Don't get rich quick (public service announcement)

[Twister_Ken]

Don\'t get rich quick (public service announcement)

Most of us are familiar with the Nigeria scam (I've got access to millions of dollars but I need the help of a foreign national to get it out of the country). I've just received a variation on the theme, purporting to be from the son of a murdered white farmer in Zimbabwe, whose dear departed dad left $10 million in a locked account.

If you get one like that, why not compound the fun by forwarding details to fraud.alert@met.police.uk

 

[Guest]

Post deleted by danfoley

 

[AndrewB]

Here\'s a summary of \'419\' scams ...

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/specrptrv2africaemailjuly02.htm>Special Report on Africa-Related E-Mail Solicitations</A>

Incidentally, there some fascinating 'stings' being set up by irritated net users, with several sites devoted to these. One purportedly involves a yacht sailing up and down the African coast to deliver the 'release money' needed to get the dosh - every time a landing is arranged, an increasingly preposterous reason is given why they missed the rendezvous, and a new port is proposed. The e-correspondence has been going on for months, with the would-be scammers showing such astonishing naivity in chasing around that you can understand why they would think people would fall for this scam. But I've lost the link. Anyone know?

There is a new, related scam that is being tried on people trying to sell boats. It is an offer to buy the boat, for the full asking price, sight unseen, paid for with a third party cheque drawn on a Nigerian bank well in excess of the price of the boat. The seller is then supposed to refund the difference via a wire transfer and wait for the Nigerian check to clear. A case appeared on a US board recently: if you are interested <A target="_blank" HREF=http://old.cruisingworld.com/forums/arch_067/index.pl?read=280854>click here</A>.

 

[DepSol]

Re: Here\'s a summary of \'419\' scams ...

Best not to reply even in jest especially from a business address as they will take all your contact info and claim that they do business with you in order to take in other suckers.

Amazingly a large number of people are taken in by these scams every year. What makes me laugh is that they sign off as some University professor who is head of english studies and they cant spell and have worse grammar than myself. Maybe that is why people think it is real!

Dom

2003 is going to be a good year for me

 

[robp]

Re: Don\'t get rich quick (public service announcement)

No, people DO get sucked in. Correspondence reaches the point where the scammers get the Bait Taker to provide for necessary expenses in the UK and that then escalates.

A newer development is that I have received e-mails from, (purportedly) the National Westminster Bank, 135 Bishopsgate, London! Trying to dispose of the account of Bill Clinton's Personal Physician, deceased!!

 

[ghostwriter]

Re: Here\'s a summary of \'419\' scams ...

hey Andrew , looks like you are the specialist in this game , is this a case of poacher turned gamewarden , or poacher cunningly covering up ?? remotum joco etc... of course /forums/images/icons/wink.gif

 

[hlb]

Re: Don\'t get rich quick (public service announcement)

Yes we have all had those. Not quite as bad but more believable. and would normaly be dealt with by a very juniour member of staff. Is the very official three page form we recieved on friday, telling us that we had not registered for data protection and would be fined £5000 pounds if we did not emediatley register and send £95 to an address on Fleetwood Pier!! It looked very convincing apart from the Fleetwood pier bit. So much so, that I wrang our accountants to confirm it was a scam.

<font color=blue> Haydn

 

[dickh]

Re: Don\'t get rich quick (public service announcement)

I've had this scam last week, both on my work computer and at home - from South Africa this time. I replied saying I had passed them on to the SA Embassy and Scotland Yard - but it was returned saying there was no such address.

dickh
I'd rather be sailing... /forums/images/icons/smile.gif

 

[Metabarca]

Re: Don\'t get rich quick (public service announcem

Am I the only one to have had a charming letter from "Mrs Louisa Ejercitor Estrada,
the wife of Mr Joseph Estrada the former president of Philippine" (sic!)? The letter goes on to state:

"I am a woman of substance and of great
importance to my nation and the society in general. l guess
you must have heard much about that, I will not like to
entertain any act of unseriousness from you in this
transaction o.k. You must take instructions from me at all
time and for security reasons you will only communicate me
only by my e-mail for now o.k."

Phew! I await new orders with trembling knees!

