The most classic scams involve, well, the classic sob story. This story usually is an e-mail that starts out with a mild subject title, such as Hello Dear or Please Kindly Reply or just a simple Hello. Even though by now, you might of noticed that the e-mail is addressed from someone you may not know (and usually they try to pick out a very old fashioned and Anglo-sounding name such as Laura Green or Richard Smith).
Here is an example of such e-mail:
Dear Friend,
I am Mrs. Mary Abery, a devoted christian from Iceland who was married to Late Sir Keith Abery {PhD} who worked with MULTINATIONAL OIL COMPANY EXXON AS A DRILLING RIG SUPPLIER in Saudi Arabia for 19 years before he died on the 7th of September, 1998. Before his death, he deposited the sum of 5,142,728.00 Dollars with a bank In Canada. Recently, my Doctor told me that I would not last for the next eight months due to cancer problem. Having known my condition, I decided to donate this fund to a church, organization or good person that will utilize this money in good faith by setting up a charity organisation.
I took this decision because I don't have any child that will inherit this money and I keptthis deposit secret till date, this is why I am taking this decision. Upon your reply Ishall give you the contact of the bank. I will also issue a letter of authorization to the bank that will prove you as the present beneficiary of this money. Please contact me via my
email address on the subject.
Await your responds and God bless you.
Mrs. Mary Abery.
Email:mrs.mary_abery@yahoo.com
As you can see here, already from the first few words, the scammer has tried to use a religious attribute (a devoted Christian) to try to gain your trust into believing that you are dealing with an honest person. They've also claimed that their location is Iceland, yet if you are a little more Internet-savvy, you can surely find out from just the e-mail address that the IP address (which can determine the true location of the region the e-mail had been sent from) is from Lagos, Nigeria. (First lie spotted.)
The e-mail continues with using caps lock all over "her" late-husband's profession as part of an oil supply company and a large sum of his wealth. As part of the entire scheme of being a good, devout Christian, this woman claims to want to send this money over to you (a total complete stranger) and entrusting you to set up a charity.
And most of all, there is the whole story of her cancer problem, which is intended to stir deeply into your heart and find it in you to sympathzie for this good Christian woman. She closes the e-mail by reminding you once again that she awaits for you to reply and is willing to make further contact with you, and reaffirms her religious attributes.
While probably the first time you ever read an e-mail that's similar to this, you may find yourself unsure and asking yourself questions (even though you're probably getting the idea that it has to be fake) of whether, maybe is it true this time? Or, I feel sad if this is real, maybe she really does need my help.
While it's not ever unheard of a good Samaritan giving their money out randomly before, consider:
Why would this person completely trust me in setting up said charity if she has never met me before? How could she assume that I wasn't the type of person to run off with the money?
And then if you've discovered so strange IP mismatching, consider whether you're willing to even trust someone who claims to be from somewhere when the IP address says otherwise. Another note which is difficult to not avoid generalizing is that a large number of scam do actually originate from Nigeria (419 Scamming takes its name from the code used as "Advanced-Free-Fraud"), but it is certainly not limited to only this place. Other areas such as the Ivory Coast, the Balkans, United Kingdom, United States, China, and many, many more places have dozens of scammers who similarly follow these kinds of formats.
A number of these scams also go beyond the cancer story and with disasters such as 9/11, the Haiti and Katrina disasters, using these kinds of world news that people have become very sympathetic towards to in order to turn them into victims. Others have pretended to be soldiers during wars or stationed in areas claiming that they want to leave to you a large of sum of money because they are dying, while others have simply come to scam you with the pretext of staring a wonderful and meaningful relationship with you.
Another big example of a typical scam (if it isn't a sob story) is one much like this:
Dear Sir,
we are currently looking for a real and genuine seller from Ghana or any other source who is capable to supply Gold Dust on a very regular basis.
I have a very serious and ready buyer in the USA who is financially able to buy more than 50 kgs a day if the seller can supply.
The buyer has got an office in Ghana and likes to do the Assay for the Gold dust at PMMC in Accra,Ghana.The payment will be made in full to the seller immediately after the final Assay completed and received of the Assay report from the refinery that to be accepted to both the buyer and the seller.
The buyer will NOT pay any upfront payment for anything whatsoever.
However, as you mentioned your source can supply on CIF, so please send me your details offers including procedures, payment terms etc.
