Crime Online

Ever since the crisis really took hold of the markets and banks over a month ago, I have been waiting to see if the Africans are changing their tactics. This one, although extremely short, does look as though they are giving it a try.

I reckon any story is a good story from an African point of view.

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: anir@hathway.com <anir@hathway.com>
Date: 27 Oct 2008 14:03
Subject: COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN PAYMENT
To:

OFFICE OF THE SENATE HOUSE
FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA
COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN PAYMENT
(RESOLUTION PANEL ON CONTRACT PAYMENT)
IKOYI-LAGOS NIGERIA
Our Ref: FGN /SNT/
Your Ref.

This is to officially inform you that we have verified your contract/inheritance file and found out that why you have not received your payment is because you have not fulfilled the obligations given to you in respect  of your contract/inheritance payment.

Secondly, we have been informed that you are still dealing with the none officials in the bank all your attempts to secure the release of the fund to you. We wish to advise you that such an illegal act like this have to stop if you wish to receive your payment since we have decided to bring a solution to your problem.

Right now we have arranged your payment through our swift card payment centre Asia pacific, that’s latest instruction from the new president,aihaji umar musa yaradua federal republic of Nigeria.

This card centre will send you an atm card which you will use to withdraw your money in any atm machine in any part of the world, but the maximum is ten thousand, five hundred United States dollars per day. So if you like to receive your funds in this way please let us know by contacting the atm payment department director and also send the following information as listed below.
>>>>>>>>>>>>
1. Full Name:
2. Sex:
3. Age:
4. Tel:
5. State:
6. Country:
>>>>>>>>>>>>
However, kindly find below the contact person Prof. Charles Amandu. Integrated payment department
Email: atm-live-remittance@hotmail.com
Phone: +2348033771340
>>>>>>>>>>>
The atm card payment centre has been mandated to issue out $500,000.00 as part payment for this fiscal year 2008. For your information, you have to stop any further communication with any other person(s) or office(s) to avoid any hitch in receiving your payment. Note that because of impostors,we hereby issue you our code of conduct, which is (ATM-112/2008) so you have to indicate this code when contacting the card centre by using it as your subject.

I have no idea if this person ever saw my profile anywhere. It’s not all that hard to find me on the Internet these days, so maybe “he” was on a social networking site.

Paul Adam's Scrap E-Mail

Reading this message you get the impression it has nothing to do with 419 or African scam e-mails. But you would be wrong!

The point to note here is that the language and and technical knowledge needed to understand what this fellow is talking about, makes the target market (for want of a better name) very, very small.

Now it could be a bona fide offer, but I very much doubt that and here’s why:

1. Paul Adams, if that is his real name, uses a Colombian Yahoo freemail account.
2. His telephone number is a Nigerian cellphone
3. Where on earth does he get so much rail scrap from?

So this has all the Hallmarks of a typical 419 scam email. And after all the stories I have heard from friends and colleagues who have done business in Africa and especially Nigeria, I would recommend just scrapping this email! (pun intended

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: MR .P.ADAMS <mrpaul0189@yahoo.com.co>
Date: 2008/10/22
Subject: Re- Purchase of Used rail scraps r50/65
To:

¡Tengo nueva dirección de correo!
Ahora puedes escribirme a:mrpaul0189@yahoo.com.co

Mr.Paul Adams.

- Dear Sir, We are direct end seller and capable of delievering your required quantity to your destination port at the stipulated time of 30-45 working days. The price of the rail is $150.00per mertic tons to any destination port of the world and our contract is based on Letter of Credit/Telegrahic Transfer 100% at sight at buyers destination port. Also note there is no problem with the shipment of your intial order and we believe and hope everything will work successfully and this will be the beginning of our long term contract with you and we usually invite any potentials buyers for physical inspection of the product before signing the hard copy contract/ purchase form. Below here is chemical compostion for your preview. Commodity: used Rails Specification: Used Rails (R50-R65) 100% Rail Track Composition: Non-Metal inpurties total 1% (One Percent)or less – no Radiation Chemical Composition Mn: 0, 60-1, 05, = C: 0.54-082, = Si 0.18-0, 42, =S: 0.04 max P: 0.35 max, = Cr: Residual =As: 0.01% max of mass share. One price for quantities of 20,000MT to 30,000MT Used Rail at $150.00per/MT CIF ASWP Our Quality Policy provides seven point guarantee: 1. No Deposit Required 2. 2% Performance Bond given for the activation of non-operative DLC or RLC for Charter Party Shipment. 3. Physical Inspection of the Scrap before you open your Letter of Credit. 4. 20′ and 40′ container shipments arranged (CNF Basis) for 1000 mt per month and above 5. Charter Party Vessel Shipments arranged (CNF Basis) for 12500 mt and above. 6. Initial Trial Shipments are welcomed. 7. Long Term Contracts Available (up to 100,000 mt per month for 12 months). I wait for you response and contact informations Best Regards, Mr Paul Adams +234-807-444-3478

Paul Adam's Telephone Number

The African crooks certainly do have fantasy. Kofi Annan sends me a message from the Nigerian Union Bank using a Yahoo email account.

