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Having mentioned that some messages do target languages other than English, I have to adjust my statement on how the scams are run a little.
Looking at the title a lot of people would have no idea where or what “Côte d’Ivoire” actually is. This the French name for the Ivory Coast, which is in West Africa. Being it was a French colony, French is still used in daily life there. The map shows other areas where French is spoken in Africa.
This means that any French speaking person answering a scam message written in French, can be “served” by an African who speaks the language fluently. This is an alternative which would only apply to the French language and maybe Portuguese, as these two languages are spoken on the African continent.
———- Forwarded message ———-
From: <rana_adams@centrum.cz>
Date: 2008/5/3
Subject: MOI CHER.
To: unlisted-recipients
MOI CHER.
Permettez-moi de vous informer de mon désir de l’entrée dans le rapport d’affaires avec vous. je ne dois pas hésiter ŕ me confier ŕ vous pour ces affaires simples et sincčres.Je suis RANA ADAMS seul fill du défunt M. et MME ADAMS AMANI. que mon pčre était un négociant trčs riche de cacao ŕ abidjan, la capitale économique de la Côte d’Ivoire,mon pčre a été empoisonné ŕ la mort par ses associés d’affaires dans une de leurs promenades en voyage d’affaires. Ma mčre est morte quand j’étais tout bébé et depuis lors, mon pčre m’a pris si spécial.
Avant la mort de mon pčre, dans un hôpital privé ici ŕ abidjan,il m’a secrčtement appelé sur son chevet et m’a dit qu’il a la somme de Un millions mille Dollars Americain ( US$1,000,000) qu’il a deposer ŕ une banque ici ŕ abidjan a mon nom en tant son seul fill donc l’heritier en le déposant la banque. Il m’a également expliqué que c’était en raison de s richesse qu’il a été empoisonné par ses associés d’affaires. Que je devrais chercher un associé étranger dans n’importe quel pays de mon choix oů je transférerai cet argent pour le d’investissement tel que la gestion des biens immobiliers ou la gestion
d’hôtel.
je cherche honorablement votre aide des maničres suivantes (1) pour fournir un compte bancaire dans lequel on transférerait cet argent.(2)pourservir de gardien de ces fonds puisque j’ai seulement 24ans (3) pour faire l’arrangement pour que Je venions dans
votre pays pour continuer ma’éducation et pour obtenir notre papiers de résidentes dans votre pays.
D’ailleurs monsieur, je suis disposé ŕ vous offrir 10% de toute la somme en compensation pour votre effort/imput aprčs le transfert réussi de ces fonds en votre compte nommé outre-mer et 5% pour les autres depenses.En outre, vous indiquez vos options pour m’aider et je crois qu cette transaction serait conclue dans quatorze (14)
jours sivous acceptez m’aider.
Contacter moi ici (rana_adams2001@yahoo.fr)
j’attends urgemment votre reponse
Merci que Dieu vous beise
sincerement
Mademoiselle RANA Et ROMEO ADAMS
———- Forwarded message ———-
From: PUBLISHERS CLEARING HOUSE INTERNATIONAL PROMOTIONS
Date: Sat, May 3, 2008 at 5:51 PM
Subject: 500,000.00 (Five Hundred Thousand UNITED STATE DOLLARS)
To:
PUBLISHERS CLEARING HOUSE INTERNATIONAL PROMOTIONS PCH INTERNATIONAL
GIVEAWAY KAULAR LUMPAR MALAYSIA
Dear Publishers Clearing House Beneficiary,
We the Board of Directors for Publishers Clearing House(MY)
officialorganisers of the Publisher’s Clearing House Giveaway Programme
brings to your notice that you are the lucky winner and beneficiary of the
justconcluded giveaway prize of 500,000.00 (Five Hundred Thousand UNITED
STATE DOLLARS) with the Giveaway #- 13101, Batch # - PCH/008-13101, Ref. #
- 012057-SSL. To file for yourclaims ,
please follow below instructions:COMPLETE THE BELOW INFORMATION & FORWARD
TO PCH FUDICIARY AGENT*Required Details:
Complete Names,
Contact Address,
Present Country,
Telephone#, Mobile#,
Email,
Occupation,
Sex,
Marital Status.
*Amount Won:*
Giveaway Number:*
Batch Number:*
Reference Number:
FIDICIARY AGENT: Mr.GREGORY FRED.
