Crime Online

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I often wonder at these plane crash stories. If you have been here often you know that the Andreas Schranner story has been regularly posted here. It goes something like this “a multimillionaire died in a plane crash and left a pile of money in an African bank”. The writer goes on to say “we now need some one to pose as the next of kin to claim this lost money”. The reason for this being there are no living inheritors and we would like the money for ourselves. huh!

So where does this go from here?

Anyone who falls for this story contacts the crooks and immediately gets put through the mill. Form one e-mail to another he gets more and more involved, sending documents and setting himself up as the legal next of kin. Or so he thinks …

In reality, he is just corresponding with the crooks in the guise of lawyers, bankers and notaries.

Once he has gotten in this deep, they push him to pay a fee of say, 800 Dollars or better Euros. It could be for taxes, lawyers or bank costs, whatever. Of course, it is an imaginary fee and it doesn’t really matter for what the crooks claim the payment to be for.
They put the pressure on the “victim” to pay, saying the deal cannot go through without it. Naturally the crooks can’t don’t have the money to pay the fee. They are only poor Africans.

Needless to say the money should be sent through Western Union and once this is paid, they push the poor victim for more.

They push him for what they can get. Which means that victims which are gullible enough, pay anything up to 20,000 Dollars and more.

This often means financial ruin for the victims. For the African crooks, it’s a way of life.

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Evans Efedua <evans_info@yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, Apr 18, 2008 at 9:48 PM
Subject: Proposition
To:

Reply-To: evans_efedua2007@yahoo.com.hk

MIME-Version: 1.0

Content-Type: text/plain

Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

Message-Id: <20080418194729.AA873AFDF3E@m162.magenta.fastwebserver.de>
Date: Fri, 18 Apr 2008 19:40:12 +0200 (CEST)

From: Mr. Evans Efedua
Manager Credit and Foreign Bills
Regent Bank Plc
Victoria Island.
Email: evans_efedua2007@yahoo.com.hk
 
Dear Friend,

My name is Mr. Evans Efedua, I am  the Manager, Credit and Foreign bills of  Regent Bank Plc. I am contacting you of a business transfer, of a huge sum of US$15.5M  (Fifteen Million Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars)  from a deceased account. Though I know that a transaction of this magnitude will make any one apprehensive and worried, but I am assuring you that everything has been taken care off, and all will be well at the end of the day. I decided to contact you to the urgency of this transaction.

PROPOSITION:

I am the account officer of a foreigner named  Late Mr. Morris Thompson who died in an air crash along with his wife  and only daughter on the January 31 in an Alaska airline Flight 261 with other passengers on board. You can confirm this from the website below  which was published by www.cnn.com/2000/US/02/01/alaska  airlines.list

Since his death, none of his next-of-kin are alive to make claims for this money as his heir, because they all died in the same accident himself  and his wife (May their soul rest in peace). We cannot release the fund from his account unless someone applies for claim as the next-of-kin to the deceased as indicated in our banking guidelines. Upon this discovery.  I now seek your permission to have you stand as a next of kin to the deceased, as all documentations will be carefully worked out  by me for the funds  to be released in your favor as the beneficiary’s next  of kin. Because after four years the money will be called back to the bank  treasury as unclaimed bills and the money shared amongst the directors of  the bank.  So it is on this note I decided to seek for whom his name shall  be used as the next of kin/beneficiary to this funds rather than allow  the bank directors to share this money among themselves at the end of the year. It may interest you to know that we have secured from the probate an order  of mandamus to locate any of the deceased beneficiaries. Please acknowledge receipt of this message in acceptance of our mutual business endeavor by furnishing me with the following information if you are interested.  All I need from you is as follows:

1.   Your confirmation of your ability to handle this Business for me.
2.   Your word that you will keep this business as Confidential as possible at all times until we conclude this business.
3.   Your telephone and Fax numbers for communication.
4.   Age and Occupation.

