Recently in 419 Category

Throughout this year, there's been random outbreaks of mails claiming you've won a fortune, courtesy of Microsoft.

Naturally, it's a scam - and it looks like it's back yet again. Here's what's currently doing the rounds:



"Your lucky winning number falls within our Africa booklet
representative in West Africa as indicated in your play coupon,"

Yes. Of course it does.

Every now and then, a variation of the following appears in "lucky" mailboxes. I'm posting this up as no less than four different mailboxes of mine have had this pop up over the weekend....

"Greetings.

As you read this,don't feel sorry for me,because it is the destiny of everyman
to die someday.I am Naveed Jafar a naturalised Briton by birth and a business
merchant based in the United Kingdom. I have been diagnosed with Oesophageal
cancer.

It has defiled all forms of medical treatment,and right now I have only about
a few months to live, according to medical experts. I regret that I have not
particularly lived my life so well, as I never really cared for anyone (not
even myself), but my trade. Though I am very well to do, I was never open
handed; I was always hostile to people and regarded them like they never had
hopes of becoming as successful as myself. Now I know that there is a lot more
to life than just prosperity.

I believe that when I am given a second chance to come to this world, I would
live my life a different way from how I have lived it. Now that death is
eminent, I have willed and given most of my belonging to immediate and extended
family members, as well as a few close friends. I want Allah to be merciful to
me and accept my soul. Hence I have decided to support charity work; this is
what i want to be remembered for. So far, I have been able to reach out to a
few charity organizations in the Singapore, Algeria and Malaysia. Now that my
health has deteriorated so badly, I cannot do this myself anymore.

I once asked members of my family to aid me in giving of alms to those
organizations catering for the less privileged in Bulgaria and Pakistan; they
refused and kept the resources to themselves. Hence, I do not trust them
anymore,as they seem not to be contempt with what I have left for them.

The last of my belonging which no one knows of, is the huge deposit of Eight
million US dollars that I have in a safe keeping company abroad, which I will
want you to secure and bestow to charity organizations.

Please endeavour to reply me via email: naveedjafar07@hotmail.com For your time
and devotion, I have set aside a tenth of this for you."

It goes without saying that "throat cancer" scams are always a good way of parting people from their money - its no coincidence that this particular tactic was used in a 419 spam attack that netted the culprits $1.2 million. At the risk of sounding like Captain Obvious - avoid!

[5:51:48 PM] smith kabila says: GOOD DAY   
       FIRST AND FOREMOST,I MUST SOLICIT YOUR STRICTNESS CONFIDENCE IN THIS TRANSACTION AND I PRAY THAT MY DECISION TO CONTACT YOU WILL BE GIVEN GENUINE APPROVAL CONSIDERING THE FACTS WE HAVE NOT KNOWN EACH OTHER BEFORE, I WISH TO USE THIS OPPORTUNITY TO INTRODUCE MYSELF TO YOU.
 
      I AM SMITH KABILA FROM DR CONGO,   AFRICA. I WRITE TO INFORM YOU MY DESIRE TO INVEST,AND TO BUY A LIVING HOUSE IN YOUR COUNTRY. I AM THE FIRST  SON OF MR.BRIGHT KABILA, HE WAS A DIAMOND/GOLD MERCHANT IN MY COUNTRY.MY FATHER HAD A BULLET SHOT BY THE REBELS ON HIS WAY TRAVELLING OUT OF MY COUNTRY WITH TWO OF MY YOUNGER SISTER'S DUE TO PRESENT CRISIS THAT IS OCCURRING IN MY COUNTRY(DR CONGO).MY SISTER'S DIED ON THE SPOT WHILE THE U.N.PEACE KEEPING FORCE RESCUED MY FATHER,HE WAS TAKEN TO HOSPITAL FOR MEDICAL TREATMENT WHICH HE LATER DIED. BEFORE HE DIED HE REVEALED TO ME AND MY MOTHER ABOUT THE BOXES CONTAINING $7 MILLION US DOLLARS.WHICH HE DEPOSITED WITH A SECURITY COMPANY IN GHANA FOR SAFE KEEPING. MY FATHER DID NOT DISCLOSE THE CONTENT OF THE BOXES TO THE SECURITY COMPANY.TO AVOID THE OFFICIALS FROM RAISING EYE BROWS TO THE FUNDS.
 
       PRESENTLY MYSELF AND MY MOTHER ARE HERE IN GHANA TO NOTIFY THE SECURITY COMPANY FOR THE CLAIMS,AND WE ARE STAYING IN THE REFUGEE CAMP. THEREFORE I WANT YOU TO LECTURE ME ON HOW BEST WE CAN INVEST THIS MONEY,BECAUSE MY FATHER TOLD ME THAT IT IS DANGEROUS TO INVEST THIS MONEY IN AFRICA TO AVOID SUSPICIONS, AND DUE TO MARKET INSTABILITY COUPLED WITH ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL INSTABILITY FACING AFRICA COUNTRIES,THAT IS WHY WE WANT TO INVEST IN ABROAD. FOR YOUR MUTUAL ASSISTANCE, MYSELF AND MY MOTHER HAVE AGREED TO OFFER YOU 20%OF THE TOTAL AMOUNT OF THE MONEY AND ALSO 3% FOR ANY EXPENSES.
 
