19 replies to this topic

[ScubaSis]

Have you ever recieved an Email like the one below??? What or How can a person report such a thing to the proper authorities?? I got this in my Email this morning. I do not know this person and it is obvious to me that it is a scam to get MY financial information from me in the end!!!



HELLO.‏
From: Mrs.Kathryn Walter (peace2kathryn33@verizon.net)
You may not know this sender.Mark as safe|Mark as unsafe
Sent: Mon 3/24/08 10:03 PM
Reply-to: kkawalter77@yahoo.com.hk
To:

From: Mrs. Kathryn Walter. 26 Kensington Court, London, England. I am the above named person but now undergoing medical treatment in London, England. I am married to Dr. Jim Walter who worked with British Railway Commission in Chelsea England for over a decade before he died on 5th of July in the year 2005. We were married for fifteen years without a child. He died after a brief illness that lasted for two weeks.Before his death he made a vow to use his wealth for the down trodden and the less privileged in the society.Since his death I decided not to re-marry or get a child outside my matrimonial home. When my late husband was alive he deposited the sum of $10 Million (Ten Million US dollars) in a Vault with a security/Finance House in Europe.Presently,this money is still there. Recently, my Doctor told me that I would not last for the next 150days due to cancer problem. Though what disturbs me most is my cancer. Having known my condition I decided to donate this fund to an individual or better still a God fearing person who will utilize this money the way I am going to instruct here in. I want an individual that will use this fund to provide succor to the poor and indigent persons, orphanages, and above all those affected in the Hurricane disaster. I understand that blessed is the hand that giveth. I took this decision because I do not have any child that will inherit this money and my husband relatives are not inclined to helping poor persons and I do not want my husbands hard earned money to be misused or spent in the manner in which my late husband did not specify. I do not want a situation where this money will be used in an ungodly manner, hence the reason for taking this bold decision. I am not afraid of death hence I know where I am going as I know that I am going to be in the bosom of the Almighty. I do not need any telephone communication in this regard because of my health, and because of the presence of my husbands relatives around me always. I do not want them to know about this development. As soon as I receive your reply I shall give you the contact of the Security/Finance House in Europe. I will also issue you a letter of authority that will empower you as the original beneficiary of this fund,through my Lawyer. I want you to always pray for me. My happiness is that I lived a life worthy of emulation and whosoever that wants to serve the Almighty God, must serve him in spirit and also in truth.Please always be prayerful all through your life.Any delay in your reply will give me room in sourcing for an individual for this same purpose.Please assure me that you will act according to my specification herein. Hoping to hear from you. Thank you and may the Almighty God bless you. Yours sincerely,Kathryn Walter(Mrs

[pir8]

All the time, most from Nigeria

[ScubaSis]

I'm sure there are people out there that do not know better and will get taken advantage of. This is worse than Telemarketers!!!! Can anything be done about it???

[dustbowl diver]

Though I have not personally received one of these (likely blocked by my spam filter), am all too familiar with the horror stories described by the victims. Agree with Pir8, many of these have origins to Nigeria, but are not certainly bound to just one locale.

[diverb0b]

I get alot of those from England and I forward it on to interpol

[Latitude Adjustment]

Well you can make their life a little more difficult by fowarding it to Abuse@yahoo or if you have too much time on your hands play along for awhile with really stupid e-mails to keep them busy, put really outlandish stuff in there because they don't seem to get that we are pulling their leg. One told me to keep the deal secret and I told them they shouldn't have used my @navy.mil addy because NCIS had been reading my mail ever since I dated that KGB agent

[DandyDon]

If you google Nigerian 419 scams, you'll find sites with additional information and some Scambaiting groups. I use www.ip-adress.com to check origins on emails, but that won't always work. From one source: "Really good hackers and spammers will do their work using botnets. A lot of spam may originate from Nigeria, but an e-mail "trace" will reveal that many will only lead to some idiot Nebraska who was too stupid and downloaded "free smilies" and unknowingly got his computer infected and enslaved in a botnet." I got a scam mail today that included Texas State Historical Assn as one of the handling IPs. For a country of poverty and corruption like Nigeria, the industry pulls in a lot of income, altho the scams can come from anywhere.

