Scammed Email: GRANT FOR YOUR PICK UP

Rather than spend time in story telling we want to spend reasonable time to publish the numerous mails that scammers use to swindle their innocent victims.

Please keep a date and forward any suspected email you have received of recent. Your comments will be highly appreciated.

Scammed Email: GRANT FOR YOUR PICK UP

WESTERN UNION MONEY TRANSFER <wunion2011@w.cn> Wed, May 11, 2011 at 4:52 AM Reply-To: wunion2011@w.cn Reply | Reply to all | Forward | Print | Delete | Show original Good day I write to inform you that we have already sent you USD5000.00 dollars through Western union as we have been given the mandate to transfer your full compensation payment of  USD180,000.00 via western union by this government. I called to give you the information through phone as internet hackers were many but i cannot reach you yesterday even this morning.So,I decided to email you the MTCN and sender name so that can pick up this USD5000.00 to enable us send another USD5000.00 by tomorrow as you knows we will be sending you only USD5000.00 per day.Please pick up this information and run to any western union in your country to pick up the USD5000.00 and send us email back to send you another payment tomorrow. Manager Mr Daniel Adams Email wunion2011@w.cn Email us once you picked up this USD5000.00 today.Here is the western union information to pick up the USD5000.00, MTCN : 622 155 4897 Receiver name Your name Sender's Name: Mark Winters Question: Honest Answer:Trust Amount:5000.00USD. I am waiting for your email once you pick up USD5000.00, Thanks Mr Daniel Adams

The divers Strategies of the Scammers

They will send you photographs, documents, files, court agreements, or anything you ask for to prove their legitimacy. They will pose as attorneys, government officials, embassy officials, religious figures, and sympathetic characters to further support this illusion. The bottom line is everything is in all likelihood false.  Every person is likely fictitious and probably the same person acting all roles. All documents provided are usually no more than worthless computer generated paper. Whatever proof you ask for, they will generate it on the computer, but in the end it normally will all be counterfeit.  All photographs provided can be of anyone – a stolen photo, or out of a magazine.  The photographs are all untraceable and anonymous. It is often true that it is not the real people behind these scams.

All addresses provided are likely illegitimate, fictitious, or non-existent. They will provide you fake websites or Yahoo! E-mail addresses (most preferred). They have created very authentic looking websites through domains located in other countries to protect their trail. They have even assumed the identities of real persons, attorneys, government officials, and even members of the clergy. This impersonation of real persons (identity theft) allows them to create further illusions to their bona fides should someone attempt to conduct a due diligence on them. In the end, they are all invisible, faceless people hiding behind the Internet anonymously in any country where the odds of them ever being identified, caught, or prosecuted are almost non-existent.

All telephone numbers provided will be cell phones. They do not generally provide landline telephone numbers, since these numbers can be easily traced to a physical location. Anyone can easily purchase an inexpensive cell phone on a street corner and then purchase anonymously a pre-paid SIM card to operate their "business" out of this cell phone number, without ever having to provide any subscriber information. If they believe that they are being traced, identified, or near arrest, they can abandon their fake identities by tossing these pre-paid cell phone and any tools of their trade into a public trashcan and walk away, thus protecting their true identities.

For faxes, they will provide hard-line numbers to public Internet or Cybernet Cafes to further hide their clandestine operations and anonymity (and where they operate their e-mails and fake websites too). Over the Internet, they are "pretenders" and can assume the identity of anyone whom they want to be, and they can provide you any fake document or photo you want as proof. Since many names, stories, and modus operandi are similar to other scams here, it is suspected that the same ring is running several scams at once.

Many victims refuse to believe that they have become a target or a victim, or that they can "out con" these professional scam artists. Whenever a victim instructs the “attorney” or “heir” to contact the US Embassy, they will always provide the victim reasons why they cannot do this. The victim must realize that if these people have cell phones, have access to their e-mail and the Internet, and travel freely to a bank or Western Union / MoneyGram to retrieve wired funds, then they certainly are capable of contacting or visiting the US Embassy. It is usually at this time that the scam artists know the scam has been recognized, and will quickly abandon the scam and break off communications with the victim, or then pose as law enforcement officials to “assist” them further with retrieving their lost funds. Of course, there will be new additional “advance fees” to do this.