I shall be compensating you with 30% (thirty percent)  on final conclusion of  this project for your assistance, while we will retain 65% (sixty-five percent) and 5% (five percent) goes for expenses because I intend to retire after the conclusion of this  business. If this business is acceptable by you.  Do not take undue advantage of the trust I have bestowed in you.

Your faithfully,
Mr. Evans Efedua
Manager Credit and Foreign Bills
Regent Bank Plc

Tags: 419Scam, Inheritance Scam, Evans Efedua

Yesterday, I received the following e-mail:


———- Forwarded message ———-
From: James Milner <jamesmilner_uk1@yahoo.com>
Date: Sun, Mar 30, 2008 at 10:23 AM
Subject: Job Opportunity ………….. This is NO joke !
To:

A new job opening, If you are interested, kindly reply immediately. This space is opened till the 9th of April, 2008

NB: REPLY DIRECTLY TO ME HERE: - JAMESMILNER_UK@HOTMAIL.COM

Even though I have a lot of experience with job offers which come in to my e-mail account I was intrigued by this one. Obviously anyone looking for extra cash would be tempted to take a closer look at what is being offered. I didn’t want to let this go without knowing what is behind it, so I sent of a reply using my Crime-Online.info e-mail address.

I must admit I was not disappointed. Behind this e-mail is a typical Transfer Agent Scam. You will soon see what I mean because this morning I got the following answer:


———- Forwarded message ———-
From: James Milner &lt;jamesmilner_uk@hotmail.com&gt;
Date: Sun, Mar 30, 2008 at 11:50 PM
Subject: Job Details !
To:

Thanks so much for your prompt response.We make direct contact for sales of products. Once orders are received and sorted we deliver the product to customers (usually through FEDEX or DHL). After this has been done the customer has to pay for the products. About 90 percent of our customers prefer to pay through US Certified Checks and Money orders based on the amount involved and it takes 14 days or more to clear outside USA .We have decided to open this new job position for solving this problem.

Your tasks or duties are:

1. Receive payment from Customers
2. Cash Payment at your Bank
3. Deduct 10% which will be your percentage/pay on Payment processed
4. Forward balance after deduction of percentage/pay to any of the offices you will be contacted to send payment to.(Payment is to be forwarded by Money Gram money transfer services OR Western Union Money Transfer).

This will give us a possibility to get customer’s payment almost immediately. For example,you’ve got 3000.00USD as payment for services from a customer, you take your income: 300.00 USDi.e 10%.Send to us: 2700.00 USD.First month,you will have 15-20 transactions on 3000.00-4000.00 USD so you may calculate your income.For example 18 transactions on 3500.00 USD gives you 4400.00 USD Plus your basic monthly salary is 2000.00 USD Total: 6400.00 USD per month. After establishing a close co-operation with us,you we will be able to operate with larger orders and you will be able to earn more.

Our payments will be issued out in your name and you can have them cashed in your bank. This job takes only 3-7 hours per week. You will have a lot of free time doing another job, you will get good income and a regular job.But this job is very
challenging and you should understand it. We are looking only for the worker who satisfies our requirements and will be of an earnest assistant. We are glad to offer this job position to you.

Kindly email and answer the question below so we can get started.

** What is ur full name that will be on the payment.
** What is ur phone number? cell and home phone.
** What is ur full address where the check will be sent to.
** Do you have a bank account to cash Money Orders or Cashiers check?

I await your response.

Thank you.
James Milner
Director/CEO,
Arts and Crafts Inc.

It sounds easy doesn’t it?

The problem is, anyone taking up this “job offer” is an essential part of money laundering which the crooks need to get their hands on clean cash. Within a short time the “customers” who have sent checks or money orders will complain because they have not received the ordered goods. Who do they go to with their complaints? The Agent who received the check or money order, of course.

Usually, the agent tries to clear up any misunderstandings and tries to get clarification from Mr. Milner. He, of course, says the orders have been sent out. Which is not true because there are no products!

Eventually the customers will report the matter to the police. The Mr. Milners behind this scam are safe and sound as they hide behind false names and freemail accounts. They are usually located in other countries and they have no risk but get maximum profit at the expense of others.

