| A Twist on the Nigerian Letter? |
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Written by Tom Anson January 13, 2006
Hi LEDers,
I just received a rather strange email. My first thought was that it was just another twist of the Nigerian letters, but it doesn't have the normal markers. I did a Google search on the phone number and came up with another person asking about an virtually identical letter dated a few weeks before.
Here's the email:
"My name is Mrs. Marie O'Sullivan. I am a dying woman who had decided to donate what I have to you for charitable purposes. I am 70 years old and was diagnosed for cancer (brain tumor) about 4 years ago, immediately after the death of my husband, who had left me everything he worked for. I have been touched by God to donate from what I have inherited from my late husband to the you for solely for charitable purposes, rather than allow my husband's relatives to use his hard earned funds for ungodly purposes. Has anyone heard about this before?
Tom Anson
therapeutic-grade.com
Written by Tom Aman January 16, 2006
Hi Adam
I know I already sent in a couple of posts on this subject, but since I received 5 more variations in my email this morning (Saturday), I thought it might be worth passing on some more info that I found about them.
According to these emails, I have won 3 lotteries (for a total of 3.5 million), been asked to assist in the slightly illegal transfer of a small fortune out of South Africa (my share is to be 1.8 million), and been asked to be the penpal and soul mate to a lovely Russian young woman (who would later tell me about an inheritance that she needed help in retrieving, my share would likely be another big chunk of money or maybe the young woman in person).
They are all variations of the Nigerian 419 or advance fee scam. At some point in the scam, the victim is asked to send money for some purpose such as legal fees, lawyers fees, or any of a number of other reasons. If the info here saves even one person for falling for one of these scams, it will be worth it. Also, I suggest passing this info on to all your friends, relatives and acquaintances because every once in awhile a normally cautious person might give in or fall for an approach they have never seen before. Obviously, from Tom Anson's post, although he was suspicious, it sounds like he did wonder, for a minute, if it might be for real.
Regarding his post in particular, I quote the opening lines of the email:
"My name is Mrs. Marie O'Sullivan. I am a dying woman who had decided to donate what I have to you for charitable purposes."
This is actually known as the "dying widow" variation. Other variations include the "dying rich merchant", the "dead customer", etc.
The "your email address has won a lottery" emails are another variation. One group of emails that I found on the Internet show a typical example of what happens if you respond. In that case, the "winner" was required to open a special foreign bank account into which the "winnings" would be deposited. The account types ranged from "regular" to "platinum" and each had certain limits as to how much of the "winnings" could be transfered into the account initially and each week or month thereafter. The "platinum" account would let the entire sum be transfered. To open one of these accounts, the "winner" was required to deposit various amounts of money, the smallest amount being $1,500 for a "regular" account up to $4,500 for a "platinum" account. This is just a variation on the "advance fee" scam. You can read the details of this at http://www.joewein.de/sw/419-gulf-atlantic.htm.
One "marker" that should instantly say "be careful" is the phone number in the email. Numbers starting +31 6 are Netherlands MOBILE phone numbers (would a legitimate company give you a mobile phone number as a contact point?). Numbers starting +44 (UK), particularly +44 70.. will probably forward, unknown to the caller, to Nigeria. +234 numbers are Nigerian.
Another scam starts with an email that opens something like:
"I'm the first time in the Internet cafe. My first name is Ol'ga and I'm 28 years old. I live in Russia and all that years I tried to find my pen-pal"
The email goes on for a few more lines with a strong "come hither" appeal and includes a picture of a lovely young woman. This is the "sweetheart" variation of the 419 scam. If I responded, she would correspond for a bit. Then, later she will mention that her father died leaving millions of dollars deposited with a securities company and will provide contact details for a "lawyer" who will handle the inheritance. Inevitably this "lawyer" or the "bank" or "securities company" will ask for thousands of dollars in advance fees.
PLEASE take time to check out all the information available at http://www.joewein.de/sw/419scam.htm to get a much more complete idea of all the things these scammers may try. Once you understand all the variations it makes it much easier to be able to pick out new ones. Don't fall for any of them.