Any money wired to them will be forever lost and irretrievable. If they hook a victim, they will always insist money be wired through Western Union or MoneyGram.  They prefer Western Union and MoneyGram because these funds can be easily retrieved at any branch (thousands of them) throughout the country using their false ID. The branch location where they retrieve the wired funds are virtually impossible to identify. And, without a subpoena, Western Union and MoneyGram (in the US) will not provide any information to the victim or law enforcement agency.

The scammer will seldom provide legitimate bank account numbers as these can be traced back to tangible locations. If they provide a specific account to a specific bank, successful surveillances have been made to arrest the “fraud baiters.” They learn from their mistakes, and their share “lessons learned” within their sub-cultured network.  These 419 “fraud baiters” are smart, devious, and heartless.  They are also dangerous and ruthless. They have lured victims to many countries where they have kidnapped them for ransom, killed them, or both. They will not hesitate to bribe judges, officials, or witnesses, and they will not hesitate to kill anyone who interferes with their organized crime operations, or anyone who cooperates with the police investigating them. They operate invisibly and are nearly impossible to identify, locate, arrest, and prosecute.

They prey upon the greed, gullibility, loneliness, and the sympathies of their intended victims, many of whom are quite educated. Most  “fraud baiters” often pose on singles websites (Matchmaker or Christian singles websites) posing as Christian women or men. These are also known as Romance scams, and have successfully duped many trusting and lonely Christians out of large sums of money.

They have posed as priests, ministers, evangelists, missionaries and even nuns being persecuted in Muslim countries, and they are trying to find ways to get the tithes of their church out of the country. Of course, these riches they promise will require you to provide them some "advance fee" for the attorney, licenses, and new unforeseen bureaucratic requirements that will be never ending.

The first fees will be small, but one bureaucratic problem leads to another requiring just "one more" payment to create the illusion that you are almost there. This dangle or "carrot" of just one more payment to receive all of these millions will eventually add up to thousands of dollars. By then, it is too late.

If such money did exist, they will not share it with a complete stranger they met over the Internet in exchange for assisting them. If such money existed, they would have family, friends, and political contacts that would gladly help them. Remember; if you send any money to these people consider it lost forever.

Regretfully, some have contacted the police too late after losing their entire life's savings (hundreds of thousands of dollars) expecting to receive these millions in return, to adopt an orphaned refugee, or find a new love, spouse or companion they met over the Internet.

Frequently asked Question. Part 1

In a bit to live to our objectives this collection of frequently asked questions (FAQ) tries to answer questions about online scamming. Do well to ask any question when you are in doubt and we will do our best  to research and post the answer for the benefit of all.

What are the most dangerous cities related to scamming?

International authorities consider that Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Lagos (Nigeria), Yamaussoukro (Ivory Coast)., Accra (Ghana), Frederiktown (Sierra Leone), London (United Kingdom), Amsterdam (Netherlands), and Toronto (Canada) are at the top of the list.

How many kinds of scamming e-mails are out there?

The scammers come out with something new every day, but the most common ones are:

1.       Business proposals of any kind from Africa and Asia (especially oil related).

2.       Emotions and romance

3.       Fabulous inheritances after somebody died in a plane crash.

4.       Lottery notifications.

5.       Update your bank account.

6.       Your e-mail has been selected as a winner of a big prize.

 How can I recognize a scamming e-mail?

First of all, they have the title subjects similar to the ones below:

Oftentimes, the scammers use capital letters in their writing. Secondly, although they claim they are from a famous factory (business proposals) or a certain organization, usually their "official" letter doesn't even have a letterhead (as every respectable business would do). Some scammers create their own logos and letterheads but they look pathetic. They use yahoo and regular emails. Some of them fall in love without even knowing you and send pictures without request. They tell you how their betray their or died and how they trying to take care of the family and their business empire. Others use official logos (copied) but if you are in doubt, call the business/bank/association.

Finally, the easiest way to recognize a fake is that they refer to you as "Sir" or "Madame" without adding your name. If you are the winner of a $2,000,000 how come they don't know your name? Also, you could always find in their messages the following:

- a confidentiality request.

