Scams to watch out for

Dear Friend,

How are you today? Hope all is well with you and your family? I hope this
mail meets you in a perfect condition. I am using this opportunity to thank you for
your great effort to our unfinished transfer of fund into your account due to one
reason or the other best known.But I want to inform you that I have successfully
transferred the fund out of my bank to someone else account who was capable of assisting
me in this great Venture.

Due to your effort, sincerity, courage and trustworthiness you showed at the course
of the transaction, I want to compensate you and show my
gratitude to you with the sum of $1,000,000.000. I have authorized my son
mr azeez kahn to assist you where I deposited the money to help you for
the processing of transfer the fund into your bank account.my son is in
excution to one africa country.I will advice you to contact him for more details
on the processing of your claims.

The name and contact address is as follows.
Name: Mr Azeez Kahn
Email: azeezkahn1@gmail.com , azeezkahn@sify.com
Cell Phone: +91-302 989 703423

Contact my son Mr azeez. At the moment, I am very busy here because of
the investment projects which I and my new partner are having at hand In
London. Finally remember that I have forwarded instruction immediately
you contact him. Please I will like you to accept this token with good
faith as this is from the bottom of my heart.
Thanks and God bless you and your family. Hope to hear from you soon.

Best regards
MR QUDRAT KAHN.
qudrat20082008@sify.com

http://thescambaiter.com/forum/

love it!

Just a quick post to mention the most insidious of scams that I've been dealing with, the love or romance scam.

There will always be scams that appeal to greedy, financially desperate and get something for nothing people. Snooks has been posting mostly these scams. But the ones I see do the most damage are the love scams. These most often prey on desperate and lonely people. Currently I give advice and support to victims, on another web forum specifically for romance scams. Romancescam.com is one of the most comprehensive and longest running sites for reporting these scams.

First and foremost, the romance scammer generally has no intention of ever meeting their lover. They romance several victims at one time and they always have an agenda that will benefit them. Most just want money, but many ask for cell phones and computers, clothing and jewelry. Occasionally one will be intent on immigration to the victim's country. They even sometimes convince themselves that they love their victim(s) and that they're providing emotional gain for their victim. They use this to justify their actions.

I have consoled and counseled many victims over the past two years I've been doing this. Mostly women, but a few men, have become financially bankrupt due to these scammers, but worse have been emotionally scarred and literally destroyed. Some have attempted suicide. Many have become depressed and needed professional help. Most have lost the trust of family and friendships and destroyed their financial standing and credit. Many women I know personally, have lost their entire retirement savings. Romance scams are an ongoing trajedy that I wish with all my heart, I could put an end to, but I know that as long as there is evil in the world, they will go on. All we can do is fight.

Maybe you're reading this and thinking it doesn't apply to you. You're happily married. But if you have loved ones or friends who are online and looking for a relationship, please warn them. Here are things to look out for:

The lover is temporarily working in another country.
The lover rushes the victim into a committed relationship; falls in love easily.
The lover is overly complimentary and praising and uses many terms of endearment from the very beginning.
Their command of the victim's language is limited. They spell poorly and use odd phrases.
They have foreign accents that don't match their location.
Their IP address resolves to a location other than where they claim to be.
They usually claim to have sole custoday of small children (the males).
Their pictures are unbelievably attractive.
Their phone number is international and usually doesn't have voice mail.
They quickly disappear off the dating web site they found you on (they open accounts with stolen credit cards and the hosts quickly shut them down).
They have no reservations what-so-ever about asking their victim for gifts or financial assistance. They're not even embarrassed to ask.
They sometimes send small token gifts like flowers or teddy bears to their victims (to prove their address is valid). Again these are charged with stolen credit cards.
Google searches either turn up no information on them at all or send you to a scam site where one of their victims has already posted them up.
They send poetry or well written emails that don't match their usual grammar and language abilities.
A Google search of the first line of their poetry of well written letter will turn up the site the text was stolen from.
Soemtimes they slip and use the wrong name (this is why they almost always use honey or babe).
They refuse to appear on cam.
Their IP address has been reported for scamming and spamming.

Ways to prove your lover is real:

Always insist on cam chats. Request they hold up a sign with your name on it.
Probe them for questions that only a true resident of where they claim to be, would know the answer to. If it's something found on a google search, change the question to something you know is incorrect to throw them off. For example, one claims to be from San Francisco. Ask if they're willing to meet you at he File Soup Towers on the corner of Lombard in the Ronald Reagan Plaza.
NEVER * NEVER * NEVER send money to someone you don't know face to face.

