Slashdot Mirror

• Websites Fighting the Nigerian Scam/419
• Nigerian Advance Fee Scam
• US Secret Service on 419
• Break The Chain
• 419 Coalition (as noted in the article)

• 419 Eater
• Scam Joke Page
• ScamOrama
• the spam letters
• spl's soapbox

911 only came into the picture after 9/11/01 when the scam morphed to use US soldiers in a foreign land in a post-911 conflict instead of a Nigerian Doctor or governmental official.

Independent advisory: Parent may be accurate. There have been XSS (cross-site-scripting) attacks in Yahoo! Mail that would provide for this sort of attack. It seems realistic.

If you were in the US and hadn't gone through all that hacking, I'd tell you to contact the Secret Service. Seriously.

This is for those in the US who have actually lost money to one of these scams.

U.S. Secret Service
Financial Crimes Division
950 H Street, NW,
Washington, DC 20001.
(202) 406-5850
or email 419.fcd@usss.treas.gov

If you're in the US and haven't lost money, they'd still like to see a copy of the letter; fax it to (202) 406-5031.

But you're not in the US, and I'm not sure what you should do. They advise to report it to your local authorities and send documention via fax to the U.S. Secret Service.

I'm not sure I'd want to do ANY of that if I'd tracked them down to that extent via hacking, though.

First things first. Contact the administration at the University of London about the ringleader. You know exactly who he is. After that... I'm not sure, but they need to know.

They have an excellent How-to document here if you want to start up your own. They're not stupid people.. greedy people.

This said, I have NEVER counterfeitted money because all of these methods are just so much easier. Why bother having the Secret Service breathing down your back for that, when you can just utilize the same techniques to make large amounts of cash?

I call bullshit. Either that, or you're in for a rude awakening when you find that the Secret Service investigates counterfeit credit cards, too. Interesting post, regardless.

But as to changing the overall look or size of the bills, I doubt that will happen anytime soon. And quite frankly, I'm not sure I want it to--a whole lot of people are quite fond of the look of American 'greenbacks,' myself included, and there's no particular reason why security features can't be added without a major overhaul.

For info on how to detect 'digifeited' bills, check out the United States Secret Service's web site.

Ok, unless I'm missing something here (and I could be), how are they going to prove someone is using a VPN or firewall?

Why is the Secret Service involved in the business problems of the music business? As a division of the U.S.Treasury their mandate covers currency counterfeiting and for non-apparent but historic reasons the protection of the President, Vice President and their family members.
Read their beginnings, history and mandates here.
Is RIAA recorded music the new currency? Is Hillary Rosen the new president?
I don't think so!

The United States Secret Service is mandated by the U.S. Congress to carry out two distinct and significant missions: protection and criminal investigations. The Secret Service is responsible for: the protection of the President, the Vice President, and their families, heads of state, and other designated individuals; the investigation of threats against these protectees; protection of the White House, Vice President's Residence, Foreign Missions, and other buildings within Washington, D.C.; and security design, planning, and implementation at designated National Special Security Events. The Secret Service is also responsible for the enforcement of laws relating to counterfeiting of obligations and securities of the United States, investigation of financial crimes including, but not limited to access device fraud, financial institution fraud, identity theft, computer fraud, telecommunications fraud, and computer based attacks on our nation's financial, banking, and telecommunications infrastructure.

Did you read what the [*] referenced?


*Bootnote: In fact the task of talking into one's sleeve at a press conference only came 28 years after the Service was founded in 1865, to combat counterfeiting. Back then, there was no FBI, or equivalent federal agency, and the Presidential protection role was formalized in 1913.

I thought this type of fraud/theft of cable service fell under the jurisdiction of the Secret Service?

Since 1984, our investigative responsibilities have expanded to include crimes that involve financial institution fraud, computer and telecommunications fraud, false identification documents, access device fraud, advance fee fraud, electronic funds transfers, and money laundering

Emphasis is mine. Is this going to happen more in the future, I wonder, with agencies hopping jurisdiction lines whenever they want to? Perhaps this was routed to the FBI because attention was wanted drawn to this. I can't recall ever hearing about the Secret Service in the news except in regards to the President.