They also claim that unionbanknigplc95@ymail.com is the banks official e-mail address.

As you can see, once again they use the United Nations and the former Secretary Kofi Annan, to try and make a story sound plausible.

They never do. You just have to look closer at what they write and use your common sense.

I like the slogan at the end:

Making the world a better place

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Union Bank Plc Compensation Unit <koffi.anan1@yahoo.com>
Date: 2008/10/19
Subject: COMPENSATION.
To:

UNION BANK NIGERIA PLC COMPENSATION UNIT,
IN AFFILIATION WITH THE UNITED NATION.
Send a copy of your response to official email: unionbanknigplc95@ymail.com

ATTN:Sir/Madam,

How are you today? Hope all is well with you and family?,You may not understand why this mail came to you. We have been having a meeting for the passed 7 months which ended 2 days ago with the former  Secretary to the UNITED NATIONS.This email is to all the people that have been scammed in any part of the world, the UNITED NATIONS have agreed to compensate them with the sum of US$900,000,00 This includes every foreign contractors that may have not received their contract sum, and people that have had an unfinished transaction or international businesses that failed due to Government problems etc. We found your name in our list and that is why we are contacting you, this have been agreed upon and have been signed.

You are advised to contact Dr.Emeka Jacob of Union Bank of Nigeria Plc, as he is our representative in Nigeria, contact him immediately for your Cheque/ International Bank Draft of US $900,000,00 This funds are in a Bank Draft for security purpose ok? so he will send it to you and you can clear it in any bank of your choice.

Therefore, you should send him your full Name and telephone number/your correct mailing address where you want him to send the Draft to you.Contact Dr.Emeka Jacob immediately for your Cheque:Email:
unionbanknigplc95@ymail.com Thanks and God bless you and your family.

Hoping to hear from you as soon as you cash your Bank Draft. Making the world a better place .

Regards,
Mr. Kofi Annan
Former Secretary (UNITED NATIONS).

There is no account waiting to be plundered. And he’s talking rubbish saying the account will be written off. That does not happen in inheritance cases. The  money stays where it is, until the real next of kin is found.

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: David Harrington <natalie3143@aol.com>
Date: 2008/10/19
Subject: Bussiness Proposal( Urgent & Confidential! )!
To: undisclosed-recipients

Dear Friend,

I am Mr. David Harrington, an accountant with a commercial bank here in London.

I discovered recently that one of our customers who died in a plane crash years ago has no next of kin at all to claim GBP5.5 million he deposited in our bank so many years since his death. The money will be written off and sent to her majesty’s treasury and banks treasury as well if nobody comes to claim it in the next 30 days. The bank just issued the circular for the last time.

Since i have all the documents available for the claims as i was the account officer who assisted him when he opened the FIXED DEPOSIT INSURED ACCOUNT with us then, I decided to solicit your assistance to stand as the next of kin so that you can apply for claims to the bank for them to approve it to you for further transfer to your account. After the approval and the funds confirmed into your account I will take a leave and come over to your country so that we can disburse the funds. 60% for me and 40% will be for you. The website link below authenticates the validity of this saddening information.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/859479.stm

There is no risk involved at all as I will back you up legally here through the judiciary since I know the procedure already. It is a very common practice/deal here and so many lawyers and bank here in Britain and any other part of the world including your country makes their money through this means. This time is now my opportunity and I do not wish to miss it as I may not be opportuned again in life. If I do not use this opportunity my bank or the government will surely convert the funds as theirs. Go through the another web link below to view list of unclaimed estates and inheritance here in United Kingdom and what has been happening. (www.bbc.co.uk/heirhunters)

Please get back to me through my confidential email: davidharr008@gmail.com for more clarification so that we may start off immediately. But if after reading this mail and you don’t want to partake in it do please pretend as if you did not read it and do not disclose it to another person considering the sensitive nature so that you don’t spoil my chances of making use of this God’s given opportunity and wealth as it has been prayer.

I await your quick response immediately.

Yours Sincerely,
Mr. David Harrington
Email: davidharr008@gmail.com

Image via Wikipedia

I spoke to the company today and they, of course, do not make special deliveries of any kind, anywhere.

The second point which is not true, is the statement about depositing the money with the “United Nations Security House”. Even if there was such an entity, what would Thomas Winkler have to do with that?

And thirdly, he brought the “luggage” into the country, so why can’t he take it out again?

All in all, a nice story which just does not add up.

