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The Spam and Scam Superthread- Merged

Some good info here:  How to avoid online scams

Love this part:

What makes this scam especially insidious is that it's grammatically sound. It's astonishing how few online scammers check for spelling, or put spaces after periods and commas. Or, even use commas in the first place. Not coincidentally, most of the scammers' victims wouldn't know poor grammar and punctuation if they stepped in it.

:rofl:


 
Just got another one...



You have been chosen by Wal-Mart
Wal-mart [eastman_maria@yahoo.com]

You have been selected to access the Walmart 2 Step Survey and win a $150.00 gift certificate.


Please click here and complete the form to receive your reward. Thank you.


This is an automated message. Please do not reply.
Message Id: 0019268154-wmrtsrv.




Good thing that DWAN removes links...
 
WTF?



"02- DWAN E-MAIL SYSTEM DETECTED POSSIBLE "SPAM"/CEC DU RED DETECTION PROBABLE D'UN "POURRIEL"":Customer
Walmart Survey [businessessentials@internetadvisor.ca]

You have been selected to access the Walmart 2 Step Survey and win a $150.00 gift certificate.


Please click here and complete the form to receive your reward. Thank you.


This is an automated message. Please do not reply.
Message Id: 0019268154-wmrtsrv.
 
This didn't take long!  :threat:

Dear friend,

I am Mrs.Safia Farkash Gahdafi the wife of the late Libyan Leader Colonel
Muammar Gahdafi. Following the recent rebellion in my country and the brutal
death of my husband on the 20 Oct 2011, I have been thrown into a state of utter
confusion, frustration and hopelessness; I have been subjected to physical and
psychological torture by the security agents in Algeria where we seek refuge at
present.

My son was killed by the rebels for an offense he did not commit. As a widow
that is so traumatized, I have lost confidence with anybody within the country.
You must have heard over the media reports and the internet on the recovery of
various huge sums of money deposited by my husband in different security firms
abroad, some companies willingly give up their secrets and disclosed our money
confidently lodged there or many outright blackmail.In fact the total sum
discovered by the Government so far is in the tune of ($900).  Million Dollars.
And they are not relenting to make me poor for life; I got your contact email
address through my research and out of desperation decided to reach you through
this medium. I will give you more information as to this regard as soon as you
reply. I repose great confidence in you hence my approach to you due to security
network placed on my day to day affairs I cannot afford to visit the embassy so
that is why I decided to contact you and I h
ope you will not betray my confid

I shall be grateful if you could receive this fund into your account for safe
keeping. This arrangement is known to you and my son alone. I am seriously
considering  relocating to your country once the fund is transferred to you. I
will be wiling to offer you 30% of the total fund if only you will receive this
fund and keep it for us.

Please note that honesty is the watch word in this transaction. I will require
your telephone and fax numbers so that we can commence communication immediately
and I will give you a more detailed picture of things. In case you don’t accept
please do not let me out to the security as I am giving you this information in
total trust and confidence .I will greatly appreciate if you accept my proposal
in good faith.

I appreciate your  timely suggestion and interest over this matter

Best Regards
Mrs.Safia Farkash Gahdafi
Email:safiafgahdafi@gmail.com

 
OS I've just fwd that to my new financial advisor in Lagos Nigeria for his opinion.  8)
 
Not much in this thread lately but I have been getting various emails with a new tack on "You have won money" with this being the most recent. The Spanish (?) at the end sort of gives it away. I have also apparently won the British Columbia lottery....in Britain!

HM-Treasury is compensating you with the sum of £550,000.00 pounds.
Contact the chancellor of the Treasury; Rt Hon George Osborne via his
email address:treasury_claims4u@msn.com ,for claim, and details on how you
were awarded this amount.

Send him your FULL NAMES.......... RESIDENTIAL ADDRESS/COUNTRY.......PHONE
NUMBER.........SEX/ AGE.......
Do send your accurate details to the chancellor for immediate claim.

