New Nigerian Scam WTF



  • This email I received really made me laugh. It's a whole new ploy for scammers.

    	From: 	  aon.912346082@aon.at
    	Subject: 	COMPENSATION FOR SCAM VICTIMS.
    	Date: 	17 March 2008 9:58:10 AM
    	To: 	  high.commission@yahoo.co.uk
    

    BRITISH HIGH COMMISSION
    Office for the Coordination Of Humanitarian Affairs,
    Integrated Regional Information Network
    TEL: +234 803 926 4847
    E-MAIL: british.highcommission@accountant.com

    Attention:

    The BRITISH High Commission in Nigeria,Benin Republic,Ghana and Bokinafaso received a report of scam
    against you and other British/US citizens and Malaysia,Etc. The countries of Nigeria, Benin Republic,
    Bokinafaso And Ghana have recompensed you following the meeting held with the Four countries' Government
    and various countries' high commission for the fraudulent activities carried out by the Four countries' Citizens.

    Your name was among those scammed as listed by the Nigeria Financial Intelligent Unit (NFIU). A compensation
    has been issued out in Certified Bank Drafts to all the affected victims and has been already been in distribution
    to all the bearers. Your draft was among those that was reported undelivered as at on Friday and we wish to
    advise you to see to the instructions of the Committee to make sure you receive your draft immediately.

    NFIU further told us that the use of Nigeria and BeninCouriers was abolished due to interception activities
    noticed in the above mentioned courier services in Benin,Nigeria and Ghana and thereby have made a concrete
    arrangement with the DHL Courier Company for a safe delivery to your door-step once the beneficiary meets
    up the demand of the conveyance.

    We advise that you do the needful to make sure the NFIU dispatches your Draft on Monday. Reply this e-mail to
    british.highcommission@accountant.com . You are assured of the safety of your draft and availability. Be advised
    that you should stop further contacts with all the fake lawyers and security companies who in collaboration
    scammed you. Call me at: +234 803 926 4847 immediately to check if the delivery date suits you.

    Reply to the email below for more details:
    E-MAIL: british.highcommission@accountant.com
    E-MAIL: high.commission@yahoo.co.uk

    Yours in Service,
    Mr. Philip Hill
    CONSULAR
    Email:british.highcommission@accountant.com



  • "We advise that you do the needful"

    That part made me laugh.



  • This sort of thing isn't new. I read a story about a year ago about some stupid woman who fell for both an original nigerian scam and a similar one to this (something like "we tried to refund you but our records appear incorrect, please give us your bank details so we can wire you the refund").

     

    The real WTF is that there are actually people dumb enough to fall for one - never mind two - of these. 



  •  And here I thought it would be something dealing with the Nigerian government wanting "not credit cards, but something close" for their military people.  My boss is going on about sme such deal he's trying to get involved with, done by one of the co-founders of AOL or something to that nature.  Sounds like a scam to me.



  • I love the Lottery ones:


    YOU WON THE LOTTERY... Just give us your name, address, home phone number, social security number, and bank account!

     

    Of course... Who wouldn't give that info!

    The scary thing is that many of them are actually learning how to spell!!!!! Gramar is comming soon!

    The thing is... when people fall for these, it does not matter how well structured these emails are, the people are already dumb so misspellings and bad grammar are OK.

    --Dmitriy



  • They have these bank accounts in Japan that basically have separate account numbers for depositing and for withdrawing.  You can give out the deposit number safely; they can't use it to withdraw.  It'd be interesting to open a Japanese account & give the scammer the deposit account number, then hound them for the money they promised!



  • TRWTF is that in some banking system is that you can withdraw with just the account number. If you want withdraw/transfer funds in local bank in Finland, you need to have some kind of ID card with you (passport, driving license etc.) so you can prove your identity. If you want to transfer the funds over the phone, you need to have same a card as the one which you use for online banking that has (generally) 100 number pairs. They tell you a random number and you need to tell them the other side of the pair. Once you have used 90 numbers or so, they will send you a new card.



