The Top Five E-Mail Scams (4)
Scam #4: Nigerian Letter Scam
The Come-On
The "419 letter," named for the Nigerian penal code that addresses crime schemes, shows up as an e-mail from someone looking for your help in a seemingly desperate yet worthy cause, usually someone looking to give money away in his or her final days. An excerpt from a particularly desperate one follows:
The Scam
In exchange for your personal information like bank accounts and routing numbers, the sender promises a large lump sum for your help. You never get the money, of course, and the e-mail sender is across the world impersonating you, creating an alternate version of you with credit cards and bank accounts until your credit goes so bad that you will spend years trying to fix it.
You will even often get official-looking documents to get you to pony up for shipping and documentation fees, making the whole thing look legitimate.
What You Can Do
Carols says: "Free money from Nigeria offered in an e-mail from a princess in distress or a diplomatic prisoner? Fat chance. These scams have been plaguing consumers for years, with variations on the dramatic set-up, but the bottom line is the same: Getting involved with these scams can be more than just a waste of your time. They can also be dangerous and life-threatening."
For more information, 419eater.com has a great FAQ that even documents some of the cases as well as some citizens fighting back against the scammers. Warning: Some of these accounts are for mature audiences only.
The Come-On
The "419 letter," named for the Nigerian penal code that addresses crime schemes, shows up as an e-mail from someone looking for your help in a seemingly desperate yet worthy cause, usually someone looking to give money away in his or her final days. An excerpt from a particularly desperate one follows:
"...before my late husband died he was a major oil tycoon,and deposited the sum of 25 million dollars ( Twenty five million dollars) in one of the Spanish bank in Madrid,Spain. some years ago,thats all i have left now,i need you to collect this funds and distribute it according to the God wishes and for charity . so that when i die my soul can rest in peace.the funds will be entirely in hands and management. i hope God gives you the wisdom to touch very many lives,that is my main concern. 20% of this money will be for your time and effort,while 80% goes to charity. So if you know you can assist me then forward to me immediately the following informations.
1) NAMES AND ADDRESS
2) PHONE AND FAX NUMBERS
3) YOUR NATIONALITY
4) OCCUPATION
5) AGE and your Marital Startus.
Please reply back to me on this email: jennydiaz@mail.vu."
The Scam
In exchange for your personal information like bank accounts and routing numbers, the sender promises a large lump sum for your help. You never get the money, of course, and the e-mail sender is across the world impersonating you, creating an alternate version of you with credit cards and bank accounts until your credit goes so bad that you will spend years trying to fix it.
You will even often get official-looking documents to get you to pony up for shipping and documentation fees, making the whole thing look legitimate.
What You Can Do
Carols says: "Free money from Nigeria offered in an e-mail from a princess in distress or a diplomatic prisoner? Fat chance. These scams have been plaguing consumers for years, with variations on the dramatic set-up, but the bottom line is the same: Getting involved with these scams can be more than just a waste of your time. They can also be dangerous and life-threatening."
For more information, 419eater.com has a great FAQ that even documents some of the cases as well as some citizens fighting back against the scammers. Warning: Some of these accounts are for mature audiences only.
_thumbnail.jpg "Vintage Keyboards")
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 7)
karen said 9:42PM on 6-23-2008
The nigeria scam has been coming on my e-mail for almost a year now, you'd think that after a while they'd give up on me. The letter says I'm Allen's next of kin and he left me 1.5 million dollars,The money has been moved around from bank to bank and country to country and last I heard someone acting as my representative is getting the money for me. I've never answered the e-mail, just moved it to spam, I'm not giving out any info . I do however forward some of the e-mail to mediarelations@fedex.com when they ask me to send money to the fed-ex office to get my package of money from fed-ex. Anyway it's fun to read and if the money is real they can just send me a check...
Reply
Randy Sears said 9:37PM on 6-23-2008
Anyone getting the emails from the FBI claiming to have rounded up a group of impostors posing as FBI agents, or from various banks? This latest email scam assures that the REAL FBI is looking out for you and will initiate the funds you're entitled to if you supply information for the necessary ATM card to enact the transaction. Mr PAUL SMITH is the only man to contact, as anyone else would be perpetrating a fraud. It's supposed to be from the "Anti-Terrorist and Monitary Crimes Division" of the FBI and is signed by Robert Mueller. Puhleeeeease! Some of the spelling is atrocious!
Reply
joel said 9:52PM on 6-23-2008
www419baiter.com is a great educational site. The person who runs this site shows a lot of different email scams that he has recieved and the responses he has made to these crooks to bait them into thinking he's responding to the scam. But he has the last laugh wasting their time pretending to be a easy mark. Its interesting stuff!