Won't someone think of the Nigerians!

<G>

Anyone who has lived in a cave for the last two years and isn't aware of the Advance Fee Fraud scheme, which is run out of Nigeria, most other west African countries south of the Sahara, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, and the Netherlands as of the last time I checked my spamtrap, should check out the following URLs:

crimes-of-persuasion.com: Nigerian 419 Advance Fee Fraud
U. S. Secret Service: Advance Fee Fraud Advisory
The 419 Coalition Website

Believe it or not, there have been billions lost to this scam, from people who should have been smarter. (And less greedy.)

The Everquest economy will go bust in ~2 years. This calculation is based on a recent article in the respected Economic Theory journal. Also, for all you lawyers out there, can't this be considered making counterfeit money under U.S. criminal law? I think someone should report this.

The Everquest economy will go bust in ~2 years. This calculation is based on a recent article in the respected Economic Theory journal. Also, for all you lawyers out there, can't this be considered making counterfeit money under U.S. criminal law? I think someone should report this.

A big part of your/our countries problem is that schools do not teach civics anymore. The job of the Secret Service is the investigation, prevention, and prosecution of economic crimes. Taken from the mission statement of the Secret Service: The Secret Service is also responsible for the enforcement of laws relating to counterfeiting of obligations and securities of the United States, investigation of financial crimes including, but not limited to access device fraud, financial institution fraud, identity theft, computer fraud, telecommunications fraud, and computer based attacks on our nation's financial, banking, and telecommunications infrastructure. SS Mission Statement"

According to the U.S. Secret Service: """If you have been victimized by one of these schemes, please forward appropriate written documentation to the United States Secret Service, Financial Crimes Division, 950 H Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20223, or telephone (202) 406-5850, or contact by e-mail.

If you have received a letter, but have not lost any monies to this scheme, please fax a copy of that letter to (202) 406-5031."""

-m

The US Secret Service has some more information about these scamsters. In the good old days, they would approach their victims using snail-mail with impressive letterheads. Now, they just spam everyone!

It is very common to find what are known as "raised notes", legitimate bills which have been modified to look like higher-denomination bills. If a clerk, customer or foreign tourist isn't paying attention, they may receive these types of bills. There is
a page on the Secret Service web page about these type of counterfeit bills. Switching to different sized and different color bills would eliminate this type of fraud.

Come on. Really. US currency is the most well known currency on the planet, is used in lieu of local currency in some locales, and has several mechanisms installed to prevent counterfeiting as well as to ensure the readability of the bills.

Go to the Secret Service website and look up the details behind the reason why American currency is designed the way it is.

This is probably a troll, but what the heck...

The anti-counterfeit measures are basically non-existant

Not true. Go to the Secret Service's webpage based on the measures they've taken. Just because you can't see them, doesn't mean they're not there.

it's impossible to know if something is a 5 or a 10 just by glancing at it

You mean, like looking at the big number in each corner of the paper? Different question: Are you telling me that you need a color-based mnemonic to remember a numeric-based mnemonic as to the representation of the value of the currency? IOW, Red=5 is easier to remember than 5=5?

What we really need is the Grey Spy as she always wins. Now, who is that Grey Spy [gnu.org]?

They do a little more than that, but that's their primary focus. Their mission statement is two paragraphs, one about protecting officials, their families, etc, and the second one follows:

The Secret Service is charged with the detection and arrest of any person committing any offense against the laws of the United States relating to coins, currency, stamps, Government bonds, checks, credit/debt card fraud, computer fraud, false identification crimes, and other obligations or securities of the United States. The mission of the Secret Service also includes investigations related to certain criminal violations of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act, the Federal Land Bank Act, and the Government Losses in Shipment Act.

Just a tidbit.