I laughed my head off at how horrible this one is. From the stretched out Google logo to the Sponsorship by Microsoft.
Email addresses have been mosaic-ed out.
While we're on the subject on stuff that's totally, totally legit:
"hi
now i introduce a good site to you
they sell all kinds of electric equipment.such as phones,tv,laptop ....
all products are orginal , quality very good , and have low price
i ordered an apple laptop last week ,and now had received it !
you can use by yourself , or if you are an ebay seller , here is the best place for you
just do it . don't misss the chance .
if you want more infor plese vistie : ********.com
good luck
regards Experience is a school from which you can never graduate. "
/edit: included a picture
I laughed my head off at how horrible this one is. From the stretched out Google logo to the Sponsorship by Microsoft.
The basic scheme of the scam is always about some kind of inheritance or large bank account which has somehow lost its owner and needs to be transferred overseas so that the government or whoever doesn't impound it (or a myriad of variations to this basic scheme), and the sum is always in the tens or hundreds of millions of dollars, from which the victim is promised something like 10% or 20% if he helps in this transfer, in other words, the victim is promised sums like $1900000 (ONE MILLION NINE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS). The victims who get fooled by this invariably get greedy by such a large amount of money.
In this case, however, I think the scammers made a slight blunder with the amount of money. Why would google award over a million dollars to a random user? That's a suspiciously large sum, and would be quite unprecedent. This might raise the suspicion of even the most naive people.
A sum like 10 thousand dollars might have worked a lot better, as it's a much more believable sum for such an award.
Joined: 5/1/2004
Posts: 4096
Location: Rio, Brazil
Warp wrote:
Dwedit wrote:
I laughed my head off at how horrible this one is. From the stretched out Google logo to the Sponsorship by Microsoft.
The basic scheme of the scam is always about some kind of inheritance or large bank account which has somehow lost its owner and needs to be transferred overseas so that the government or whoever doesn't impound it (or a myriad of variations to this basic scheme), and the sum is always in the tens or hundreds of millions of dollars, from which the victim is promised something like 10% or 20% if he helps in this transfer, in other words, the victim is promised sums like $1900000 (ONE MILLION NINE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS). The victims who get fooled by this invariably get greedy by such a large amount of money.
In this case, however, I think the scammers made a slight blunder with the amount of money. Why would google award over a million dollars to a random user? That's a suspiciously large sum, and would be quite unprecedent. This might raise the suspicion of even the most naive people.
A sum like 10 thousand dollars might have worked a lot better, as it's a much more believable sum for such an award.
I think you're overestimating these scammers. They don't need to be smart, there are enough naive people in the world.
Joined: 2/28/2006
Posts: 2275
Location: Milky Way -> Earth -> Brazil
With due respect my name is PETER ZUMA, the eldest son of MR.ANDREW ZUMA of. ZIMBABWE
"Genuine self-esteem, however, consists not of causeless feelings, but of certain knowledge about yourself.
It rests on the conviction that you — by your choices, effort and actions — have made yourself into the
kind of person able to deal with reality. It is the conviction — based on the evidence of your own volitional
functioning — that you are fundamentally able to succeed in life and, therefore, are deserving of that success."
- Onkar Ghate
Bisqwit wrote:
A sum like 10 thousand dollars might have worked a lot better, as it's a much more believable sum for such an award.
Starting from 10,000 it's hard to bilk a person for more than 100. It's much easier to "invest" 100k trying to get 19m than it is to invest 100 to get 10k, psychologically. Now, those of use who do not have 100k might see it differently, but these scam e-mails are usually aimed at people who have more money than sense.
Build a man a fire, warm him for a day,
Set a man on fire, warm him for the rest of his life.
Starting from 10,000 it's hard to bilk a person for more than 100.
Maybe so, but get 100 people to do that, and you have collected a good 10000 dollars, which is a pretty decent amount of money for sending some emails.
You could then, of course, try to raise the "price" a bit, to eg. $50000, and see how many people take the bait then.
It's much easier to "invest" 100k trying to get 19m than it is to invest 100 to get 10k, psychologically. Now, those of use who do not have 100k might see it differently, but these scam e-mails are usually aimed at people who have more money than sense.