EMAIL: gregoryfredcenter@live.com
Please note that the information required will not be furnished to
anythird party and will be used for the purpose at which it is
required.Beneficiaries are warned to keep their claims confidential until
theyhave completed the remittance process to avoid double claiming
andunwarranted abuse of this programme. Warmest
Congratulations,JOHN LAMBERT
With American troops being stationed in Iraq now in it’s 6th year, it would seem that stories like this would be long gone. It would be unlikely that such sums of loot would still be hidden away or undiscovered.
But then, the occupation has been the basis of many e-mails since the invasion.
This is no different. It is a classic 419 scam.
———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Capt. Cole Morgan <morganc_cole@yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, Apr 29, 2008 at 2:47 AM
Subject: GOD BLESS YOU
To:
Dear Friend,
Good day and compliments, I know this letter will definitely come to you as a huge surprise, but I implore you to take the time to go through it carefully as the decision you make will go off a long way to determine my future and continued existence. Please allow me to introduce myself.I am Capt. Cole Morgan, a US Marine Capt. serving in the 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment which Patrols the Anbar province, Iraq.
I am desperately in need of assistance and I have summoned up courage to contact you. I am presently in Iraq and I found your contact particulars in an address journal. I am seeking your assistance to evacuate the sum of $12,570,000 (Twelve million Five Hundred and Seventy Thousand USD) to the States or any safe country of your choice, as far as I can be assured that it will be safe in your care until I complete my service here. This is no stolen money and there are no dangers involved.
SOURCE OF MONEY:
Some money in various currencies was discovered and concealed in barrels with piles of weapons and ammunition at a location near one of Saddam Hussein’s old Presidential Palaces during a rescue operation and it was agreed by all party present that the money be shared amongst us.This might appear as an illegal thing to do but I tell you what? No compensation can make up for the risks we have taken with our lives in this hell hole. The above figure was given to me as my share and to conceal this kind of money became a problem for me, so with the help of a German contact working with the UN here(his office enjoys some immunity)I was able to get the package out to a safe location entirely out of trouble spot.He does not know the real contents of the package as he believes that it belongs to an American who died in an air raid, before giving up trusted me to hand over the package to his close relative.
I have now found a secured way of getting the package out of Iraq for you to pick up. I do not know for how long I will remain here as I have been lucky to have survived 2 suicide bomb attacks by Pure Divine intervention. This and other reasons put into consideration have prompted me to reach out for help. If it might be of interest to you then Endeavour to contact me and we would work out the necessary formalities but i pray that you are discreet about this mutually benefiting relationship.
Contact me via my private box: capt.morgancole@gmail.com . so that I can
furnish you with more details.
Respectfully,
Capt. Cole Morgan
United States Marine Corps. IRAQ.
To be honest if a real medical student sent me a message like this, I would suggest they consider another profession, like a road sweeper, for example.
———- Forwarded message ———-
From: JELO <RPORDON@infinito.it>
Date: Tue, Apr 29, 2008 at 8:08 AM
Subject: HAPPY TO MEET YOUR CONTACT ONLINE AND NEED YOUR HELP,please call me at 00229 97689290
To: 10@orange.fr
My name is Miss Quien Jelo from Sierra leone and medical.dear I,m interesting to be your friend after seeing your details here on the Internet as i want to relocate to your area for living and invest of my inheritance fund.
I know you will be surprise to receive this message from complete stranger from Sierra Leone you have never seen or meet or discuss with but it is a great pleasure writting and knowing you over here.
I know there is no violent and crisis in your country and that lead to my contact with you as i want to reside there.
I have contacted you before and no response or reply from you and wondering if you got early message i sent to you, please let me know if you receive this one again it by writting to my email below.
All i need from you is to help us get the total money transfered into your account for investment once we change the beneficiary in your name and favour as the person we authorise and empower for the clearance .
I am going to write to you and explain to you in details once i hear back from you.
I NEED YOUR DIRECT PHONE TO ENABLE ME CALL YOU AND DISCUSS WITH YOU AS THIS MESSAGE IS BEYOUND EXCHANGING ONLY EMAIL MESSAGE BECAUSE THE FUND IS THE ONLY HOPE OF MY LIFE AND LIVING AFTER THE DEATH OF MY PARENT IN WAR IN IVORY COAST.
