OT - My First Nigerian Scam Email
 

OMG! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif This is more significant than: "The new phone books are here!" (Steve Martin in THE JERK)

My first and only Nigerian scam letter: http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/rolleyes.gif

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From: Wale Williams [mailto:waliam@sify.com]
Sent: Tuesday, September 13, 2005 11:56 AM
Subject: Investment




Dear Friend,

I am a member of the contract award committee,of the Department of Petroleum
Resources,Nigeria I am in search of an agent to assist us in the transfer of
(USD 14M) and subsequent investment in properties in your country.

You will be required to
(1) Assist in the transfer of the said sum
(2) Advise on lucrative areas for investment
(3) Assist us in purchase of properties.

If you decide to render your service to us in this regard, 20% of the total
sum of USD14M will be for you.Please contact me via my confidential email
address waliam@sify.com for further details.

yours faithfully,

Dr Wale Williams.

--------------------------------------------

Why don't we give him a butt load of mail? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/evil.gif

Re: OT - My First Nigerian Scam Email
 

That's a lot shorter than any of the Nigerian scam's I've had turn up in my inbox. Now if you have some spare time, I've heard that baiting the scammers can be fun. Pretend to be suckered by it at first but point out any inconsistencies you notice, ask why they need x piece of information to deposit money in your bank account, ask for proof of identity, etc. See how much nonsense you can get out of them to laugh at, and make them waste time following up on someone who isn't actually going to fall for it in the end. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

Re: OT - My First Nigerian Scam Email
 

Welcome to the club. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: OT - My First Nigerian Scam Email
 

Yep,... lots of fun doing all the above,... for about five minutes! My,... how my day has become so boring! lol. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: OT - My First Nigerian Scam Email
 

Courtesy of RvB

"Excuse me sir, I am Nygeerian royyalti and I need you to send me money. Please ignore the fact that I can't spell Nygeerian....or Royyalti". http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

Re: OT - My First Nigerian Scam Email
 

Greetings Friend, my name is Hock A Loogie, and I am a senior bank administrator for one of the largest banks here in Setaskam.

I am coming to you today to tell you of a great offer that only you know of. (Although I have emailed it to over ten million others.)

I want you to send me money, and lots of it so that I can access this account that has millions of dollars in it left over from the terrorists of 9'11.

Although I am a Senior Vice President of our bank, I need for you to email me not at our banks email address, but at a YAHOO account I have set up for just this illegal purpose.

Please do not notify others that you and I are working together. Your significant other will call this a scam, but you and I both know that it is not.

I humbally await your response.
RunningAScamOnYou@yahoo.com

+++

What is sad is the fact that I actually know two people who fell for this offer. My brother, and his firend John. I warned them both that it was a scam but John went ahead and sent the guy money. A lot of money. Chris sent some money but later realized he had been scammed and opted out. John sent even more money. He had to file bankruptcy last year because of it. Just goes to show you, people are stupid.

The clever ones are the ones that look like ISP or Banks that need you to update your records. I nearly fell for one but something told me to think. How did my bank get my email account. That question saved me a lot of hell.

Re: OT - My First Nigerian Scam Email
 

I just look at them, and wonder when did I ever sign up for that bank? Also, gmail is really good at finding these scams. I just look at the part of the message it shows to me, and volia! Gibberish is a perfect sign that it's a scam. Just select everything, and if you see a bunch of text hilighted at the bottom, it's a scam.

Re: OT - My First Nigerian Scam Email
 

I like to send them to the bank.... I once called the bank number that was provided.. KNOWNING that it was fake, and got a recorded message telling me to follow the instruction or my account would be ceased by the IRS. I reported it to the bank and they said that they would look into it. Nothing happened. Later, about two weeks later, US Bank was critizied for not warning its customers about the scam and over 200 thousand people had fallen prey to it. Or so the news reported. Gotta love those inside jobs.

Re: OT - My First Nigerian Scam Email
 

First bank scam I reported. All the others? Ah, people stupid enough to fall for those probally can't be helped much. So I was lazy and didn't report any of it.

Re: OT - My First Nigerian Scam Email
 

I like the ones that direct you to a web page where you are supposed to fill in your account details, pin number, passwords and so on.