There has been at least one actual case where a worker of a company, I think it was a secretary or something along those lines, was sending the company's money to the scammers (thinking that she would return the money to the company once she got the millions). She got sued for fraud (basically, stealing the company's money).
So it can sometimes work on poorer people too.
Starting from 10,000 it's hard to bilk a person for more than 100.
Maybe so, but get 100 people to do that, and you have collected a good 10000 dollars, which is a pretty decent amount of money for sending some emails.
If your strategy averages $100 per victim, then in order for it to be better, you have to be able to successfully scam 100 times more people than a strategy which averages getting $10k per victim.
We aer Super Game Shop, we sell thing for fre. Wether it's ipod or Ps3, you can alway expect mint-tasting condition from Super Game Shop. Ask a customor, they say it is good! For mor information, visite supergame.com
Life is a video game. You are always zapped at the end.
Yes this is real. REALLY?
YoungJ1997lol wrote:
Normally i would say Yes, but thennI thought "its not the same hack" so ill stick with meh.
The scammers really are getting lazier by the year. I just got this:
Nigerian scammer wrote:
LETTER OF INTENT
Dear Sir,
I need your consent to transfer $14.5 million dollars in Unclaimed Deposit which has remained unclaimed since 1999. The Funds will be moved to any of our correspondent Banks in "YOUR NAME" immediately to secure the funds first.
The Principal will be shared on a 50/50 basis.
Yours faithfully,
Mr. Harrison Ken
That's the entirety of the email. No story about a dethroned prince or a heartbreaking story about someone dying of cancer. No explanation or rationale why the transfer is necessary. Just straight to the point.
I am a 11 year girl.
One day I goed to school.
It was the day of 9 and 11.
My dady droove me to school that day.
My momy forgetted her purse in th car.
She worked at the 9\11 palce.
My dady walk in the 9\11 place.
Then I never saw my dady or momy again.
Go to (REMOVED, it's a virus link) and cilck donate. make atleast a 50 dollar donation so I can get my new mother.
This made me LMAO.
YoungJ1997lol wrote:
Normally i would say Yes, but thennI thought "its not the same hack" so ill stick with meh.
However, we received an email from one Mr. Lonato Paul, who told us That you are dead and he is your next of kin and that you died in a car Accident four months back.To our findings we discover that this Mr. Lonato Paul is a liar and imposer that is why we contact you before any release of funds
That's literally everything that was in the email. Nothing else.
I bet in a few years they will simply start just sending messages like "want money?" and nothing else.
Joined: 4/18/2007
Posts: 88
Location: Tokyo, Japan
I recently got one where the fields were not even filled in.
Hello
My name is Eve ,i saw your profile today at(site )and became intrested in you,i will also like to know you the more,and i want you to send an email to my email address so i can give you my picture for you to know whom i am.
I suppose this e-mail approaches the concept of an oxymoron or a paradox! It attempts to scam people by pretending to be exposing the very scam it is committing. (I changed some details just in case it has some relevance.)
scammer wrote:
OFFICE OF THE NIGERIAN PRESIDENCY
COMPENSATION OFFICE DEPARTMENT
SCAM VICTIMS COMPENSATIONS PAYMENTS 2011.
ATTN: SIR/MADAM
REF/PAYMENTS CODE: FGN/PHBPLC/066541 (US$6.50,000.00)
This is to bring to your notice that we are delegated from the UNITED NATIONS INTERNATIONAL FRAUD MONITORING UNIT, I wish to notify you that the office of the Nigerian presidency has been authorized to pay out to 50 innocent victims of the widely know internet scam called Advanced Fee Fraud aka (419) the sum of US$6.50,000.00(Six Hundred,Fivety Thousand, Dollars Onlyeach).
You have been listed and approved for this payment as one of the scammed victims.
We receive a mail from one Mr. Daniel Seibert, saying that you instructed him to receieve the money for you, so we want to know if you are the one that instructed him to receive money for you before we can transfer the fund into his account?