Have a nice day and Hope you use this Money wisely

Signed,Jon Thompson,
Finance Director,HM Treasury UK


-----------------------------------------
Internet gratis en: http://www.free.com.pe
Americatel Internet Free
Tu conexión Free más rápida
 
Got another that starts like this:

Payment Notification:

We are writhing to know if it's true that you are DEAD. Because we received a notification from one MR. ALAN W. LATTI of USA stating that you are DEAD and that you have giving him the right to claim your contract/inheritance payment funds worth sum of $5.5Million. He stated that you died on a CAR accident. He has been calling us regarding this issue, but we cannot proceed with him until we confirm this by not hearing from you after 7days.

I responded that indeed I am dead and they could give Mr Latti my $5.5M.
 
Did it from a gmail account set up for the sole purpose of 'playing' with some of these people!
 
Got another-Now they are getting lazy. All it says:

$1,300.000.00us
have you receiver your $1,300.000.00us because I travel to France but now I am back, if you receiver it let me know
Mr P Nwaba


No intro, no "How are ya", nothing!

On another note, I am printing all my spam emails from Burkina Faso and now that I know where their embassy is in Ottawa, before I am posted from here in July, I am going to leave them a box of emails on the doorstep from their 'countrymen'!

 
Received this at work this morning, looks like the fire wall needs an update ;-)

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

YOU HAVE WON ONE MILLION UNITED STATE DOLLARS ( $1, 000. 000.00 USD)

Dear Lucky Winner,

We are Pleased to inform you that your email was selected among the winning numbers of the recently Lotto conducted from the Lottery Company and we shall be glad if you can claim your prize, please respond to this mail within 72 hours otherwise we will assume that you are not interested. We conduct the Lotto using Lotto as part of our tax relief program set up by the International Lottery Board and Yahoo Inc, on this note we congratulate you and wish you best of luck as you claim the prize attached to this Lotto.

HOW TO CLAIM YOUR PRIZE

These are your identification numbers.
Ticket number.....................085-12876077-09
Serial number.......................51390-0
Lucky number...................03-05-12-14-28-38
Ref number...................N.EGS/3662367114/13

You are to send the completed verification form below to the coordinator whose email address is given bellow so that you will be advised on what to do to get your prize money.

Congratulations once more!!
1.FULL NAME.............................
2.COUNTRY OF ORIGIN.....................
3.PRESENT ADDRESS.......................
4.POSTCODE..............................
5.DATE OF BIRTH.........................
6.OCCUPATION............................
7.SEX...................................
8.TELEPHONE NUMBER......................
9.FAX NUMBER(IF ANY)....................
10.MARITAL STATUS.......................

Remember, all prize money must be claimed not later than 30 days of receiving this notification. Any claim not made by this date will be returned to HIS MAJESTY DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY. And also be informed that 10% of your lottery winning belongs to (THE PROMOTIONS COMPANY). Because they are the company that bought your ticket and played the lottery in your name. Note also that this 10% will be remitted after you have received your winnings prize, because the money is insured in your name already. CONGRATULATIONS!!!! Once again from all members of our staff and thank you for being a part of our International Promotions program of the New Year. We wish you continued good fortunes.

CONTACT PERSON: Rev. Joe Watkins.
(Winner?s directorate office)
E-Mail: bogusemailaddress @blumail.org
TEL: +( 66)8-8004-1314
Office Fax: + (66) 261-382-62
LOTTERY COORDINATOR.
Sincerely,
Yahoo! Customer Care
Yahoo-Thailand Online Lottery Org
Regd No: 79472002


Copyright? 1994-2012 The Yahoo-Thailand Internet Promotions. All rights reserved. Terms of Service - Guidelines.
Yahoo! Customer Care

Congratulations On Your Winnings

 
My wife had to turn her spam filters off to get e-mails from our kid's school. Now she sees about 40 "penis enlargements" spams a day and only about 4 breast enlargements ads. she was (jokingly) upset that breasts don't rate as highly as penises. I suggested this would be a good cause for the hardcore feminists. Imagine the battle cry; "Say no to a Spam gap, we must have equal spam rights!!"
 
Most email clients, such as thunderbird, or Outlook let you set up a list of words to block. You can leave the spam filter off, but have words like "penis", "enlargement", "lottery", "Nigeria", etc.
 
Colin P said:
... the hardcore feminists. ...

Do they still exist?? Probably bitching at the first guy who doesn't hold a door open for them as "being rude". 
 
