

 

There's a little well of vindictiveness burbling inside me right now that wishes I could get my hands on whichever of the jobhunt sites I've signed up with in the last few months that traded my email to these vultures... *liptwitch*

 

fromBcasey Esq <info@chambers.com>

reply-tocaseybrian23@yahoo.com.hk

 

to

dateWed, Jun 17, 2009 at 1:20 AM

subjectREPLY,

 

hide details 1:20 AM (8 hours ago) Reply

 

 

 

Dear Sir,

I Am Brian Casey Esq, I want you to assist me to handle an inheritance.

Please get back to me with your details.

1.Your Full Name...

2. Your Current Address...

3.Your Age...

4.Your Occupation..

5.Your Telephone number..

6.Your Company if any...

Brian Casey Esq.

[BCD 1]

Did anybody ever tried replying them to see what happens? Once I did, when such a mail came to one of my email accounts used for signing up newsletter websites and such things. So it was risk free.Ok, so here is the story, it was the same kind of mail, a minister from china wants to give me money. Somebody has died who had lots of money. He wants me to take it and give him some share of it. But why choose me??? As the mail further reads.. "As your surname is the same as that of the client, it would be easy to get through the legal formalities..". Lol... My account name was "cooljunkbox59".I replied to the mail, saying I would need further details, and asking about my safety and why should I believe him and stuff like that. And within a day i received a reply with a big mid aged Chinese male photo, with a scanned identity card with a full page bio data! I just kept sending him a few more one liner mails, like "But why should I believe you", "More details please" and each time I received a 500+ words highly polished grammatically correct mail.

[networker 0]

I've been receiving those kinds of email scams for several years.Perhaps their approach isn't quite sleaze enough to approach embezzlement,but it wouldn't surprise me if a few vulnerable people fell for it.Just another pest that should be stopped.

[onitenki 0]

ugh. this never gets old. they ranged from transfering money to u, to ebay and even rent scams...its pretty much all the same where they send u a bigger amount then what u suppose to take. then send them the difference. *hence here is the part.* they sendu the check of the amount and u deposit it. its available the next day however, the check hasnt cleared yet.by the time u send it out and they recieve it you will get a negative plus a returned check fee for the check not being clear so u lose more money and plus some.

[gummybear 0]

yah i've seen those before but the thing is, they're so obviously fake ( i mean who would randomly write a letter to someone they don't know because they want to share their fortune with them? Lol. ) that ... I don't know, it's hard to see how an educated person could fall for that. Though I'm sure some do.... anyways, yeah. Scams are bad :s

[cmane 0]

*facepalm*

 

I had to share this one because he/she/it's not even trying to mask the blatant invasion of privacy... Let's forget, for the moment, that they obviously don't know who I am... or they wouldn't be calling me "Sir" ...

 

There's a little well of vindictiveness burbling inside me right now that wishes I could get my hands on whichever of the jobhunt sites I've signed up with in the last few months that traded my email to these vultures... *liptwitch*

Most of the email scams that ask for your details have a contact number for you to call and give your details to over the telephone.The cunning little so and so's actually pretend to be authentic even over the phone.

I have found that the Reverse Phone Detective can help. You see once you are able to confront these people with their Real (phone registered ) name and details they do in fact panic and DISAPPEAR!

[The Simpleton 2]

It's been over twenty years but the spammers (or) scammers still haven't lost hope with such scams, and that's because even though the majority of people now don't even read the mails and simply delete them, there are still some people who actually believe these mails and go through the process and end up losing their money! If there are no responses to the mails there wouldn't be any such mails isnt it? well they havent stopped so there are some innocent people being tricked daily.

[bigtimedrama 0]

yup.. and here.. it could get really worse. Scams like those don't happen just populate the email accounts, even the mobile phones, and for some reason, people still fall for these things. Like for example, an anonymous number would send a text message to a certain number that he/she won the lottery per dti2335474526743 series8586960 (really detailed stuff) then, if you ever reply, they would ask you to go to a certain place and hold you up. it's really scary! Or another story here... My friend's phone got snatched by an abominable creature... it doesn't end there... this abominable creature prevailed to be totally evil by texting everyone on my friend's phone pretending to be him, asking for "load" (prepaid credit) telling everyone that he's in a hospital, in an emergency situation and really desperate to make a call! Unbelievable!