It’s the local “Transfer Agent” who will be held liable by the law because he is the person who cashed in the checks. He is also the one who is immediately identifiable.

The “Agent” will receive criminal charges for fraud and money laundering and anything else the law can come up with.

There have been enough people who have been stung by this kind of scam and end up with a criminal record.

So my advice to you is to trash any message you may receive offering an easy job.

You will be better off if you do!

Crime Online Western Union E-Mail

If you click on the above Image you will see a full sized copy of the original e-mail. Unfortunately, it all looks real, including URL’s and links.

Here’s the original Text:

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Western Union Inc.
Date: 08.12.2007 05:16
Subject: Update Your Profile Information
To:

Dear Western Union Clients :

We are sorry for invoice. we had some errors in our data , Please update your profile .

You can access your profile at
https://westernunion.com/asp/regLogin.asp/.

For help please contact Western Union Customer Service immediately by email a customerservice@westernunion.com or call us at 1-877-989-3268 .

Thank you for using westernunion.com!

But, when you click on the link you get taken to a browser page with this URL:

Crime Online Western Union URL

Doesn’t look like an original Western Union URL, does it?

So what do they want?

Take a look at the page and you will instantly recognise what they are after:

Crime Online Western Union Credit Card Form

Be assured this is not from the Robert Kaufman company.

The crooks have have been very diligent with this one. The Robert Kaufmann company does exist and you will see that the crooks have used an official e-mail address in the sender ID.

Contrary to what these people say about the Robert Kaufman being a Japanese company, this is not true as the real Robert Kaufman is a US company.

It is a very risky job, if you decide to do it. You will be charged with money laundering as soon as the banks see what you are up to. They have to report all suspicious transactions to the FBI or authorities in other countries.

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: ROBERT KAUFMAN <onlinejobs@robertkaufmanfabrics.com>
Date: 22.11.2007 17:25
Subject: LEGITIMATE JOB OFFER**PART TIME**
To: undisclosed-recipients

Robert Kaufman Fabrics is a Japanese Cotton Quilting Fabrics and a reputable company in Japan looking for representatives in AMERICA and all over EUROPE . We Robert Kaufman Fabrics are into textiles, fabrics manufacturing and exportation. We pay well and you can earn up to $350 or more twice a week. The required job is easy and little to do online and little time is needed,and much money involved when finished (1-2hrs a week). Contact us for more details. limited offer while good money lasts,you have nothing to loose.

reply back to : robertkaufmanfabrics@yahoo.com

Regards
MD/CEO
Robert Kaufman
Robert Kaufman Fabrics

DETAILS

—————–
Robert Kaufman Fabrics needs someone to work for the company as a Representative/Manager in other countries. This is in view of our not having an office presently in the Europe and America. You dont need to have an Office and this certainly won’t disturb you from other work(s) you have going at the moment, Our integrated FABRIC manufacturing operations use state-of-the-art textile equipment from the world leading suppliers. Order processing, production monitoring and process flow are seamlessly integrated through a company-wide computer network .
* The average monthly income is  about 4000.00 Euro.
* No form of investments from you.
* This job takes only 1-2 hours per day This we need to get payments for our products as soon as it possible because customers can just “forget” to pay. Unfortunately we are unable to open bank accounts in  the United US without first registering the company name.

Presently with the amount of Orders we have, we cannot put the on hold. For fear of loosing the customers outrightly. Secondly we cannot cash these payments from the US soon enough as international Cheques take about 14 working days for cash to be made available. We lose about 75,000 Euro of net income each month because we have money transfer delays.
YOUR TASK is to coordinate payments from customers and help us with the payment process. You are not invloved in any sales. Our SALES manager sells products. Once he makes a sale we deliver the product to a customer (usually through USPS OR FEDEX).The customer receives and checks the products. After this has been done the customer has to pay for the products. About 90 percent of our customers prefer to pay through Certified Cheques and Money orders based on the amount involved. We have decided to open this new job position for solving this problem and to create job for those seeking and it’s convinient.

