4-1-9 OR ADVANCE FEE FRAUD SCHEMES

[McFox]

When you recieve a scam mail I try to scam them back.

Dumb idea #1 - Broken legs, arms, personal visits, yadda, yadda

To do this I reply to their email

Dumb idea #2 - Never confirm your email to SPAMMERS!

(Some have even sent their pictures!!)

Like they are genuine! LOL!

After a few emails to an fro

Dumb idea #3 - Never reply to SPAM!

I ask them to send me $1.00 of their currency as a sign that they are geniune

Dumb idea #4 - see above

Greed sometimes overtakes the scammers own desires so they send me the dollar via snail mail

DUMBEST IDEA EVER! Giving a scammer your postal address?! Unbelievable!

Once I get their email I tell them that I know what their up to and that they have been scammed!!

Thought you sent a few emails to and fro?

McF

[simonm]

See www.419eater.com and other web sites for a more light hearted view.

The sad thing is that we have now got a world where a small minority have destroyed mutual trust between relative strangers. I would always prefer to trust somebody - now I can't.

I would favour a new law, one where peope can get arrested and jailed for "taking advantage of trust"

[ammonetbenson]

Our company has been in the internet business for some time and is domiciled in Switzerland - an irresistable attraction to these crooks. Several years ago, I received what must have been part of the tail end of the hand-written efforts. I was offended - it was written on plain paper, rather than a letterhead stolen from the Nigerian National Oil company. Well, it had a real Nigerian stamp on it so my kids were happy. Now it's all e-mail. People continue to lose a lot of money to this scam, believe it or not. (That's why it continues, obviously.) Some of them are overseas Nigerians according to news reports (one woman was taken for $145K - she thought she knew the ropes), but most are not. When they hook a real sucker, they'll go so far as to set up and attend meetings in hotels near airports etc - big money is involved. Also "small" money. There was an interview on TV with a guy who lost $35K but didn't blame his correspondents - in fact he felt sorry for them when they asked for yet more to make last minute bribes to release the cash pot - "They have a lot of problems with the authorities over there". There's a group in New Zealand that replies and asks them for verification - photos of themselves in ridiculous poses (shoe on head etc) but, as noted in this forum, these guys now have nasty pals in various countries, notably UK and USA, so I suggest not tangling with them.

[staceman]

I have been getting one or two of these a week:

National Electoral Commission
Harare. Zimbabwe.
May 10th, 2004.

PROPOSAL FOR BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY.

I have the honor and privilege to send this proposal to you via electronic mail. In the first place, may l use this medium to introduce myself as Mr. Bernard Thalawa. I am the secretary of Zimbabwean National Electoral Commission charged with the responsibility of all matters. Other members of the Commission and l were given the total sum of $25.7 million US Dollars by the President Robert Mugabe in the last general elections to return him into power by Monumental rigging, manipulations of figures to ensure that he would have land slide victory in the polls duly conducted by our Commission Consequently, this victory has been achieved and the funds as an inducement under our control.


This electoral victory has been followed and observed by International observers as fraudulent yet the President has perpetuated himself to power and he is currently the President and Commander in Chief of Armed Forces.


What is expected of you in this proposal? You are expected to help us to receive this sum, which we have carefully sent recently towards the end of last year (2003) via cargo to oversea Country for security reason.


The Funds in question are in cash Form, but since we are Civil Servants and we do not maintain foreign account we humbly urge you to keep the funds on our behalf. You are expected to have 20%, as your share for rendering this service while the remaining will be kept for us under your supervision until we put our acts together in future.



If you are well disposed to handle this transaction we shall give you further directives and other guidelines.


Please get in touch with me through my private e-mail box: b_thalawa@netpiper.com expecting your positive response.


Always copy my alternative e-mail address: b_thalawa@netpiper.com to ensure recipient of your reply to me and most significantly for the security of privacy between us.


Thanking you.


Sincerely.
Bernard Thalawa.



Pour gagner une Playstation 2, envoyez un SMS avec le code PS au 61321.
(0,35 € hors coût du SMS)

Man...just for helping him out, I could get $5.14 million woohooo! ;)

[brian mcdonald]

See www.419eater.com and other web sites for a more light hearted view.

I would favour a new law, one where peope can get arrested and jailed for "taking advantage of trust"

wouldn't that by definition make politics illegal?

[CLBridges]

I get scam emails, since I sell boats on the internet I get a lot of the other scam where they want to send you a bogus check for more than the amount and have you wire them the "difference" western union.

This isn't just happening over the internet. My sister put an ad in numerous publications (newspapers, auto trader, etc.) trying to sell my fathers motorcycle. He lived in Vegas, and we live in So. Calif, so she had ads placed in everything from here to there. Some guy contacted her asking for pics of the bike, which she sent snail mail and he called back, wanting to buy it. He said some guy here in So. Cal owed him money.. almost twice the amount we were asking for the bike and he asked if we would pick up a cashiers check from the guy, (made out to us), cash it, use part of the money to ship it to him and then wire him the balance. He even offered to pay an additional $100 for our trouble.

We didn't bite (of course) but my sister said he was SO NICE (rolling my eyes) that she couldnt' bring herself to accuse him of anything, so instead, told him we'd deliver the bike ourselves and expected CASH at the time of delivery.

Needless to say, we never heard from him again. What's really bothering me now, is the fact that they really ARE everywhere!!! This guy didn't know we were in So. Cal until after he said he wanted the bike and it took him less than an hour to arrange the cashiers check pickup!

Carrie**

[AITechnology]

McFox and others,

I just wanted to thank you for this posting. I have been getting a lot of these Nigerian letters, but last week I got one completely different. It was from a guy wanting to actually buy product off my website. We ship internationally all the time and so we were going to look into working with this guy, but I think we will pass due to some of the responses I just read.

[Ozewebhost]

Hey McFox.... lighten up!

No need to get so fired up with poor ol' Coadster (anyway, gotta stick up for a fellow Aussie :-))

I too have a lot of fun with these dudes, while collecting material for a book I'm writing (their inventiveness leaves one speechless). I have actually been working on trying to convert 2 of them to making a 'semi-honest' living (yeah I know, I'm an optimist ;-)

Nowadays, they generally purport to be from a European country rather than Nigeria, Sudan, etc.

To etablish their true Cyber-location at the time of sending the email, simply check your Email Properties by right-clicking the email Subject header and selecting <Details>. If you do this you will see the originating IP address at the top of the popup Details screen.

To track this to its geographic source use DNS resource like www.dnsstuff.com where you can do an IP geographic lookup to find the country where the IP address is allocated.
NB: Just remember this is not 100% foolproof as they can always make an International call from Africa to a dialup ISP account anywhere in the world (damn!... hope your Secret Service don't start tracking me for giving away potentially 'criminal-secrets'<big grin>)

Have fun!

[handry]

That's all scam mail is nonsense and can't be accepted in logical. Don't trust anything like that

[omahtld]

Most of the scams appeal to the greedy who think you can get something for nothing. Its the greedy idiots who fall for it, and in at least one case die for it.

I would second not messing with them. Especially if you get invited to a meeting in Amsterdam, thats where someone got stabbed I believe.

As for IM scams, dont get me started...... Pr0n chat sites anyone?