- a sense of emergency almost at all times.

- blank letterheads.

- all kinds of ties to government's officials.

How did they get my e-mail address?

Nowadays, there are softwares that are capturing every single e-mail address used in a certain period of time. Scammers find them or pay hackers to provide them and send bulk messages sometimes to even one million addresses at the time. Out of one million receivers, there is a chance that 3-4 are naive

Why did I receive this email?

Spammers send spam to make money. Scammers send spam to defraud people. To make as much money as possible, they hit as many email addresses as possible. If you received scam spam or any other type of spam, it usually means; your email address can be found on a website (try googling for it!) and that you are not using an effective spam filter.

Most email addresses targeted by spammers are listed as contact addresses on a website, in a link such as this one. Spammers use special address harvesting software to search websites for email addresses and for links. Harvesting addresses off websites is actually illegal under US Federal Law. The software adds all addresses to a file and then repeats the process for all pages mentioned in links. The initial page for the search is usually found via a search engine, in order to start off with pages that contain many addresses. Guestbooks are a prime target for address harvesters.

Effective spam filters, such as jwSpamSpy, which is use to track domains and emails addresses that identify spam, can recognize scam emails by looking for typical phrases, by analyzing sender addresses and by looking at source addresses in message headers. They can stop scam emails without harming legitimate mail.

Once your address has become public knowledge, it's impossible to put the cat back into the bag. You either need to change email addresses (which is about as painful as changing phone numbers).

I received an email telling me I won in a lottery. Is this a scam?

Yes. Fake lotteries are the most common type of "419" scam. Consider the following

1.       Did you buy a lottery ticket from this company? Did you even hear about them before? If not, it is obviously a fraud. The primary purpose of lotteries is to raise money. Therefore they require people to buy tickets in order to have a chance to win. Lottery companies do not organize "promotional" lotteries, they advertise. A free "promotional" lottery that you only hear about if you win would only promote the lottery to a handful of customers. That doesn't make any sense.

2.       What information can you find about the company? Perform a Google search for the name of the lottery, the "claims agent" or his/her company. Do the top hits mention "fake", "fraud", "scam" or "419" or are there no matches at all? Also search for the "winning numbers" listed in that email. Do you find several "winning notifications" that look a lot like the one you received? How would that be possible if it was a real lottery where numbers change every week?

3.       In general, lotteries do not use email to notify winners. The normal procedure is for the winner to watch the media for the announced winning numbers and then to present his paper ticket to a lottery sales agent or to the lottery operator itself. Typically winners have six months to a year to come forward.

4.       Was the email addressed to "none", to multiple recipients or even to the email address of the sender or did it say "Recipient list suppressed"? This indicates that the same email was sent to a large number of recipients. This would be highly unusual for a real lottery win notification.

5.       Does the email tell you to contact a different email address or phone number for claiming your prize? Why would a real lottery do that? If the lottery claims to be based in the UK, the Netherlands, Malaysia  or in Spain, does it use .co.uk, .my, .nl or .es email addresses and website names?

6.       Is the contact telephone number a mobile phone or special service number that forwards calls worldwide? This includes any of the following:

UK: +44-70xx (call redirection)

Malaysia: +601xx(mobile)

Netherlands: +31-6xx (mobile)

Spain: +34-6xx (mobile)

Belgium: +32-4xx (mobile)

South Africa: +27-7x or +27-8x (mobile)

Nigeria: +234-80x (mobile)

Why would a major company give you a mobile phone as the first point of contact?

7.       Are you being rushed? Is the claims deadline only a few weeks or even days away? Normal lotteries allow several months to a year for prizes to be claimed. In typical scams the claims deadline is only two to six weeks away, just enough time to extract money out of a "winner".

8.       Does it mention a computer ballot of several tens of thousands of email addresses from America, Europa, Africa, Asia and Australia/New Zealand? There aren't any legitimate email lotteries of the kind described in such scam emails.

9.       Does the email mention a "Sweepstakes International Program", an "International Claims Department", a "Fiduciary Agent" or a "Zonal Coordinator"? These terms are typical of fake lotteries.