 

[tillergirl]

Re: Don\'t get rich quick (public service announcement)

There are several organisations that are interested in Advanced Fee Fraud. Before the internet came along, these all came by post and since they even forged the stamps, the British Post Office could get rid of them immediately (not a valid postal item you see). Bit like paedophiles, the internet is a god send to these fraudsters. People do get sucked in and some persist even when told that it's a fraud (even to the extent in one case where the victim to be threatened legal proceedings against the police force in question unless it stopped trying to stop him send money!

The below is the advice from the National Criminal Intelligence Service Website:

Emails and the ISPs

419 emails are very common, and you may continue to be sent them. Please do not send them direct to NCIS unless you have lost money. Instead, send a copy to the Internet Service Provider from where the 419 email originated. These emails should be addressed to:

abuse@ 'the ISP name' (for example abuse@yahoo.com, abuse@hotmail.com, abuse@onebox.com)

By this method, the ISPs can terminate any accounts that abuse their systems.

 

[ponapay]

Why do people open e-mails from..

they don't know, when there is a strange subject in the header? Are they all living in hope that someone will really give them lots of dosh?

 

[robp]

Re: Why do people open e-mails from..

Well speaking for myself, all these scams, (which I receive very regularly), can be read without "opening" the message. Anything I receive that I don't recognise and needs to be "opened", gets the delete button!

 

[webcraft]

Re: Why do people open e-mails from..

Some of them are quite entertaining . . .

I recently received two solicitations from two separate individuals claiming to be the illegitimate son of the late Jonas Savimbi (the rebel [UNITA] Angolan leader who was killed last year). Looks like Jonas found plenty of time for R&R.

I have kept over seventy of these e-mails on file with the intention of sticking them on a website someday. Of course, I'll probably never get round to it, but the nice thing about e-junk is it doesn't take up any discernible space or gather any dust, and can be disposed of at the push of a key once you are finally sick of it.

Personally, I don't understand why anyone should get their knickers in a twist over this - anyone who falls for these scams deserves to be parted from their money. The one thing they ALL have in common is that the sum in question has been acquired in an illegal or immoral way - so anyone a) stupid enough b) greedy enough and c) immoral enough to want to get a piece of this dodgy action can't complain if they get bitten - they deserve it.

- Nick

 

[ecudc]

Re: Why do people open e-mails from..

I also find them highly unusual but unfortunately there are people who are stupid/confused enough to fall for them and the countless other daft money making cons (eg seminars on how to make 50% returns on stock markets etc advertised in national press). I always though that someone should do a program on tv, something really simple like "10 ways to avoid being conned".


1. If it smells fishy it probably is.
2. There is no such thing as a free lunch. If you are promised the world for free there is probably a hitch.
3. Always read the small print.
4. Read it again.
5. Get a second opinion/quote.
6. High return generally means high risk or loosing your investment.
7. Past performance is ABSOLUTELY NO guarantee of future performance.
8.
9.
10.

Well I can't think of any for the last 3 but give me a few hours.

 

[robp]

Re: Why do people open e-mails from..

I've PM'd you the text for the "Nat West" one. It's a different slant... (Too long for here)

 

[toad]

Re: Don\'t get rich quick (public service announcement)

I to had our a letter from the data protection agency saying register or else but I knew that it was not official as it had no government website, was not printed on recycled paper and it was not available in Welsh.

 

[Mirelle]

I have some news for her

1. Her married name is "Ejercito" without the R. "Estrada" was a stage name, which she does not use.

2. She's pretty comfortably off, and would be extremely well off were her husband not maintaining four mistresses, and their children by him, from the air conditioned comfort of his prison cell

3. Most important, President Ramos abolished exchange control restrictions on the capital account before her husband came to power. But I grant that her husband is probably too thick to have noticed.

Incidentally, from the grammar and construction, this is from a Filipino, but not a well educated one.

 

[Sybarite]

Re: Don\'t get rich quick (public service announcement)

I got one (the first of many) of these letters at least 10 years ago. They are not new.

Dammit I'm gonna have to put off getting my Trintella 49a.

 

[AndrewB]

Not new, no.

'419' is an old scam. I read somewhere that a version of it was rife around 1920, when it was known as the Spanish Prisoner con. People were approached to put up money to secure the release of a prisoner in Spain who supposedly once free had access to vast wealth.