Tom Aman
Aman Software
Written by Sarah Hayes January 17, 2006 419 scams are so called after the section 419 of the Nigerian Criminal Code which relates to advanced fee fraud. These scams have been around a lot longer than the Internet. In fact there are cases dating back to 16th century and were originally sent by post and some scams like the Spanish Lottery scam still are.
There are thousands of variations on the 419 scam, see www.scambuster419.co.uk/orphanagedirectorii.htm and
www.scambuster419.co.uk/vicarii.htm these seems similar to the email you received. They all have one thing in common, they offer you money for nothing but first you have to pay some kind of tax or fee to release the money and of course the money doesn't really exist.
I was recently a member of a court jury on a 419 scamming case. It was very interesting, but I was shocked at the number of people who fall for it and how much money the scammers make. Some people pay multiple amounts of money still believing that they will get the money. The scammers will even meet with victims and show them suitcases full of money to reassure them.
These scams are well organised and big business. They have offices; call centres etc to make it all seem legitimate. If pushed these people can become very nasty, apparently there have been cases where people have travelled to African countries to track down the scammers and ended up dead.
Just delete the email and don't be tempted to respond it is a scam.
Best regards,
Sarah Hayes
Written by Kathryn Martyn January 17, 2006 Just hit delete. If it walks like a duck, it's a duck.
Kathryn Martyn, M.NLP
onemorebite-weightloss.com
Written by John Smart January 18, 2006 The phone number is a pre-pay cell phone in England. The address is a freebie which normally wouldn't be used by a reputable lawyer! ('Reputable lawyer' may be an oxymoron - but that is another issue for another forum!).
It's a new one - I have seen a few similar (although not from the UK before) come into our Californian base. Regardless of where this comes from, who made it or why, there is one truth to all these mails.
If it seems to good to be true, it is.
Of course, there may be exceptions. For instance, my book 'guaranteed earnings of $5,000,000 per week from your web site' is a proven success. For your copy, just send a $25 check (made out to 'cash') to PO Box....
John Smart, Technical Director
InternetDesign.com
Written by Vicki Lambert January 19, 2006
I have been getting those e-mails since day one and I also find it hard to believe that any one would fall for them. But I actually get a big kick out of it when I receive one.
I love reading them and seeing what new twist will be in this one. Is it the son or the widow? Is it an old lady dying alone and trusts no one but me? I know it's a bit on the bizarre side, kind of like watching the Jerry Springer show but hey, when you work alone in an office on your computer all day long, you take your fun where you can, LOL.
But you cannot be inheriting this money since she sent me that letter over two months ago so I am the one who is getting all the money to give to the poor. I should have it just as soon as the check I sent her lawyer clears the bank... ; - )
Vicki Lambert
Written by Tom Anson
January 20, 2006 I'd like to thank all of the LED-ers who responded to my question about the scam. Tom Aman's and Sarah Hayes' responses were particularly informative, and the website Tom cited was very interesting.
When I received the email, I was (of course) 99.999% certain it was a scam. I googled the phone number and found someone else who had received the same email asking about it. We exchanged a few emails and agreed that it was most likely a scam.
My main questions were due to the fact that it lacked all of the signs I have seen before of this type of scam and the fact that my website notes that my wife and I are interested in ministry from a Christian perspective. That left a very small sliver of possibility that it might be legitimate -- but not enough to act upon it.
Lest anyone was fearful for me: There is no way I would have sent money or given away personal information. I was never in danger of losing more than a little of my time (and maybe pride).
And as for Kathryn Martyn's comment: Are you calling me a duck? I mean, that's just how I walk!!!
Tom Anson
Anson Aromatic Essentials
Comments (1)
Don
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| I get these all the time. So much for spam block, but this is what I do.... I send them a prescripted news letter on how to make money the honest way, and give then links to my site. I get a lot of visits. Somthing to think about. |
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