How I made $20 million in two weeks without leaving my desk
Kelly McParland  Jun 16, 2012
Article Link

According to my email, I’ve been extraordinarily lucky this month.

In less than two weeks, I’ve won 16 lotteries. Based on today’s exchange rates, if I claim all the money, I’ll be richer by more than $20 million. Most of the winnings have been in British pounds (gee, they have a lot of lotteries in Britain), though I also won the Spanish National Lottery, worth 915,000 Euros, an unspecified amount from the South African Reserve bank, and up to 50,000 ZARs a day on a free UN ATM card. I haven’t quite figured out what a ZAR is, but I’m sure it’s worth having.

All this good fortune has come out of the blue. I didn’t buy a single ticket. I’d never even heard of most of these contests before I got emails notifying me I’d won. I’m sure they’re all legit, though, because they’re all sponsored by responsible international firms or organizations.

My first lucky break was in the Spanish lottery. I got a  personal email notice from Mario Antonio, the director. (Curiously, on the facsimile ticket he included, his name was given as Antonio Gomez. I’m sure there’s a logical explanation to the discrepancy.)

Unfortunately the email was in Spanish, but I managed to translate it with an online service.

    CONGRATULATIONS
    Search Associate of the notification of award. Please fill the form for payment processing and
    envirlo by the agent charge.

Then there was a form I need to fill in to get my money. All I have to do is provide my bank account number, and other personal details, so they can deposit the cash directly into my account.  I haven’t got around to it yet, mainly because I’ve been so busy winning more lotteries. I’m so rich now, maybe I’ll hire someone to fill in the form for me.

Just after winning the Spanish lottery, I won the FIFA/Coca Cola World Cup online lottery, worth £2 million. I’ve won the Coca-Cola lottery several times before, but never took the time to collect. Coke has so many lotteries I figure I’ll save them up and cash them all at once.  The same day I won the FIFA/Coca Cola draw, I also won the Online UK National Lottery. It came with a notice from Mr. Harry Wilson, (Information and Promotion Manager), including a reference number and batch number to ensure I knew nothing funny was going on.

    FROM: THE DESK OF THE DIRECTOR
    INTERNATIONAL PROMOTIONS / PRIZE AWARD DEPARTMENT.
    HEADQUARTERS: 8A KINGLY STREET, LONDON W1B 5PQ, LONDON
    UNITED KINGDOM
    REFERENCE Nº: TTS/44412703/08
    BATCH Nº: 20/1017/2DF
    AWARD NOTIFICATION
    Flash Budget Finance Lottery of British International Lottery Program wishes to inform
    you the results of the E-mail address ballot lottery program by the British International
    Lottery Program held on June 4th, 2012. Your email account was selected as a winner of
    Two Million Pounds Only.

Again, they just need my personal financial information and the money is mine. But I have to act quickly, because if they don’t hear from me within two weeks, I lose it all.

I won several more lotteries in the next few days, but then I got a notification from London’s Metropolitan Police, warning me that unscrupulous scam artists are known to be at work on the Internet, seeking out gullible people with fake lottery schemes.

    Your attention is drawn on our recent investigation report conducted in United Kingdom, which
    was in conjunction with the CIA, the international monetary funds (IMF) and THE
    METROPOLITAN POLICE.
    It has been clearly established through the intensive scrutiny of the above-mentioned financial crime security agencies that you have been a victim of the African/Uk Internet scam activities. From the investigation report, it has been proven through the record that you have paid some amount of money to these scam artists with their European associates, running into thousands of dollars.


    Due to the pressure and several complains from most frustrated victims from the international
    community, as well as the United Nation, the British Government empowered this office to look into these cases and your case was also reviewed for urgent compensation.


This caught my attention, of course. They informed me I had definitely been targeted by some of these scammers. Fortunately, luck was once again on my side, because “The government in its magnanimity and coupled with pressure from the international community, has approved for your compensation of the sum of $920,000,00 (Nine Hundred & Twenty Thousand Dollars only) through the official payee bank of Zenith Bank Limited London.”
More on link
 
Solved: Why email scammers say they're from Nigeria
By Claire Connelly June 21, 2012 news.com.au
Article Link

You've seen the email.

