Tag: 419 scam

September 25, 2020

Francis Deals with Scam Email

Francis received the following typical scam email (complete with grammatical and spelling mistakes)

Dear Partner,

I have $15.7 million dollars laying in an escrow account in my head office here in Sierra Leone, the fund was over due payment for contractor 4year ago.

I am seeking your help to present you as the beneficiary to the fund,so that you can contact my Bank Head Office for up transfer of the fund into your account. You are to forward me your details, Your Full name, Your age, Your address, Id card and Telephone number.

Mr Hassan Malik.

Francis replied

Dear Mr. Malik,

Thanks very much. But I don’t need your money as I have 457,452,743 billion dollars in a large suitcase I found at the side of the road.

As you only have $15.7 million would you like some of mine?

Now get lost and stop wasting my time you devious and crooked half-wit

Well said Sir.

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June 21, 2020

Stupidest Spam of the Week Bank Payment

This is an example of the advance fee scam, also known as the 419 scam.

The message claims to be from US Bank which does not exist.

The actual email sender uses a gmail address which is obviously unsittable for any genuine business, so its an obvious scam.

The title of the message is “REF:- INSTRUCTION TO CREDIT YOUR ACCOUNT WITH THE SUM OF (US$5Million)” and the message is all about a massive payment due to me because I have been cheated by Nigerian scammers and I must send my contact details so they can release the funds to me.

“After due vetting and evaluation of your file that was sent to us by the Nigerian Government in conjunction with the Ministry of Finance and Central Bank of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. This bank has an instruction to see to the immediate release of the sum of (US$5Million) of your claim that has been holding since is transferred into your bank Account from their Domiciliary Account with this bank.”

All rubbish of course and this scammer has made very little effort to present a viable story.

Will people reply? It is likely that some will and they may just want to know about the supposed payment or may believe it will happen, but sadly the only result will be small charges to be paid and the large payment never happens.

The message asks for contact name, address, telephone numbers, email addresses, occupation etc – all useful information for the scammers to sell to other criminals to enable identity theft.

It’s sad that scammers still try this and even more sad that people still fall for these stupid scams.

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January 19, 2020

Stupidest Spam of the Week Fund Restored

There are endless 419 scams – these are the ones where some kind of treasure is offered, such as an inheritance from someone you’ve never heard of, or a package left at an airport or port that only you can access. If you accept then you have to provide lots of personal information and pay a small fee then another fee then another fee and so on till you realise it’s a con and stop paying.

This new version offers compensation of $5 million from the Nigerian government for any previous attempts to con you with a 419 scam and you just have to provide that same personal information to claim the money.

It’s all just the same scam of course. There is no compensation. How could the Nigerian government pay out $5 million to everyone who’s received a 419 scam email? It would bankrupt them.

Is anyone dumb enough to fall for this?

I hope not.

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April 6, 2019

Time-Wasters Update

Sara Bluch sent an email to the radio station saying she wants to advertise her business on our website. Sounds good but it’s just lies. Her email also says her name is saramoupeHE which doesn’t match the email address. She added a link so we can check out her company but it’s a shortened link so you can’t see where it goes to and her actual email address is a gmail account which is not a business address. Bye bye evil scammer.

Mr. Ibrahim Mustafa Magu is keen to inform me that my abandoned fund has been found and a compensation payment of $3 million has been approved and is due for payment to me. The email address I should send my details to is brilliantly funny ron.consultantg @gmail.com so I don’t think I’ll be replying.

Hitachi Tokyo Iron and Steel would like to offer me an executive opportunity to represent their company in accounting and finance. They believe my expertise would be very helpful in moving their plans forward. The letter is from the president himself of Tokyo Iron and Steel. Wow – they want to offer me a great job despite not even knowing my name (the letter is addressed to ATTN:) Now that’s trust for you. But of course I don’t trust them as it is a simple and brain achingly stupid scam.

Rebecca Morris is pleased to tell the world that a student from Cornell University has proved that apple cider vinegar can cut away that belly fat in days with no gym visits or other exercise involved. I just have to click the link to see the proof. Endless scams target people desperate for a magically easy way to reduce weight but there aren’t any of course. Eat less and exercise more is the only way to lose weight.

Sophie Gladstone offers 65% off infrastructure today only and wants me to buy an 800 watt UPS. Don’t know what rubbish this is and don’t want to know.

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February 27, 2019

How Did 419 Scams Begin

Fifty Scams and Hoaxes is a new book by Martin Fone and is described as a light-hearted investigation into some of the worst examples of financial skulduggery, medical quackery and ingenious hoaxing from history. Along the way he came across a Pope advocating a drink based on cocaine, a pill to avoid hangovers, a woman who gave birth to rabbits, the man who broke the bank twice and the first examples of insurance fraud and scam emails.

It’s an easy book to read and is entertaining.

One story that surprised the Fightback Ninja is an early version of the 419 scam, also known as the advance fee scam where the scammer offers a fortune in return for carrying out a simple task.

The fortune might be a lock box of gold left by a diplomat that only you can access, or it may be the legacy of a dead relative and you’re the next of kin supposedly or any one of hundreds of such stories.

There is no fortune of course and the scammer progressively gets the victim to make a series of small payments for customs clearance or security checks or any other reason until the victim realises it’s a scam and stops paying.

Eugene Francois Vidocq in revolutionary France late 18^th century specialised in using prison guards to send letters to carefully chosen very wealthy people.

The letters claimed he and his master were intending to escape revolutionary France and had a casket containing 1600 francs in gold and diamonds. They had been attacked en route and ditched the casket but now they were safe and had sent a servant to collect the casket but he had ended up in jail.

So, if you (the recipient) could send the money to have the servant released then the fortune can be shared with you.

The story is quite long and convoluted to add authenticity and is cleverly designed to lure the unsuspecting victim into believing about the fortune. This long ago scam shares many features with the modern day advance fee scams based upon it.

Vidocq reckoned that 20% of the letters he sent out ended up with money in his pocket so he became a wealthy man before retiring from the scamming game. Modern day scammers need to send out millions of such messages to make any money from their fraudulent schemes.

Martin Fone’s blog is at https://martinfone.wordpress.com/

You can buy the book at www.troubador.co.uk/bookshop/business/fifty-scams-and-hoaxes

If you have any experiences with scammers, spammers or time-waster do let me know, by email.

January 5, 2019

Time-Wasters

Michelle O’s Belly is a strange name for an emailer but this one is a typical magic diet scammer. “Most folks are dropping an average of 31.2 pounds in the first 3 weeks. All because of one exotic fruit from Mexico”. Nope – the only thing being lost is any money paid to this scammer.

More supposed job applications arrive by email but always the same simple message, such as

“Hi, My name is Doreatha Micco and I’m interested in a job. I’ve attached a copy of my CV. The password is “1234”.

The name is different each time but it’s a simple message to get you to open the attached document which will be loaded with virus or other malware. The reason it has a password is to stop your anti-malware scanning it to warn you. No thanks.

An email claiming to be from someone who does work at the radio station and asking if we can make a payment today. Likely the scammer has found the staff name from our website or companies house records or similar. Pay a scammer – not a chance.

A message from Frances Moyer stating she has attached the latest credit and collection targets for me to review. No such person at the radio station and no such thing as credit and collection targets. Just a scammer guessing business messages.

Mrs Yusuf pleads for my help in getting her and her daughters out of Syria. Why would I want to help? Because she has $238 million to share. That’s quite an incentive but it’s all fake of course – a typical 419 scam where the victim ends up paying lots of small amounts while trying to get their hands on a non-existent pot of gold.

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