When you find someone engaged in romance scamming, post up their email address, IP address, pricture, user name and a copy of their introduction letter, on romancescam.com. Help potential victims find them before it's too late. Thanks!

Oh - and if you really want to jerk these guys around, they're fun to bait. Currently I have one traveling all over Africa trying to find me, my money and the laptop and rolex watch I'm supposed to be bringing him as our engagement present.

From: Rafael Jones <cxtdyr@boscaini.com.au>
To: me
Subject: I very much would like to have our first acquaintance
Date: Tue, 7 Apr 2009 21:14:12 +0200


Hello My Friend! I hope you can this message without effort - and I will hope very much that I have executed all truly and you can read my message which I direct to you for the purpose of our personal acquaintance, My name is Katya i'am 28 years old and now I very much would like to get acquainted with the Worthy and decent man for creation of a good fellowship, your personal email I have received by means from one of marriage agensy of my city and now I can hope only that it will be interesting to you and i hope that we can continue our dialogue and in this case I with impatience will look forward to hearing from you...

Please reply only to my personal e-mail: drochakatysha@yahoo.com

Yours faithfully - your New Friend... Katya.

I'm not in any marriage "agensy" and I doubt the woman in the attached picture is either lol:  Katyana.jpg ( 24.78K ) Number of downloads: 1

I AM a Worthy and decent man for creation of a good fellowship though!

 post_225_1239295878.jpg ( 27.46K ) Number of downloads: 1

no perdy girls ever write to me.....

I'm not sure what's happening, but last week 2 "women" added me as contact in msn. Their user id pics, unlike their email addresses, are a dead give-away that it's bait of some sort (none of the pictures show a face and not all of them are the same body / pair of barely covered breasts).

Either someone who thinks I'm daft and clueless is trying to prank me or this is some type of scam I haven't been faced with yet.

when they speak to you they ask you to go for a "free" naughty webchat..... they have "some way" of fixing payments so you don't have to pay, all you need are your credit card details to confirm your age... You wouldn't want these poor little mites getting into trouble now would you.....

No perdy girls are writing Beibel either. It's a fat, balding, hairy assed Russian, probably named Boris (they're called Boris and Natasha scams) who's using a mass mailer program called 'The Bat' (check the headers) to spam out their introduction letters and pictures. It's all automated. You can reply with whatever you want and you'll get a canned response. Boris doesn't even check his mail for the first 5 or 6 exchanges. Then he'll give his victim a couple loving words of enticement and put the bite on for money.

Also, beibs, I don't think the Russians do chats. So your email addy has been picked up by scammers somehow, they're probably Nigerian men pretending to be women.

plb your so sexist... Boris lubs me... he just didnt want to tell me isreal name because he has a dog named Frank....

If only........

Some tips for recogonising the type of wording that may identify a scam..

Over the years, scam language seems to have become something of an art form in itself -- sometimes hilarious and sometimes deadly serious.

For a start, there's a whole mini-dictionary of new words or new definitions of old words. Think of phishing, vishing, pharming, flim-flams and 419s. Then there's whaling, skimming, baiting-and-switching, and key logging. Or how about boiler rooms, pretexting, splogs (fake blog sites), scareware and malware?

There's certainly enough for a good Trivial Pursuit category!

Our particular favorite -- though it's no laughing matter -- is the recently coined abbreviation RUMBLE (Recruitment of Unwitting Money-launderers by Bogus Letters of Employment), which is part of the overpayment scam.

But the use of language -- or, more precisely, its misuse -- can also be a dead giveaway for a scam. Take this gem, for example:

--- Begin scam email 1 ---

Good news dear, It is my pleasure to inform you that the latest development regarding the news from the New president of the United State of America to release all your fund through bank of america without any further delay.

--- End scam email 1 ---

The bad grammar, incorrect capitalization, curious wording and the references to the singular United State, are exactly as written. As the blogger who received it said: "This one is so bad, it's good."

(Incidentally, all the spelling and grammar errors in the examples in this article are exactly as in the originals - they're not ours!)

The non-use of an individual's name in this example also signals a scam. A common variation starts with something like "Dear account-holder." They don't know who you are!

Surely, you would think, nobody would fall for this type of message. But they do. Scammers don't seem to worry about their poor use of English. Sometimes, they even apologize for it, offering it as evidence that they are just poor, humble citizens in desperate need of help.