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Winkler <twinkler666@gmail.com>
Date: 2008/10/19
Subject: Compliments from Thomas.
To: twinkler606@gmail.com

Compliments from Thomas.

I am Thomas Winkler, An agent working with the Morgan security company in England. This security company makes diplomatic deliveries round the world.

My Company sent me delivery to malaysia but on reaching malaysia i discovered the person am taking the delivery has died of a road accident. So i now deposited the luggage with United Nations Security House in malaysia.

So am writing to you so that we can arrange and get this luggage out in your name, because i cannot get this luggage out as an agent. I have all the necessary documents patterning to this luggage.

Pls you can contact me on my direct email me (twinkler223@yahoo.fr) for more details.

Have a nice day.

Regards,
Thomas

This time the crooks have an address in London, Great Britain. The funny thing is if you take a look at the Connecticut Lottery site they make no mention of a London office.

The CT Lottery does have a page informing readers about typical scam messages using Connecticut Lottery as a front.
———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Missy Ashton© <admindept@ctlotto.com>
Date: 2008/10/19
Subject: CATEGORY “A” WINNING NOTIFICATION.
To: undisclosed-recipients

–
CONNETICUT LOTTERY CORPORATION
64 MANCHESTER RD, LONDON E14 3BE

Ref Number: CT/17AD/LG9009
Batch Number: 839081500-CT/2008
Ticket Number: CT/11452/8707-905
Serial Number: 879CT-80-80
Amount Won: £2,750,000.00.

Attn Lucky Winner,

CATEGORY “A” WINNING NOTIFICATION.

We happily announce to you the result of the last final annual draw of our International Lottery Programs.

The online cyber lotto draws was conducted from an exclusive list of 25,000,000 e-mail addresses of individual and corporate bodies picked by an advanced automated random computer search from the internet. No tickets were sold.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

After this automated computer ballot, your e-mail address emerged as a winner in the category “A” with the following numbers attached Ref Number: CT/17AD/LG9009, Serial Number: 879CT-80-80, Batch Number: 839081500-CT/2008 and Ticket Number: CT/11452/8707-905.

You are therefore to receive a cash prize of £2,750,000.00. (Two Million Sevn Hundred and Fifty Thousand GBP) from the total payout.

CONGRATULATIONS!

Your prize award has been insured with your e-mail address and Ref Number: CT/17AD/LG9009 and will be transferred to you upon meeting our requirements, statutory obligations, verifications, validations and satisfactory report.

To file in for the processing of your prize winnings, you are advised to contact our Certified and Accredited claims agent for category “A” winners with the information below:
*************************************
Name: Mr. Allan Baas
E-Mail: infoallanbaas_awardclaim@yahoo.com.hk
Phone: +44 703 1966612, +44 703 184 3533,
Fax: +44 870 495 8318, +44 871 5033515
*************************************
You are advice to provide him with the following information:
Names:
Telephone/Fax number:
Nationality:
Age:

NOTE: All winnings must be claimed not later than 21 days, thereafter unclaimed funds would be included in the next stake. Remember to quote your reference information in all correspondence.

You are to keep all lotto information confidential, especially your reference and ticket numbers. (This is important as a case of double claims will not be entertained). Members of the affiliate agencies are automatically not allowed to participate in this program.
Furthermore, should there be any change of address do inform our agent as soon as possible.

Congratulations once more from our members of staff and thank you for being part of our promotional program.

Yours Faithfully,
Missy Ashton
Lottery Coordinator.

This combination of Yahoo and MSN is often used for fraudulent lottery e-mails. These fellows are obviously not informed.

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: YM Promo <thedesk_ofjamesmartins@info.lt>
Date: 2008/10/19
Subject: £5,000,000
To: undisclosed-recipients

Yahoo/Msn Lottery Incoperation,
2nd Floor,Har Road Sutton,
Greater London SM1 4te,
United Kingdom.

This is to inform you that you have won a prize money of FIVE MILLION POUNDS (£5,000,000)in the Yahoo/Msn Lottery promotion which is organized by YAHOO/MSN LOTTERY INC, MICROSOFT WINDOWS, collects all the email addresses of the people that are active online, among the millions that subscribed to Yahoo and Hotmail we only select five people as our winners through electronic balloting System without the winner applying, we congratulate you for being one of the people selected.

Yahoo/Msn Lottery Prize must be claimed no later than 20 days from date of Draw Notification after the Draw date in which Prize has won. Any prize not claimed within this period will be forfeited.