    WE HAVE ALL THE VITAL DOCUMENTS COVERING THE DEPOSIT AND THE OWNERSHIP WHICH I CAN SEND TO YOU THROUGH FAX ON REQUEST. NOTE:I HAVE NEVER DISCLOSED THIS TO ANY PERSON APART FROM YOU,SO YOU HAVE TO KEEP THIS TRANSACTION AS A TOP SECRET TO YOURSELF ALONE.WHICH I WILL WANT YOU TO FORWARD ACROSS TO ME YOUR DIRECT TEL/FAX NUMBER FOR MORE INFORMATION'S ABOUT THIS TRANSACTION.

contact through this contact
this is my direct line, 233 247890536
email contact : smithkabila29@yahoo.com
 
BEST REGARDS,
 
SMITH KABILA. (FOR THE ENTIRE FAMILY)

....quite a long one, isn't it?

He then spent a lot of time trying to convince me to "work together", claiming he would show me everything he knows about webscams.

Doh.

smithkabila100 is the Skype account to block.

Hot on the heels of this writeup comes another example of a particular technique favoured by 419 Scammers at the moment. It follows a familiar pattern - someone has their EMail account hijacked, and then all of their contacts will find this in their Inbox shortly afterwards:

Hello,
I am sorry I didn't inform you about my traveling to Africa for a program called Empowering Youth to Fight Racism,HIV/AIDS,and Lack of Education,the program is taking place in three major countries in Africa which are Ghana,Togoland and Nigeria,I am presently in Lagos Nigeria.
 
I misplaced my wallet on my way to the hotel where i lodged my wallet which contains my money,and other valuable things were kept.I will like you to assist me with a soft loan urgently with the sum of $3,400 US Dollars to sort-out my hotel bills and get myself back home.
 
I will appreciate whatever you can afford, i 'll pay you back as soon as i return.
Kindly look for any western union and use this informations below to send me whatever you can afford.

Name : <Redacted>
Address : <Redacted>
Zip code: <Redacted>
State :Lagos
Country :Nigeria
Test Question :To who?
Answer :
Amount send $:?

Once you have it sent, please send me the money transfer control number,with details used in sending it. I await to read from you.

The EMail content is practically identical to the last one with only a few minor alterations. The recipient was naturally suspicious (especially over the fact that their skills with the English language had suddenly taken a turn for the worse) and asked if it was really their contact sending them this mail. The reply was as follows:

Thanks for geting back to me i really appreciate your mail this massage is from me.what i need you to do for me is that just lend me some money when i get back i will pay you back and explain everythings to you ok

Perhaps given the concern over their contact losing all grasp of their native tongue, sending back a missive lacking in spelling, punctuation and basic sentence structure wasn't the smartest of moves.

Happily, our intepid investigator was able to confirm with the victim that yes, they had been hacked and as far as I'm aware nobody lost any money to these scammers. Thanks to Jeanette at Mother Hen Productions for sending this over!

This is a particularly disturbing scam that's been passed my way, courtesy of reader MTGarden.

The scammers in question hacked a colleagues EMail account, then sent out a request for money to the people on the hacked accounts contact list, claiming they were overseas and without cash. The EMail looked like this:

Hi,
I am sorry I didn't inform you about my traveling to Europe for a
program called Empowering Youth to Fight Racism,HIV/AIDS,and Lack of
Education,the program is taking place in three major countries in Europe
which are Czech Republic,Scotland and England,I am presently in
England,London.

I misplaced my wallet on my way to the hotel where my money,and other
valuable things were kept.I will like you to assist me with a soft loan
urgently with the sum of ?2000 British Pounds to sort-out my hotel bills
and get myself back home.
I will appreciate whatever you can afford, I'II pay you back as soon as
i return.Kindly look for any western union and use this informations
below to send me whatever you can afford.

Name : <redacted>
Address :<redacted>
Zip code: <redacted>
State : <redacted>
Country :<redacted>
Test Question :To who?
Answer :<name removed>
Amount send ?:2000

Once you have it sent, please send me the money transfer control
number,with details used in sending it.
I await to read from you.

....yikes. All you'd need is one or two non-tech savvy people (relatives would obviously work best here) on the contact list and you'd quickly have a large problem on your hands. If you have anyone like that on your contact list - and most of us do - it might be worth letting them know about this scam. As a sidenote, I should add that the person in question regained control of their EMail account and no money was sent to the scammers.

Be on your guard...

Well that's typical, I go on holiday and the moment I switch a PC on to check something, this appears in Skype:

stephanie kidkhyan says: how are u i hope good, my name is stephanie napapon am from thailand but live london i contant u for my late fahter consingment in afirca pls if u can help me u will take 30% of the money pls the money in the box is 5.2mioll euro.i have all the document and my passport pls i need u help ok this is my email addr stephanienapapon@yahoo.com

This person then tried their hardest to get me to ring a UK based mobile phone number. Let's think about that for a second...someone in Thailand, a father with a "consignment" in Africa and a phone number located in an entirely different continent.

Yeah, doesn't sound too convincing does it? Do yourself a favour and block this Skype address:

napapon4love

In the meantime, we've reported the Username involved.

A handful of scam mails currently in circulation, including one mention of "groundnut oil" that seems so bizarre I had to highlight it in bold text. All this and more, after the jump...

Are you ready for more 419 missives?

Of course you are. Plenty of winning lottery tickets, fictitious banks, a wonderfully sick "Robert Mugabe" themed mail and, er, someone called "Captain Frank Bojo" after the jump...

For your entertainment and amusement (along with a valuable helping of "what not to reply to"), here is another selection of recent 419 mails currently in circulation. Lots of winning lottery tickets, missing gold bullion, unclaimed African thrones and other random nonsense after the jump...

A friend of mine happens to get about six million 419 EMails every week, so I thought it might be useful to post some up as examples of what's currently doing the rounds in the world of online scamming. There's a fair amount of text, so for your sanity, the email content is posted after the jump....