Below is the account deatails he gave to us:
USBank Information;
Name: USBank
Address: 1234 W. Paseo Bolsa Green Valley, AZ 8561
Telephone: 520-123-456
Fax: 520-123-456
Routing NO.: 122105155
Swift: USBKUS44 (They don't use this)
Account No.: 123456787908
Account Name: Daniel W. & Gail C. Seibert
Currency type: USD
Account type: Checking
Please indicate to us now for us to know if you are the one that instructed him to received the fund on your behalf before we will transfer this fund into the account above, but if you are not do not hesitate to get back to us immediately for transfer of your fund.
SCAMMED VICTIM/REF/PAYMENTS CODE: FGN/PHBPLC/066541
Amount:US$6.50,000.00 DOLLARS ONLY
1) Your full name and residential address:
2) Your direct phone number:
3) Your file reference number:
4) Your nominated account details where your funds will be transferred into:
Yours Faithfully,
Dr. Frank Edward
Naturally, it is sent through a russian server (relay.ssnt.ru), which in turns claims it comes a Nigerian dial-up (41.155.71.235), authenticating as username "spam". Naturally, I sent spam-reports through spamcop.
Seems that old dogs do learn new tricks:
"I am Donny Afuze Esq the attorney to Chief James O. Ibori formal Governor of the Richest State in Nigerian for 8years, i am looking for your cooperation in building a Tourist Hotel or Real Estate in your country with my client funds that is deposited abroad in a Trust Account because i cannot be incharge of the funds myself as the attorney incharge, i have the power as the attorney incharge to make a new heir to the funds with the consent of my client (Chief James O. Ibori). I am sorry if this is not in line with your profession. My client Chief James O. Ibori was arrested by the Interpol in Dubai for Money Laundering recently." And so on, and so forth.
As for what I wrote in an earlier post:
Warp wrote:
I bet in a few years they will simply start just sending messages like "want money?" and nothing else.
I also received this:
Scammer wrote:
I seek your partnership in re-profiling $50 Million .Get back for details
That was the entirety of the email. Nothing else. So it indeed seems that some of the scammers really are getting quite lazy.
Joined: 8/6/2006
Posts: 784
Location: Connecticut, USA
More than anything about these emails, what bothers me the most is the frequently occurring line, "I await your urgent reply."
I realize the rest of the email is usually written pretty badly, but for some reason, that line just bugs me. It's obviously supposed to say something like, "I urgently await your reply."
If I DO reply to them, it's not going to be urgent. Stupid scammers.
The scammers only need to be smarter than their victims.
The fact that anybody even falls for these scams says alot about the correlation between greed and gullibility/naivety.
(see also: every sucker in every Vegas casino ever, or Madoff)
It seems that some scammers are cutting corners. This is the first scam I remember seeing where they are upfront about "we will give you x millions, but you'll have to give us some money first", rather than waiting a couple of emails and possible phone calls before doing that.
In this case they offer me the meager sum of $850,000 (which is unusually little), but they don't waste any time telling me that they want money from me. A representative quote:
Scammer wrote:
Note: Everything has been taken care of by the Federal Government of Nigeria, The United Nation and also the FBI and including taxes; custom paper and clearance duty so all you will ever need to pay is $155.
OTOH, curiously the email does not try to explain why the 155 dollars cannot be taken from the 850 thousand. Seems like they will have to explain that to repliers after all.
The scammers really are getting lazier by the year.
Another example I just received:
Scammer wrote:
I need a confirmation of acceptance to transfer US$ 21,300,000.00 to you,
(Yes, again that was the entirety of the email.)
Also got this:
Another scammer wrote:
Good morning,
Your account ACH and Wire transactions have been provisionally placed on hold in order to ensure your security, because of the expiration of your security version. We kindly ask you to download and install the most up-to-date installations, by following this link.
As soon as it is installed, your account transactions will be fully reinstated.
The sad thing is that many people will download and install anything someone tells them to.
Good morning,
Your account ACH and Wire transactions have been provisionally placed on hold in order to ensure your security, because of the expiration of your security version. We kindly ask you to download and install the most up-to-date installations, by following this link.
As soon as it is installed, your account transactions will be fully reinstated.
I have been receiving tons of those ACH scams lately. About 5 of them every day, most of them somehow penetrating my spam filter.
I naturally file a spam report using spamcop for each and every spam that breaches the filter, so this has been lesser slow time in that regard.
I guess I have no options than respond.
My, it's like they aren't even tryingMy, it's like they aren't even trying