  • @dlikhten said:

    IThe scary thing is that many of them are actually learning how to spell!!!!! Gramar is comming soon!

    The thing is... when people fall for these, it does not matter how well structured these emails are, the people are already dumb so misspellings and bad grammar are OK.

    --Dmitriy

    The mispellings and other mistakes are intentional.  Their main source of income is people who think they can outsmart the scammer.  I remember a TV program (not a reliable source of knowlege) where someone had lost hundreds of thousands and could admit on TV that they'd been scammed but they still believed that they'd get their lotto win.  It's a very insidious mind game.  This person had only answered the initial email in order to find out a bit more about how the scam actually worked.

    Remember the "Nigerians" don't drain your bank account by knowing the account numbers.  The victims willingly transfer the money to them to pay for "release fees" and "document preparation fees."  The true name of this type of scam is "advance fee fraud" - they earn their money from people paying non-existent fees to access promised winnings.  This gives them a much bigger payoff because they can persuade people to mortgage their houses to pay these fees - nobody actually keeps hundreds of thousands lying around in their bank account.



  • Sure about that?

    When you order something, you can give a direct debit authorization using just the account number. In the past, a signature was needed for that too, but in the times of online shopping, that's no longer needed (instead, you can go to your bank and say "I never authorized them", and then they will undo the transaction).



  • I love 419eater ([url]http://www.419eater.com/[/url]) where they bait the scammers and make them do silly things. A favourite thing they do is ask for a picture of the person to prove they are who they claim to be - but of course it would be easy to just submit anyone's photo, so to prove they are genuine they ask them to hold a special message or some odd object:

    [img]http://www.419eater.com/images/patrick.jpg[/img]  [img]http://www.419eater.com/images/tope3.jpg[/img]

    But what if they claim to be someone special... like the minister for Foreign Affairs? Well when you ask for a copy of thier ID card, they just make one!

    [img]http://www.419eater.com/images/hall_of_shame/hall_of_shame3/97_adeniji_olu.jpg[/img]

    But best of all was the guy that they scammed back to think that he would be making lots of money by making sculptures - they even got him to pay someone else to make a wooden copy of a Commodore 64 and ship it to the UK!

    [img]http://www.419eater.com/images/akinkwu19.jpg[/img]

    Full story here: [url]http://www.419eater.com/html/john_boko.htm[/url] 


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @OperatorBastardusInfernalis said:

    When you order something, you can give a direct debit authorization using just the account number. In the past, a signature was needed for that too,
    The Google term you're grasping for is: AUDDIS

     

    but in the times of online shopping, that's no longer needed
    For general shopping, you don't use direct debit, and instead usually give the 16 digit number across the middle, (Potentially leaving yourself open for Continious Authority Payments. (Like when your old car insurer automatically renews your insurance, even though you've taken out insurance with another company, because you didn't 'cancel'))



  • hmm another 419 eater reader, don't suppose you know the link for the pizza box laptop gotcha?  I don't remember it fully but it was a 419 eater type of thing where they said they'd send the latest Mac laptop to the scammer and in reality it was a pizza box with the keys drawn on or stuck on.  Been trying to find it again for a while now.



  • You mean the P-P-P-Powerbook?



  •  @Tann San said:

    hmm another 419 eater reader, don't suppose you know the link for the pizza box laptop gotcha?  I don't remember it fully but it was a 419 eater type of thing where they said they'd send the latest Mac laptop to the scammer and in reality it was a pizza box with the keys drawn on or stuck on.  Been trying to find it again for a while now.

    Do you mean the infamous and awesome P-P-P-Powerbook! ? That was a binder, not a pizza box. If not, I'd love to see a pizzabox variant too, if anyone else knows of it.

    419 eater is great, too. Some of the signs they had them hold for the photos were fantastic. 


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