A terminally ill Nigerian prince or director of a massive corporation contacts you urgently asking you to move a large sum of money, promising you can keep a share. All you need to do is provide your credit card number and banking PIN.

It looks like a scam, sounds like a scam -- it is a scam. But who on earth actually believes these things? If you've ever wondered why these scams are so blatant, here’s why

If you, like thousands of others, were just too smart for your attacker and saw through the tricky plot - it simply means that you were never the target anyway.

A recent study found that email scammers really aren't interested in appearing believable because it would just be too expensive if everyone fell for it.

The research conducted by Microsoft’s Machine Learning Department, titled "Why do Nigerian scammers say they are from Nigeria?" found that the OTT scam email, complete with typos is a simple, cost effective way of weeding out intelligent people, leaving only the most gullible to hit.

"Far-fetched tales of West African riches strike as comical," wrote principal researcher, Cormac Herley in the study. "Our analysis suggests that is an advantage to the attacker, not a disadvantage.”

“Since his attack has a low density of victims, the Nigerian scammer has an over-riding need to reduce the false positives. By sending an email that repels all but the most gullible, the scammer gets the most promising marks to self-select, and tilts the true to false positive ration in his favor.”

It seems to work. Just last year a Nigerian man was jailed for 12 years after scamming US$1.3 million. In 2008 an Oregon woman lost $400k to a similar scam.

So next time you open a scam email and think to yourself: "Why bother?" live happy in the knowledge you're not the target market.
end
 
OPP warn of roadside scam
By Alex Consiglio, QMI AGENCY
Article Link

A roadside scam that originated in Europe has made its way to the Greater Toronto Area and the Ontario Provincial Police is warning motorists to be vigilant over the long weekend.

The scam takes advantage of Good Samaritans on highways by offering them fake jewelry in return for cash to help a stranded motorist.

So far, police have heard of five cases along Hwy. 401 have been reported, including near Pickering, Whitby, Milton in the GTA.

“In one incident, a man pulled off to the side of the highway, frantically waved someone down,” Sgt. Dave Woodford said. “He then pleaded he’d left his credit card at home and needed some money to get back on the road.”

Woodford said the man exchanged some fake jewelry in return for $1,300 from the Good Samaritan while promising to meet at a later date to repay the loan and get his jewelry back.

“He never showed,” Woodford said, adding the jewelry turned out to be absolutely worthless.


Woodford said in some of the reported cases, the vehicle driven by the scammer was a beat up van, but those scammed couldn’t remember the colour of the van or a description of the man.

“We’re not telling people to stop being Good Samaritans, but if you pull over to help someone and they ask for money, call roadside assistance or the police,” Woodford said, adding one person did just that and the scammer quickly fled.

Woodford added one person managed to write down the scammer’s licence plate, but the vehicle was stolen and police couldn’t track the suspect down.
More on link
 
GAP said:
Woodford said the man exchanged some fake jewelry in return for $1,300 from the Good Samaritan while promising to meet at a later date to repay the loan and get his jewelry back.

“He never showed,” Woodford said, adding the jewelry turned out to be absolutely worthless.

The fact that people can be so gullible never fails to astound me.  :not-again:
 
Some of the work on scamming the scammers by this group is priceless. The game is to response to people running scams, and waste their time by pretending to send money but not.

http://www.419eater.com/

I tried this with a Russian scammer who wanted me to send money via western Union for some made up reason. First, made I up a phony Western Union receipt and sent it to him. He was a bit annoyed that I sent it to the wrong Western Union on the other side of the city. I managed to get him to travel to the location three times over two days where they would not give him money because none of the transactions numbers worked. He was mad. Then I said I resent the money to the Western Union he requested. I encrypted the image with a 45 alpha-numeric password with one of the tools provided on this site. Each time he punched in the number it would record. It was funny to see he entered the 45 digit code about two dozen times. After that he stopped talking to me.

Others have more fun and will record phone conversations, get the scammers  to take pictures of themselves. One brilliant guy got a scammer to drive several hours to a neighboring country to meet him at a hotel. When the guy arrived he told him that he did not like the hotel and moved to another hotel in a town 3 hours away. Oh man, I wish I had more time to spend pissing these type of people off.
 
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