Can we talk about it.you can send me through my e-mail
please call me for us to discuss in details 00229-97689290
MY DATA:
MY NAME: MISS QUIEN JELO
MY AGE: 25 YERARS
MY OCCUPATION: MEDICAL STUDENT BEFORE THE WAR STARTED AND IN LEVEL 2
MARITAL STATUS: SINGLE AND NO BABY YET
NATIONALITY: SIERRA LEONE
MY FATHERS DATA:
HIS NAME: MR. PATEL JELO
OCCUPATION: EXPORTER OF GOLD DURST AND HE DEPOSITED LARGE QUANTITY OF GOLD DURST FOR ME IN THE INSITUTION HERE WHICH WORTH AND WILL DISCUSS ON THAT ONCE OUR FUND IS CLEARED AND TRANSFER INTO YOUR ACCOUNT FOR INVESTMENT AS ARRANGED.
AGE BEFORE HIS DEATH : 52
NATIONALITY: SIERRA LEONE |
and can i have your private email address to enable me send my photos and datas id and the deposit document for your perusal and understanding and please make sure you keep this to yourself as this money is the only hope of my life and living and am trusting and confiding in you after seeing your details on the Internet.
You can see it’s about the shortest scam e-mail which has ever arrived here. I don’t think you can make them shorter. The question is, would anyone actually believe this came from Microsoft?
———- Forwarded message ———-
From: MICROSOFT AWARDS
Date: Thu, Apr 24, 2008 at 8:36 AM
Subject: WINNER!!!
To:
Your email address was drawn Winning prize: £1,000,000.00. To file for your claim kindly Contact your claims agent Mr Ray Howard with your: Full names, Age, Phone #, Country, Occupation, Sex, Home address, through the email address below.
Email: officemail_rayhoward@yahoo.co.uk
For most people who don’t speak French, this e-mail would probably be deleted without much thought.
My French is not all that good, but I did notice the PDF file which was attached to it.
Lo and behold! The creative artists who did this have come up with an unusual twist to the Lottery Scam type of message!
They made a flashy (and trashy) PDF file using a photo of Marc Andressen to promote “his” special lottery.
Occasionally, the boys from Africa do actually think a little bit before they send out there scam e-mails.
———- Forwarded message ———- From: mega_million mega_million <mega_million_00@latinmail.com>
Date: Tue, Apr 22, 2008 at 11:40 AM
Subject: FELCITATION !!!!!! FELCITATION !!!!!!
To: “mega_million_00 @ latinmail. com” <mega_million_00@latinmail.com>
Bonjour Mme / Mr
Nous sommes heureux de vous informer du résultat des programmes internationaux de gagnants de loterie tenus il y a deux jours de cela dans notre fondation dont le siège ce trouve à LONDRES pour ce tirage!
veuillez trouver en fichier joint votre notification de gain.
Cordialement.
Yes, this is an inheritance scam story. Mark keeps it anonymous, that way he doesn’t have to do much research on a suitable deceased millionaire.
———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Mark Akume
Date: 2008/4/22
Subject: Strictly for you only
To:
Dear Sir,
In this world of not knowing whom to trust i have decided to intimate you with a personal guided financial finding in my bank branch (National Investment Bank of Ghana) in which i am the acting managing director. I have been acting as the manager pending when the manager who is on course will resume for six months now and in my capacity i have discovered this account which have been left untouched for two and half years. On careful investigation i discovered that the owner of this account originally maintained two accounts with the bank. One of the accounts is savings account while the other is domiciled dollar account. The savings account was closed exactly one year eight months ago by a lady who claimed to be a fiancйe and business partner of the account owner.
On my curiosity i discovered that the owner of the accounts who was an oil merchant from your country died of heart failure two years ago and since then nobody have made any claim on the current account and no transaction have been carried out in the account throughout the two years. On checking the opening files of the account i also discovered that the owner has no next of kin and his last known address is Golden Tulip Hotel where he stays anytime he is in the country.
I have made all required bank inquiries which are normally made to trace owners of account which are left untouched for over two years and i discovered that nobody outside the bank have knowledge of this account. I have thought over this account for six months now and since it is left untouched with no one having knowledge of the account i have decided to have the money in the account removed to a safer place. The amount in the account is $2.6m with accumulated interest sum of $260,000.00(Two Hundred & Sixty Thousand Dollars)It is for this reason that i am contacting you so that i will use you to remove the money and close the account. I decided to contact you, a foreigner because of protection of my status and making sure i am not short changed which will happen if i deal with someone from my country. It is also much easier for the money to be claimed and transferred outside the country. It is for the reason of closing the account that i am contacting you.