They also know that if the bait is strong enough, people's curiosity will be piqued to the point where they overlook the poor wording of a message. Like this email urging the reader to click on an attachment:

--- Begin scam email 2 ---

Here is the archive with those information, you asked me. And don't forget, it is strongly confidential!!! Seya, man. P.S. Don't forget my fee

--- End scam email 2 ---

Hmm. What could be in that "confidential" attachment? This word is commonly used to lure people to open attachments or activate links. Don't click it, man!

Sometimes, single misspellings provide the clue that all is not right with the message you receive, especially if it's supposed to come from a business person who you would expect to be able to spell and string a decent sentence together.

For instance a recent RUMBLE letter offering victims a bogus job said salary would be paid "twise" a month, a 419-er referred to the "issueing" bank, while a spoof eBay phishing message said the firm strongly "advice" you to change your password.

Another phishing message to subscribers of the Internet phone service Vonage warned that their account would expire in "Octomber." That should have been enough to put potential victims off from clicking the link which went to a bogus Vonage sign-on page.

It's not just words that the scammers get wrong either. Another eBay phishing message, reported recently by the magazine New Scientist, told recipients that "eBay have over 100000000 people worldwide dedicated to keeping PayPal accounts safe." That would work out at about one in 70 of the entire world population working for eBay!

Of course, not every decent person is blessed with math skills or knowledge of perfect grammar and spelling, so it's quite possible that spelling mistakes may be missed. But there are other tell-tale types of wording that suggest a message or website could be a scam. Here are some more signs:

Use of old-fashioned, stilted or flowery language, like this lotto-winner spoof: "We are assigned to render advice and assistance in line with your winning claim process."

Use of foreign languages and/or Russian/Cyrillic characters, or purposely jumbled words that aim to bypass spam filters. If you can't read it, ditch it.

Auction listings or messages that use words with all capital letters. Even in normal usage, all-capitals is considered rude and bad form. But in auctions, as eBay themselves admit: "If an auction is posted in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS....the chances of a buyer having a problem with the purchase are increased by a factor of TEN!"

Incomplete or rambling sentences that just don't make sense. Believe it or not, the following is all one sentence:

--- Begin scam email 3 ---

Due to our credit card processor is down we can not proceed on charging of your credit card so the company board advices that you look around for a western union around you and make the fund deposit to the company accountant name via western union so that your shipment can be activated for delivery soonest so we can get back to you with your full shipment tracking details so you can track your order online via fedex.

--- End scam email 3 ---

Whew!

Use of religious terms that suggest the scammer is really pious and honest. Though certainly not all are scams, bogus messages using this technique often end with "God bless."

A recent phony begging letter began "MY Beloved One in Christ." It continued: "It is rather unfortunate that I am writing this mail to you in deep tears while lying on a hospital bed due to chronic cancer of thelungs waiting for the time to pass unto eternal glory."

"Rather unfortunate" seems rather an understatement...

Some of these scam language points are neatly rolled up in this classic Nigerian scam message received by a British target:

--- Begin scam email 4 ---

All whom I needed is a sincere, honest, trustworthy and God-fearing individuals whom my mind will absolve to help me in this deal. If you have feelings about my situation, don't hesitate to stand for me.

--- End scam email 4 ---

Huh?

There are also a number of perfectly legitimate words that form part of the scam language lexicon, that should, at the very least, encourage caution. Words like "processing fee" and references to "tax" or "customs" payments often crop up in lottery and Nigerian/advance fee scams.

Be on the lookout too for words and phrases that urge you to take action immediately, like: "deadline," "won't last," "act now," "today only." And so on; you get the idea... (Of course, there are also many legitimate sales messages that do use these terms.)

And if someone says they "saw your profile on the Internet" and just had to get in touch, or wanted to offer you a job or a modeling assignment, beware. The scam language giveaway is that they don't say where they saw it.

But even if they name a site, always exercise caution and check them out thoroughly. 999 times out of 1,000, it's a scam.

Finally, a couple of business names that should always, but always, put you on your guard: Western Union and Moneygram. These are perfectly legitimate businesses that provide a useful service but if you're buying online or asked to send money to someone you don't know using these services, they should set the old alarm bells ringing!

Same goes for emails supposedly from big businesses or important people who use email addresses like Gmail and Hotmail. Many of us use these addresses but big companies do not.

In summary, words play a vital part in society. We use them to communicate ideas, feelings and knowledge and to understand the intentions of others. But they can also be used for evil.