Reply
Denzil Minyard said 6:32AM on 6-24-2008
A good friend and I got this same Nigerian email the same day. Did it ever sound like a sweet deal!!!! We had a good laugh at it. He came up with the idea of giving the site all the "information" it needed to get our money. He gave them fictitious information all the way. He emailed them the fake stuff. They responded by saying his information would be confirmed, and then he could go wallow in this money. A "lady" said she she would not only confirm his information but would keep it confidential. Funny--he never got another email from these scammers.
I received a call from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, (so the caller said) . The gentleman told me due to my stellar reputation, I was automatically on the ground floor with a fantastic bullet proof investment opportunity. If I let him have $500.00/month, the return on my investment would be in the thousands after a few months. He said, "all I need is your bank account number." I told him I needed his name, telephone number, address, and the name of his investment company in order to verify this sweet deal. He asked what I was going to do with the information. I told him I would check with the Texas Attorney General's office and probably the FBI. He hung up on me.
Reply
Mike said 7:48AM on 7-16-2008
Got hit by a Nigerian scam artist on checks that would clear the Bank Of America and I would deposit money into an account so we can buy Florida Real Estate. Lost over $400K.
Reply
SHADIA said 11:07AM on 7-16-2008
I received several letters from a young girl from Egypt , that is where my husband is from. She was claiming that she was an orphan and has millions that she can't access here in the states, that she needs a POA here to get the money and get her the green card in the USA to go to school.. she went as far as sending a fake picture of herself. He being from Egypt I knew she would of course speak Arabic, and just to see how far she would take this I spoke to her in a few words of arabic and she couldn't answer back. ..
I told her I knew this was a fraud and I would do no such things. She claimed that I would be $$$ taken care of for helping her... Well when I told her/him who knows lol was on the other end. that I suspect fraud, she stoped emailing me.
This did not start out as other scams has started as I read , so that was the only reason I had any contact with them.. I really thought she was seeking a egyptian person to help her.. but as time went on she/he showed this was a scam.
Reply
James said 1:33AM on 2-24-2009
I get 15-20 a day. Not sure I would want to live in the UK. A lot of the women there has cancer and most of their husbands worked for chevron oil co before they died. I even get email from the head man at the FBI telling me they have checked this out and it is good.
A few from the united nations that has taken over from the scamers. A lot of bankers that has found an account where no one has done anything with the account and all I have to do is claim to be the next of kin and because they can controll everything it will be no trouble to push this through becayse he is the only one that knows about the account. I can get anywhere fron20% to 50/50.
Its not the first one I have received from her from Texas telling me that she went after her money and I should contace the main man and all I would have to pay is the 500.00 IRS charges. A lot of them are the same word for word except the name of the person amd the email address.
I have seen a lot of then to the scam address I have but I have quit doing that. I received one in Dec. Still trying me to help the diplomat buy the yellow tag paper. I got the first one in Feb. 2008. I told him he could go to wal-wart and get his yellow tag paper. I have a lot of fun leading them on. I even get them tellion me they got my email address from some book and my address is not even on the email anywhere.
Have a great week.
Reply
Paul said 6:51AM on 4-26-2007
I received (scam) 4 AAA-Visa Traveller's Checks in the mail worth $500 each. They were obviously counterfeit (a very good copy however). I want to reveal the source, info, e-mails received, etc. but the Visa fraud dept. in London will only deal with banks or businesses.....not a person. I explained that all I was doing was trying to be a good citizen and help.....to no avail. I received them via UPS from a legitimate business in Washington state but a phony UPS account. The business told me that 5 others had received these and he had alerted the FBI, UPS. etc.. I traced the source to just outside Milwaukee but DO NOT know where or to whom to make my info available. PLEASE advise me as to the proper authority or agency for this??
Thankyou.
Reply
Mike said 7:20AM on 4-26-2007
Interesting,
The advance checks, or in this case, Visa Travel Checks is the latest twist on an old scam which induces people to give up personal and bank information, only to be led to a point where a fee is requested to release funds to victim. Now they send out legitimate looking checks in advance, relying on the trust factor to complete the scam.
Simply put, if you ever receive any check from an unknown entity, or in this case Visa Travel Checks, forget it, it is guaranteed to be a fraud and you will always lose money, as well as time depositing checks at your bank, never mind the bank putting a hold on your account when discovered.
