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!
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!