10.   Does the email mention a "mix up of some numbers" and a "security protocol", which requires you to keep all details secret until you've received your prize? This is so that other people won't point out that it's a fraud.

11.   Are you being asked to pay hundreds of Euros or thousands of Pound before the money can be released? This usually happens after the second or third email you receive. Wake up and smell the rat! Real lotteries don't charge you for winning, they just write you a check. Any due taxes are either deducted at source or will be paid by you after you receive the money. If you supposedly won a lottery and you're asked to pay any amount of money towards receiving the prize then it's a scam and the prize isn't real.

12.   Real lotteries don't send notifications by email, which is considered too unreliable to use for important financial information.ough to believe the stories.

A Sample Scammed Mail

ATTN: CEO,

REQUEST FOR URGENT TRANSFER OF THE SUM OF TWO MILLION FIVE
HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS {US$2,500,000.00} ONLY, INTO YOUR ACCOUNT.

Compliment of the season.

I am the Deputy Director of Finance, Foreign Payment Approval Dept. of
West African Monetary Control Board (WAMCB). North-West Regional office
Burkina Faso. My office oversee all developmental projects financed by the
Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Within this zone (Burkina Faso, Niger, Mali, Ivory Coast, Ghana and Guinea).

With reference to an introduction and recommendation of you by a friend
who works in the Burkina Faso Chambers of Commerce and Industry, I do
hereby, Wish to commence talk with you on a highly confidential level. After due consultations, I have decided to contact you in order to arrange for a possible transfer of the sum of Two million Five hundred thousand dollars (US$2.500.000.00) into your account. This money is a subject of an over inflated sum acquired from contracts awarded by my Agency in the past years.

The original contractors have however, been paid and all projects
executed by then commissioned. This over inflated amount can not be withdraw locally from the paying Bank because the contractors concerned are Foreign Firms. As a matter of trust, honesty and secrecy, I have decided to contact you as to assist me provide an account for this transaction if you have accepted to assist and fully participate in this transaction, kindly furnish me with the necessary information such as

Bank Name/
Bank Address/
Account Number/
Swift Code/
Account Name/ 
Your full address/
Scan copy of your identity/

With this information provided, the said sum will be transfer to your account without difficulties.

The terms of sharing the money after a successful transfer will be discuss as you indicate your interest in assisting to transfer this money.

Immediately all these information gets to me, I will then present
every document to the paying bank and the copy will be send to you for verification and record purposes.

Be rest assured with my connections, everything will be through within a short time. After many years of meticulous services to the government and people of our sub region I would not want my image to be dented. Therefore I expect you to handle this transaction with utmost maturity by keeping everything secret. I can assure you that if my instructions are carefully adhered to, there will not be any hitch through out the transaction, there is no risk on your side, because I have perfected the deal very well over years.

After the transfer, we will be coming over to your country for further
Sharing and possible investments.

I'm waiting to read from you urgently through the electronic mail address ASAP.


Regard,
Dr.Abraham ZONGO


ANALYSIS
This is a sample scam email. This mail is actually aiming at the greedy victim who wants to reap where they did not sow. A reply to this mail will have a more promising mail that will end up with the victim sending money to help in clear the money that will have a clearing problem in any country the scammer has agents (it usually starts with as little as $500 and continues to as more as $50,000  to $100,000) or the scammer will your account information that he is requesting to hack into your account.


COMMON SENSE
Common sense they say is not really common. Some people before falling victim do not ask which friend of theirs gave their contact to the said Dr. Abraham ZONGO (Deputy Director of Finance, Foreign Payment Approval Dept. of West African Monetary Control Board (WAMCB). North-West Regional office Burkina Faso) for such a serious fraud  without contacting them. what makes you think that a man who is not faithful to his employer that he has (according him) served for many years will be faithful to you, a total stranger.
He talked about his connections. If he is that connected why is he trying to use a stranger with all his acclaimed connections in any part of the world?
Some people have not even thought of the fact that good business discusses profit sharing before they commence business, here he wants to gets his greedy victims by all means.


N/B: this mail was forwarded to us by a person who almost fell to it from Hong Kong