JOB DESCRIPTION
——————————————————
1. Recieve payment from Customers
2. Cash Payments at your Bank
3. Deduct 10% which will be your percentage/pay on Payment process
4. Forward balance after deduction of percentage/pay to any of the offices you will be contacted to send payment to. (Payment is to forwarded either by Money Gramme or Western Union Money Transfer. Local Money transfers takes barely hours, so it will give us a possibility to get customer payment almost immediately. For example you ve got 3000.00Euro You take your income : 300.00 Euro Send to us: 2700.00 Euro - cost of sending, First month you will  have 15-20 transactions on 3000.00-4000.00 Euro So you may calculate your income. For example 18 transactions on 3500.00 Euro gives you 4410.00 Euro…..to signify your interest in this job,send us the following details; for more transactions made the higher your percentage……

FULL NAME ;
ADDRESS ;
STATE ;
CITY ;
ZIPCODE ;
PHONE NUMBER ;
AGE ;
OCCUPATION ;
AS ALL THIS WILL BE REQUIRED IN YOUR RECIEVING PAYMENTS……..THANKS

you can login into our website :
http://www.robertkaufman.com/fabrics/quilt_gate_fabric/

reply back to robertkaufmanfabrics@yahoo.com

Regards
MD/CEO
Robert Kaufman
Robert Kaufman Fabrics

This is the same text that Billy Wood sent some days ago. Even the “three kids, two dogs and wife” are the same!

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: EMPLOYMENT OFFER
Date: Oct 24, 2007 8:09 PM
Subject: EMPLOYMENT! EMPLOYMENT!! EMPLOYMENT!!!..
To: “employment_offer@orangemail.es”

SIMON SMITH ART AND CRAFT WORKS.

53 Langhorne Road, Leytonstone, E11 4HL, United Kingdom.

Mobile: 447024068845 or 447031908923

My name is Mr. Simon Smith, I am an Artist and a consultant. I live in UK, with my three kids and two of my dogs and my wife. It is definitely a full house and I have been doing Artworks ever since I was young. That made me heard about 18 years experience in the profession. I have a major in Art in high school and took a few College Art Courses. Most of my works are done in either pencil or airbrush mixed with color pencils, which I have recently added to make my work more presentable to world. I design and create artwork on the computer too. I have been selling my artworks for the past 4 years and have had my work featured on trading cards, prints, dallies, magazines and others. I have sold my artworks in galleries and to private collectors from all over the world. I am always facing serious difficulties when it comes to selling my art works to Americans and British’s and people in some other countries of the world, they are always offering to pay with a US MONEY ORDER or CHEQUE and Other Forms of Negotiable Instruments, which is difficult to be cashed here in UK.

I am looking for a representative in the STATE or UK and other countries of the World who will be working for me as a per time worker and I will be willing to pay the person 15% for every transaction, which wouldn’t affect your present state of work. I mean someone who would help me receive payments from my customers. I need a person who is responsible, reliable and trustworthy. Because the cost of coming to the state and getting payments is very expensive for me and I am working on setting up a branch in some countries soon, so for now I need a representative in some countries who will be handling the payment aspect for me This payments will becoming from my clients and your name and address will be effected on any of the negotiable instruments my clients are paying you with. So all you need to do is to cash the PAYMENTS, deduct the said percentage and send the balance of the money back to us through Western Union Money Transfer or Money Gram to any place I will have to instruct you. But the problem I have is Trust and Honesty, but I have my way of getting anyone that gets away with our money, I will contact the FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATIONS (FBI) branch in Washington to get that person tracked down before the next 48hours. These payments from my clients will be sent to you through FEDEX or UPS. If you are interested, please get back to me as soon as possible with the information’s below

FULL NAME:
ADDRESS:
PHONE NUMBER:
COUNTRY:

CONTACT ME AT simon_smith21221@yahoo.com

Regards,
Mr. Simon Smith.