I have loads of fun filling in the boxes with the most obscene, hateful, poisonous messages I can think of. I'd like to think some of those parasites will actually read it- or if not them, the law enforcement agencies might get a giggle out of it when they seize the scumbags' computers... I don't know. Makes me feel better. If only I had Ennesby's way with words: http://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20030520.html

Re: OT - My First Nigerian Scam Email
 

It may be the 'first' but it won't be the ONLY for long. These people trade mailing lists just like any other business community. Once they have your email address you may be certain that you will keep getting these 'solicitations' long after they have ceased being a source of amusement. Expect the phishing scams and the plain-old-spam (Buy V1@gra! etc...) to start up soon, also.

Re: OT - My First Nigerian Scam Email
 

You know what, we should have a law in place that makes our ISP responsable for filtering these scams out.... In fact IT SHOULD BE A LAW.

Re: OT - My First Nigerian Scam Email
 

God I hope you are joking atrocities, the last thing we need is to give ISPs or anyone permission to filter what we can see on the internet.

Re: OT - My First Nigerian Scam Email
 

700 posts. Woot.

The easiest way is to get people to stop responding. If no-one responded to scams and spam it would stop. But how you ask? Well we could try education, or we could let natural selection run its course. Most people who get scammed once probably wont get caught again, those who do will soon be so poor they can't afford internet access. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Mind you that could be quiet slow, maybe education would be better. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: OT - My First Nigerian Scam Email
 

When I get those e-mails, I just wish I could write a virus and send it back to them trashing their computers. But alas, I'm not that sharp! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

From what I do understand, most of those e-mails come from prisons where the inmates are sending these things out and running scams from prison! Wouldn't be great if prisons were for prisoners and not Gates wannabe's! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

Re: OT - My First Nigerian Scam Email
 

Yes, I was being facious in my statement. What we really need is permission to track these scamer emails down and shut down the sites that send them out in bulk.

Re: OT - My First Nigerian Scam Email
 

Sometimes prisoners are found to be running scams from within prisons. Most of these scams, whether '419' appeals for a 'business relationship' or phishing for account info or plain old advertising spam come from overseas. Many of the spammers have been traced back to the US, it is true, but most of the other stuff does come from gangs over seas. The Nigerians are still a major source if not the largest single source of the '419' scams. Russian organized crime is a very big force in phishing.

The best revenge you can get on all of them is to REPORT THEM.

Use the 'view source' command on your mail reader and find where they actually came from. Then send the source with the full headers to abuse@domain.name and/or postmaster@domain.name and you'll stand a very good chance of getting it stopped even if the scammers are out of reach of the authorities in the country where the ISP is located. Some ISPs have special methods for reporting abuse. Yahoo! for example has a web page that I use constantly. I guess lots of s(c|p)ammers like the convenience of a Yahoo! email account. When I get a scam/spam with a return address in a Yahoo! domain I go to: http://add.yahoo.com/fast/help/abuse/cgi_abuse and fill out the form.

Phishing is slightly more difficult. You have to go to the site for the bank or whatever business is being spoofed and get their report address. I've got the eBay, and Paypal fraud addresses permanently in my address book as well as the addresses for my bank and credit card company.

It's annoying to have to report several scam/spam messages a day but I do it. If I didn't I'd probably be getting 20-30 a day instead of 2-3.

Re: OT - My First Nigerian Scam Email
 

If you want to have a little fun, just copy the code from my sig and post it on a web page. then send them a reply with an attachment that is scripted to open the page.

Re: OT - My First Nigerian Scam Email
 

Thermodyne, that's a great idea, but you are not going to scare people of this mentality. They're to stupid to realize what you are trying to do to them! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif I like Baron's idea better. I do have a problem with Yahoo based spam and right now I'm getting 8 to 15 e-mails a day! I still like my original idea, virus them to death. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/mad.gif

Re: OT - My First Nigerian Scam Email
 

Check out "Blue Frog Antispam" by "Blue Security". From what I have heard, you and all others with this system voluntarily turn your system into a Email drone and launch DOS attacks on the people that send out spam mails. I think there were legal issues with it and I have not installed it. It sounds great though, especially for the "Eye-for-an-Eye" crowd.

Re: OT - My First Nigerian Scam Email
 

FYI: Illegal.

Re: OT - My First Nigerian Scam Email
 

Re: OT - My First Nigerian Scam Email
 

Well if anybody does write one of these programs, please let me know! I'll be happy to Beta Test it for you. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif I'm sure there are others who would love to help out such a noble cause.

Re: OT - My First Nigerian Scam Email
 

I resurrect this thread from the depths to post this link to a story on the inside workings of the Nigerian scams...

I Will Eat Your Dollars