If you have any real sellers,please feel free to send your offers as soon as possible
Warmest Regards
Matiur Rahman
OR
Date 6/2/2007
Ref: 475061725
Batch: 7056490902/188
Winning No: GB8701/LPRC
CONGRATULATIONS
Australian Lottery Bonanza
Dear Sir/Madam
The Lucky Winner
We are delighted to inform you of your prize release on the 5th of February 2007 from the Australian International Lottery programme. Which is fully based on an electronic selection of winners using their e-mail addresses. Your name was attached to ticket number; 575061725 8056490902 serial number 6741137002 This batch draws the lucky numbers as follows 5-13-33-37-42 bonus number 17,which consequently won the lottery in the second category. You here by have been approved a lump sum pay of US$300,000.00 (THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND UNITED STATES DOLLARS) in cash credit file ref: ILP/HW 47509/02 from the total cash prize shared amongst eight lucky winners in this category. All participant were selected through a computer balloting system drawn form Nine hundred thousand E-mail addresses from Canada, Australia,United States, Asia, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Oceania as part of our international promotions program which is conducted annually. This Lottery was promoted and sponsored by a conglomorate of some multinational companies as part of their social responsibility to the citizens in the commmunities where they have operational base.
Further more your details (e-mail address) falls within our European representative office in Amsterdam, Holland, as indicated in your play coupon and your prize of US$300,000.00 will be released to you from this regional branch office in AFRICA. We hope with part of your prize, you will participate in our end of the year high stakes for US$1.3 Billion international draw.
HOW TO CLAIM YOUR PRIZE:
Simply contact our fiducial agent, JESSIE HELEN at jessie_helen_au@sino.net to file for your claim.
Please quote your reference, batch and winning number which can be found on the top left corner of this notification as well as your full name, address and telephone number to help locate your file easily. For security reasons, we advice all winners to keep this information confidential from the public until your claim is processed and your prize released to you. This is part of our security protocol to avoid double claiming and unwarranted taking advantage of this programme by non-participant or unofficial personnel.
Note,
All winnings MUST be claimed by the 5th of March ,2007; otherwise all funds will be returned as Unclaimed and eventually donated to charity. Congratulations once again on your winning.
PLEASE REPLY THIS EMAIL, CONTACT YOUR CLAIMS AGENT AT
NAME:,JESSIE HELEN
jessie_helen_au@sino.net
Best Regards
Mrs Rosemary Banks (Co-ordinator)
BREACH OF CONFIDENTIALITY ON THE PART OF THE WINNERS WILL RESULT TO DISQUALIFICATION.
THANKS:
MANAGEMENT, AUSTRALIA LOTTO LOTTERY INC.
Past winners round the world with full of excitment
LOTTERY SPONSORS: CHIEF SPONSORS;
And you are left going, "Wait, what?"
These scammers are attempting to bribe you with the prospects of having won the some foreign lottery (ranging from Australia, Nigeria and Canada and sooooo much more), to writing to you about some profitable business venture overseas. And now more recently, with the rise of debts and loans, several random e-mails have probably raided your inbox with claims of low interest school and debt loans (that are NOT backed by legitimate loan services), job offers (especially for younger people looking for placement jobs and work-at-home ventures), and even fake credit card and money transactions that are waiting for your action.
These ploys immediately want you to greedily divulge your personal banking information in order to extort you out of all of your money. There is no business venture at all, or a winning lotto ticket. This is simply a scam to make you their next target.
Some of these e-mails now no longer include a long-drawn out e-mail. Instead, they simply say, please read the attachment and respond. Others will only include a single attachment or contact information.
IT IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT FOR YOU TO NEVER CLICK ON ANY E-MAIL ATTACHMENT IF YOU DO NOT KNOW WHO IT CAME FROM. Especially if you notice that the file name seems very fishy (or the file extension is not one you typically see such as .txt or .jpg), but even then, you should never ever click on these attachments, especially if you do not know who the sender is!! Many forms of scamming tools and malware can be concealed within these files and by opening them, you are putting your computer at a high risk of infection. It is always important to always keep your antivirus installed as well though do not let the presence of one keep you from using common sense and avoiding any strange e-mails or attachments.
Some of these e-mails will contain subjects that say, PLEASE RESPOND IMMEDIATELY, or within the e-mail can make threatening claims against your life if you do not respond to the e-mail. Others conceal themselves as pretending to be the FBI or other official agencies that ask of your assistance regarding cases, or even ironically claim that they are contacting you to return any money stolen from scams back to you.
Also, fake online banking sites and other false companies and agencies will present other images and information that might fool you into thinking that it is an official e-mail. A Chase online banking can have the exact same graphics and logo as the official Chase banking e-mails, yet there can be some subtle differences that you can use to spot the true over the false. Even the websites you might encounter linked to these false e-mails might have similar graphics and coding as the Chase site.
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