I want you to stand as the beneficiary of the account by filing for next of kin of the account so that i will officially approve your request and have the money paid in your name. We shall share the money 80% for me and 20% for you. All i need from you is your co-operation and secrecy during and after the claim.
Get back to me with your full names, contact address, your age and marital status and phone number(s) for communication and i will employ the service of an attorney who shall process the paper work. As soon as I receive your response I shall open up on all details
Thank you and awaits your response ASAP.
Mark Akume
Most Africans succumb to corruption in their every day lives. They either suffer at the hands of people who relieve them of their money or they are the ones who want the cash.
Corruption does start at the bottom. When a person has an advantage, for example he gets a job where he or she has a certain level of decision making or they provide a service. That is the basis for them to start using this to extort money from fellow countrymen who require a positive decision or service.
This could be anything from a civil servant, for example, who’s job entails issuing any sort of permit or certificate. If they are not paid a fee, the person requiring the permit does not get it. Period.
I know of other cases where Europeans working in Africa have been accosted by local office workers wanting money. If you give them any money, you can be sure they will be back soon for more.
Of course, the higher one gets the more lucrative the corruption opportunities become. Just reading the African press often gives insight as to what so called politicians and high ranking civil servants are doing in countries like Nigeria.
The journalist Sorious Samura shows exactly how corruption forces poverty on Africans in his documentary called “Living with Corruption“. Posing as a local, he shows how corruption rules every part of peoples daily lives. Regardless of what you need or want to do, you have to pay someone for the privilege to get or do what you want.
It’s this deeply ingrained corruption in African society which is the source of 419 and other types of fraud perpetrated by Africans.
In comparison the US, Europe and Asia are seen as being rich. On top of this the 419 scam as such, preys upon the gullibility of us “Westerners”, using greed or the wish of a better financial situation to make normal people into victims.
In my opinion, 419 fraud is not going to disappear any time soon. Corruption is so deeply ingrained in African society, that stopping it will be impossible.
If you take a look at Wikipedia you will find an entry about Mr. Brumley. He was quoted to be a philanthropist and he died with several family members in a plane crash in 2003.
Now obviously this background is ideal for 419 scam crooks to misuse this information to put a bogus story about “lost” money in deepest Africa. Seeing that e-mails quoting money in Ouagadougou come in almost every day here, it does seem a favourite location for stories like this.
———- Forwarded message ———-
From: HASSAN BILLY <mr_hbilly15@mixmail.com>
Date: Sun, Apr 20, 2008 at 1:24 AM
Subject: Mr.Hassan Billy
To: “mr_hbilly15@mixmail.com” <mr_hbilly15@mixmail.com>
Mr.Hassan Billy
01 Avanue BP Pardou,
Ouagadougou Burkina Faso.
GREETINGS, PLEASE I WILL LIKE YOU TO CONTACT ME THROUGH MY
PRIVATE EMAIL hbilly01@yahoo.fr
Complement of the day to you and your beloved family. Do not be astonished for receiving this mail. Please, I seek your permission and would want to get myself introduce to you. I am Mr.Hassan Billy. I work with BANK INTERNATIONAL OF BURKINA (BIB). I need your co-operation in receiving USD9.5M that has been in a dormant account with my bank for over 6years which belongs to one of our foreign customer who died along with his entire family in a plane crash that happened in Kenya, East Africa. I will provide you with detailed informations on the modalities of this operation once I have your interest but I must say that trust flourishes business. Therefore let your conscience towards this proposal be nurtured with sincerity and I will not fail to bring to your notice that, this transaction is hitch-free risk and you should keep this transaction (TOP SECRET).
I agree that 35% of this money will be for you as a foreign partner, in respect to the provision of a foreign account, and 65% would be for me, thereafter I will visit your country for disbursement according to the percentage indicated. Remember, you must apply first to the bank as relation or next of kin of the deceased, indicating your 1) Bank name, 2) Your bank account number, 3) Your private telephone and fax number for easy and effective communication and my career as a banker, I will bring you up to date with all the informations as soon as I hear from you. If I don ‘t hear from you within a certain period I will assume you are not interested.
Please, I want you to visit the website below for more informations about the plane crash and the Deceased DR.GEORGE BRUMLEY AND HIS FAMILY.
Meanwhile, If you are willing, capable and honest for this transaction, Kindly indicate your interest by sending a response to my e-mail address at: hbilly01@yahoo.fr
It’s hard to believe the story that this shocking documentary describes. Sorious Samura, a prize winning journalist, shows us how millions of Africans are living in poverty and have no way to break out of their misery.
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