These scammers are very clever. With check printing software so precise, anyone can generate fake checks which look legitimate. What they change is the routing number which delays the checks clearing, which usually gives theives enough time to complete the sting. These scams are designed to let you see that check supposedly clears your bank, then they request the 10% fee be sent via Western Union if they have not gone for your bank account information, so beware of both scams. Best rule of thumb, never use Western Union for all scammers use them exclusively, while very few legitimate businesses will ever use Western Union, I know I never have.
www.Iragi-Investments.com
Reply
kim said 7:26AM on 4-26-2007
i also rec'd something similiar to this one last week, that someone died in flight 801 here on LI, ok, I live on LI and know of no one on that flight...they went on to say someone with the same surname left me MILLIONS...whoppee..i replied to these people from the UK...gave them no personal info and asked for the surname, played really stupid, how i needed the $ & who was the person, i haven't heard back from the yet!!!mmmmmmmmmm makes ya wonder
Reply
RogersQuarterHorses said 7:47AM on 4-26-2007
We have twice received checks in the mail on an actual bank in Texas. One was for $8,000 and the other was for $5,000. The first one, we actually talked to a guy that was supposedly from the UK. We were supposed to keep $5,000 of it and give $3,000 to a shipper that was coming to pick up a horse. The other check just showed up in our mailbox with no explanation. We called the bank on both of them and they were both bogus. The first one we were able to get names and email addresses and report them. I don't know if anything ever came of it though. This is a common scam among the horse world. Always be leery of a good thing. It is really sad that we have to be so suspicious of everyone.
Reply
chuck29154 said 8:11AM on 4-26-2007
I have received dozens of this particular email scam. I have another one that is similar that I get often under my hotmail account. It states that I am the only heir to millions left after a relative died over seas and they have to send the money to me. They go as far as to state that they are lawyers and all that. I keep putting it in the spam file and reporting them. That does not stop them. They change emails and start all over again. They keep repeating " I really need for you to claim this money". Any advice on how to stop them once and for all?
Reply
Keith said 9:19AM on 4-26-2007
If anyone has ever gotten traveler's checks, the procedure is to countersign in the presence of the bank teller WHEN you got them. Some scams (a Textile company based in England)have your name on the check and then send you info as to the amount to send where. Rule of thumb: Keywords such as GOD, JESUS, LORD and places like LAGOS and ANYTHING in NIGERIA is a sure fire sign it is not real. Protect yourselves. If you try to pass a counterfeit travelers check, you WILL be arrested and charged, no matter what excuse you give.. Also, if you are sent a link, move your mouse over the link to see where the link will take you..PAYPAL info scam comes as innocent mail from a paypal account (how they do that blows my mind) but the link goes to a lookalike site and asks for personal information... REFRAIN from clicking that.. BE careful and remember, you aren't going to make easy money on the internet unless you own YOU TUBE, YAHOO or GOOGLE..
Reply
starlingj4 said 8:22AM on 4-26-2007
My husband and I got scammed by this one day we got four money orders in the mail needless to say they looked real, but they were fraudulant. They(scammers) told us that our my husbands long long lost uncle died in a car wreck. This is the most common scam out their. We have reported them but not sure what come out of the matter. They still to this day try to contact us.
Reply
Glenn said 8:37AM on 4-26-2007
Yes, this scam is even better now. These Nigerians offer checks or money orders via fed Ex. These checks are sent in large denominations and tell you to cash them, keep the 10% and send back the rest of the money ASAP. It is a total bamboozle.
Reply
Lisa T said 9:33AM on 4-26-2007
If everyone could just remember one, single piece of advice... probably the best I had ever heard... and I think it was Ralph Nader who said it on his TV show years ago - folks: "IF IT SOUNDS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, IT PROBABLY IS!!!"
Words to live by.
Reply
Dev said 9:58AM on 4-26-2007
I get letters from the Nigerians and others.
I always mail them back a picture of a big ass and tell them to send the money to me immediately or I'll hunt them down and kill them.
They never write back.
Reply
Evelyn said 9:41AM on 4-26-2007
Single ladies on dating sites, BEWARE! The guy(s) will sweet talk you, add a sob story, they are now ready to settle down and will marry you as soon as they get back from Nigeria. They need money because they can't cash checks or use credit cards. Then they need money because they couldn't get on the scheduled flight. Then they need more for another reason. It all adds up. I have reported Abbey_johnson60/Abeey_Johnson60 to the national fraud info center. Don't know the results.
Reply
Joan said 11:07AM on 7-18-2007
I got many of these Nigerian letters via snail mail in the early nineties when I owned a business. It's clear they are a scam when they say they will wire money to your bank account. Nobody does that in the business world via ANY type of random letter.
Reply
Al said 9:56AM on 4-26-2007
Two things amaze me: 1) That people must actually be falling for these 419 scams, otherwise the scammers wouldn't be trying, and 2) the fact that I receive several of these a week at work. I work for the government, in law enforcement, and anyone seeing my business e-mail address would realize this.
Reply