As a rule, I never believe anything I receive in an email until I confirm it elsewhere, which seldom holds up.

[Cajun Diver]

These pages have info on who to send stuff like this to:

http://www.ftc.gov/spam/

http://www.usdoj.gov/spam.htm

[running_diver]

These pages have info on who to send stuff like this to:

http://www.ftc.gov/spam/

http://www.usdoj.gov/spam.htm

419 scams are "handled" by the SEC or at least they were a few years ago. I only know this because I forwarded the first one I got to the FBI and they responded and told me about a special task force that deals with them. Now I mostly ignore them, but once in a while I read one to see how they've evolved.

Now I get more of the fake cashier check emails than the 419 emails, or at least more get through my spam filter. Those are the ones that what you to receive money for their company. The way they work is to send you a fake cashiers check, ask you to cash it, keep your part and wire the rest to them. By the time the cashiers check bounces, they have your money and you are SOL.

Ross

[BubbleBoy]

Apparently, I won the British National Lottery eight times last week. Sometimes I win twice a day. No wonder their economy is struggling; they give all their money away. That’s what they get for letting the Nigerians run their lottery system.

[Fordan]

I usually report spam that makes it through my filters via Spamcop.net, which parses the email to find out what IP sent it to you, and sends a complaint to their ISP and to the ISPs of the websites mentioned. Not as effective on "419" scams, where they are trying to get you into a conversation to pry bank information out of you via email, but still useful.

For amusement, some people bait the scammers and post the responses at places like 419Eater. This is a decent one; I especially like the picture of the scammer holding up the sign "I Shag Sheep"

[pir8]

I just got this one, clue that its a scam is they want my SSN as an login





Dear customers:

Wells Fargo is constantly working to increase security for all Online Banking users. To ensure the integrity of our online payment system, we periodically review accounts.

Your account might be placed on restricted status. Restricted accounts continue to receive payments, but they are limited in their ability to send or withdraw funds.

To lift up this restriction, you need to login into your account (with your username or SSN and your password), then you have to complete our verification process. You must confirm your credit card details and your billing information as well. All restricted accounts have their billing information unconfirmed, meaning that you may no longer send money from your account until you have updated your billing information on file.
To initiate the billing update confirmation process, please follow the link bellow and fill in the necessary fields:

https://online.wellsfargo.com/signon? LOB=CONS

Thank you,

Wells Fargo - Online Banking



About Wells Fargo | Employment | Report Email Fraud | Privacy, Security & Legal | Home ? 1995 - 2008 Wells Fargo. All rights reserved.

[ScubaSis]

The email came in to my "Junk" folder, so I guess my spam filter works a little at least. I had to see what it was this time just being curious. I have recieved other types as some of you have mentioned. Next time I will use some of the things ya'll have given me to report it.

I recieved a phone call at home a while back asking me all kinds of questions about my address and where I was located. Then told me they were looking for a neighbor of mine. I did not give them any information and I told them I had never heard of the name they mentioned as my neighbor. They told me they were "U.R.S". I don't know who that is supposed to be either.

I just know we all have to be very careful these days with so much identity theft going on.

Thank you all for the info!!!


Sissy

[DandyDon]

Ah, found it. You can send this to the scammers, just for grins...

Greetings in God and Peace be with you my friend,

I am deeply sorry, but I am afraid I am unable to help you at this time. You see, as fate would have it, it seems that I have had a rash of relatives die while in the employ of Mobil Oil, based in Nigeria. Now, normally this would be a sad event to occur, but as fate would also have it, every single one of them seems to have had an enormous sum of money, and since I was the only relative that anyone seems to have been able to contact, it fell upon me to take these funds into my bank account, totaling approximately $350,000,000 (Three hundred fifty million USD), and therefore I am naturally quite overwhelmed distributing the money as I see fit per the instructions of each respective barrister, which I have learned is what we call a lawyer in my country.

However, if you would like to give me your name, address, phone number and the name of your banking institution, along with the account number, I'll see that your needs are brought to my attention again at a soon to be determined future date.

Sincerely,
xxxxxxxxxxxx

[running_diver]

Ah, found it. You can send this to the scammers, just for grins...

You know, it might be fun to forward a cashier's check scam to a 419er and watch them try to scam one another.

Ross