FOR CONFIRMATION PLEASE CALL (+448706260184)(Pin-7012)

However you will have to fill and submit this form to the events manager for verification and direction on how you can claim your winning fund.
1. Full name:
2. Contact Address:
3. Age:4.
Telephone Number:
5. Marital Status:
6. Sex:7.
Next Of Kin:
8. Occupation:
9. Country:
10.Nationality:
11.Your Winning Pin Number:

CONTACT EVENTS MANAGER)
Name: Mr. James Martin
E-mail: yahoomsnpro@info.lt
Phone Number:+44-703-594-3656

Thank you and Accept my hearty congratulations once again!

Yours faithfully,

Mrs.Owen Johnson
Yahoo/Msn Lottery Games/Lottery Coordinator.

Image via Wikipedia

I always wonder about these emails quoting my “contract/inheritance”. It looks as though they just want to keep their “bases covered”.

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: CUSTOMERS SERVICE OCEANIC BANK <charles1@yahoo.com>
Date: 2002/12/19
Subject: INTERNATIONAL CREDIT SETTLEMENT OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS
To:

INTERNATIONAL CREDIT SETTLEMENT
OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS
OCEANIC BANK INTERNATIONAL PLC.

ATTENTION: BENEFICIARY,

THIS IS TO OFFICIALLY INFORM YOU THAT WE HAVE VERIFIED YOUR CONTRACT/INHERITANCE FILE AND FOUND OUT THAT WHY YOU HAVE NOT RECEIVED YOUR PAYMENT IS BECAUSE YOU HAVE NOT FULFILLED THE OBLIGATIONS GIVEN TO YOU IN RESPECT OF YOUR CONTRACT / INHERITANCE PAYMENT.

SECONDLY WE HAVE BEEN INFORMED THAT YOU ARE STILL DEALING WITH THE NONE OFFICIALS IN THE BANK ALL YOUR ATTEMPT TO SECURE THE RELEASE OF THE FUND TO YOU.

WE WISH TO ADVICE YOU THAT SUCH AN ILLEGAL ACT LIKE THIS HAVE TO STOP IF YOU WISHE TO RECEIVE YOUR PAYMENT SINCE WE HAVE DECIEDED TO BRING A SOLUTION TO YOUR PROBLEM.

RIGHT NOW WE HAVE ARRANGED YOUR PAYMENT THROUGH OUR SWIFT CARD PAYMENTS ASIA PACIFIC, THAT IS THE LATEST INSTRUCTION BY THE NEW ELECTED PRESIDENT  FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF IGERIA.PRESIDENT UMARUYAR’ADUA ON HIS SPEECH WHEN CHIEF OLUSEGUN OBASANJO (GCFR)SWORE  HIM IN AS THE PRESIDENT  FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA.

THIS CARD CENTER WILL SEND YOU AN ATM CARD WHICH YOU WILL USE TO WITHDRAW YOUR MONEY IN ANY ATM MACHINE IN ANY PART OF THE WORLD, BUT THE MAXIMUM IS ONE THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED DOLLAR ($1,500) PER DAY, SO IF YOU LIKE TO RECEIVE YOUR FUND THIS WAY PLEASE LET US KNOW BY CONTACTING THE CARD PAYMENT CENT ER AND ALSO SEND THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION:

1.YOUR FULL NAME
2. PHONE AND FAX NUMBER,
3. ADDRESS WERE YOU WANT THEM TO SEND THE ATM CARD
4. YOUR AGE AND CURRENT OCCUPATION
5. A COPY OF YOUR IDENTITY ATTACHED TO E-MAIL

CONTACT PERSON:
MAZZI SMITH BROWN
INTEGRATED PAYMENT DEPARTMENT
TEL: +234-2179728
EMAIL: ATMCSS@LIVE.COM

THE ATM CARD PAYMENT CENTER HAS BEEN MANDATED TO ISSUE OUT$8,300,000.00 AS PART PAYMENT FOR THIS FISCAL YEAR 2008.

ALSO FOR YOUR INFORMATION YOU HAVE TO STOP ANY FURTHER COMMUNICATION ANY OTHER PERSON(S) OR OFFICE(s). THIS IS TO AVOID ANY HITCHES IN FINALISING YOUR PAYMENT.CALL ME ON MY DIRECT NUMBER +234-1-2179728 AS SOON AS YOU REPLY TO THIS IMPORTANT MESSAGE FOR FURTHER DIRECTION IN THIS REGARDS AND ALSO UPDATE ME ON ANY DEVELOPMENT FROM THE ABOVE MENTIONED OFFICE.

NOTE: THAT BECAUSE OF IMPOSTORS, WE HEREBY ISSUED YOU OUR CODE OF CONDUCT, WHICH IS (811) SO YOU HAVE TO INDICATE THIS CODE WHEN CONTACTING THE CARD CENT ER.

(MR. ERIC MOORE)
CHIEF AUDITOR TO THE PRESIDENT ON ATM CARD
PAYMENT FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA
ATM CARD PAYMENT FOR FUND BENEFICIARIES