Paying attention to grammar, spelling and key phrases can help you spot scam language and trouble. When it comes to scams, get your dictionary out and mind your language!

source

How do you like this one?

Looks like the flying monkey fish are Tuesday last December...

Good afternoon to you, I know you will be quite surprise to receive such an email magnitude from complete stranger like me, I have sent you this message earlier and wonder if you received it as am still waiting to hear from you for me to know my faither and i have decided to attach my details once more, My name is Miss Aracely Herinquez. I,m a single female medical . I come from Republic De Cuba.I know you will be surprise to receive this message from complete stranger from Cuba but it is a great pleasure writting and knowing you and i have decided to write you all about me and my position here and what i need you to do for me to get my fund into your account to enable me relocate in your area for living and investment. I will also continue my education in your country to actualise my dream of being a doctor.



I know there is no violent and crisis in your country and is a place my late father has wished to invest and love the country so much and will not wait to be there as soon as possible. You know there is a lot of bad people on the internet and am being afraid not to fall into the hand of a person that will betray me or run away with my fund once the fund is transfered. I trust you and know you will not betray me as i have confidence in you without even seeing you yet and hope to see you soon.




MY DATA: MY NAME: MISS ARACELY HENRIQUEZ
MY BIRTH: 11/MARCH/1977
MY OCCUPATION: MEDICAL SCIENTIST
MARITAL STATUS: SINGLE
NATIONALITY: REPUBLIC DE CUBA
MY FATHER'S DATA: HIS NAME: MR.ALBERTO HENRIQUEZ




OCCUPATION: EXPORTER OF GOLD AND HE DEPOSITED LARGE QUANTITY OF GOLD FOR ME IN THE FINANCIAL INSTITUTION HERE WHICH WORTH 600 KILO AND WE WILL DISCUSS ON THAT ONCE OUR FUND IS CLEARED AND TRANSFERED INTO YOUR ACCOUNT FOR INVESTMENT AS ARRANGED. AND THE AMOUNT DEPOSITED BY MY LATE FATHER IN THE FINANCIAL INSTITUTION IS VALUED EURO9.5MILLION AND 600 KILOS OF GOLD AND NEED YOUR HELP FOR THE TRANSFER TO YOUR COUNTRY FOR INVESTMENT PURPOSE AND HELP OF THE LESS PRIVILLEGE PEOPLE AND CHARITY ORGANISATION
AGE BEFORE HIS DEATH : 59 NATIONALITY: REPUBLIC DE CUBA




I prayed and fasted before contacting you. Am trusting you, though without seeing you which I believe in God and it is by God direction that made me to contact you and reveal all my position here in Benin. You can arrange to come here for you to see everything with your eyes and help me out of Africa and my fund transfer because i saw your profile and want to invest in your country and want you to be my partner and sponsor.



All i need is your honesty and I want you to know that it is God Almighty that connects people and makes out of them whatsoever he desires, and this my having to write you in the first place regarding this project is from God own direction as I never knew you before nor have we meet in any where before but may God name be praised for his ways are not like the ways of men, for he is perfect and never miss leads his loved ones.



I know that when God is with one no one can be against him or her, and I know that my having made you the one to carry on this cross will bring joy to my soul and to many others out there that will stand to benefit from the foundation when it is established and the real estate business , after the funds must have been claimed and transferred to your would be nominated bank account .



My dear, please know that in all thing in life we walk by faith and not by sight, as the people of God and also bear in mind that there is nothing impossible for God to do, so long as we trust and cast our burden upon him,he is a mighty God and remains faithful to them that love and trust upon him, I might not have known you but bear in mind that this meeting is the God doing



please call me for me to know your readiness to assist me in this venture 00229-97689290
Yours Miss Aracely Herinquez
will send you all my details once i hear your positive response and please keep it to yourself as am confiding and trusting you

CAN I HAVE YOUR DIRECT MOBILE PHONE AND PRIVATE PHONE WHERE I CAN TALK TO YOU DIRECTLY.

Prison anyone??

One of the big scams popping up around here now is peoples myspace and facebook accounts being hacked. The hacker is then sending messages to the persons friends, posing as that person, saying they're in jail and need money to get out and ask them to wire them money. A few have even surfaced of people getting messages on their cell phones saying they are a hitman and were contracted to kill that person. They go on to say that if they will give them x amount of dollars they will forget all about the hit.

There's no telling how many people have already fallen for it.