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Man Arrested in Australia Over Nigerian E-mail Scam
slasher_14 writes "A 39 year old Sydney man has been arrested over the Nigerian Scam. Simultanious raids were conducted in two homes by police, who siezed computers and documents.
Over the last 6 months, Australian police have tracked about 1.5 million dollars. The man faces Dubbo Local court today, charged with 17 offenses." Hopefully this means my inbox will be seeing less of these e-mails.
It's so nice to see that governments and police forces are finally able to catch up to these kinds of spammers and criminals to get them out of my damned inbox. I almost wonder if it wouldn't be cool for a Internet task force to be developed, completely divorced from any government that would try to track these kinds of people down and turn them in to local authorities. Any volunteers?
1f u c4n r34d th1s u r34lly n33d t0 g37 l41d Capitalization really works: i helped my uncle jack off a horse
I got this email this morning...
...[bulk edited out - you get the idea] ... earning additional income, I will not waste your time. Remember, it won't cost
you a dime to check us out...sure might cost you an absolute fortune not to! http://www.ProTravelBiz.com Sincerely Robert Holman
Hello,Previously you had requested some information online in regards to potentially earning additional income from home.Our company Travelogia(one of the fastest growing companies in North America) has
it was from "abeulicnta@ebay.com" <ihmribcyph@sina.com> which is messed up because it's like a fake email within a fake email. Of course, it was formatted the same way you see here, no correct breaks or anything. Anyway, I go look up the website name on register.com's WHOIS feature. (Note: I had to hit refresh several times before I got more than a 'timeout') Well, this is what I got! (in the form of a gif image, go figure)
Organization:
Robert L. Holman II
Robert Holman II
4617 E Holiday Estate Court
Granbury, TX 76049
US
Phone: (817) 326-6107
Fax..: (817) 326-5066
Email: Robert@Robert-Holman.com
Registrar Name....: enom.com
Registrar Whois...: whois.enom.com
Registrar Homepage: http://www.enom.com
Domain Name: PROTRAVELBIZ.COM
Created on............: Mon, Oct 27, 2003 [Note the very recent creation date]
Expires on............: Wed, Oct 27, 2004
Record last updated on: Mon, Oct 27, 2003
etc, etc...
So I called him, apparently at his house, judging by the unceremonious, 'yeah this is Robert' answer. I confirmed it was Robert Holman and then proceeded to tell him I did not appreaciate his SPAM and he needed to at least put an opt out and use his real email address on the return. He stammered as he tried to tell me he could prove I 'opted-in' which is total bullshit. I told him if I got any more mail from him I was going to sue him.
So, my fellow SPAM-hating brethren and sistren, use WHOIS on register.com to fight back at these jerks.
I also used WHOIS to find out who was sending me bogus eBay login screens.
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They Are Vermin Feeding On Each Other's Feces.
I Hate \.
My friend's grandmother has this neighbor who was sort of the neighborhood whacko (schizophenia, medicated) He lived with his dad up until the time his father died and the estate was split up amungst the surviving siblings.
Well, he had a trusting nature about him, almost anyone could be his friend. Since he had been a roadie for many bands (Grateful Dead, Fleetwood Mac to name a few) for the price of getting him stoned you could listen to him go on for hours about his days as a roadie, while you fished out of his carp stocked green algae swimming pool. Although he was crazy, he was a fun guy to be around if you had a few hours to kill.
So here he was with all this money from his families estate. The house was sold, so he bought himself a luxery van to live out of. The rest of the money he put into money market accounts and had planned to live out the rest of his days cruising to concerts and playing his guitar out of the back of his van.
Tradgedy struck when the nigerian e-mail scam hit his inbox. He fell for it hook line and sinker. After arranging with the english accennted guy on the other end of the phone line, they agreed to meet in amsterdam to facilitate the transfer of funds (which was through cashiers check)
Even after he got off the phone, even when he was going to the bank, even when he stepped off the plane his sanity nagged, no pleaded with him "This is a scam Kim, please just go home". Sanity had never gotten him anywhere so he just ignored it.
He met the guy at some cannibus club, and after a few nice bowls of fine green, his sanity returned to his subconciousness, where it layed dormant most of the time. He handed the man the cashier check for $200,000 with full confidence he was doing the smart thing with his money.
Once returning to the states he tried dialing the number the man had given him, disconnected. He tried the e-mail address, no reply. 3 months after he had pissed away $200,000 on a cashier check and a handshake, he finally told his friends what had happened.
I posted this somewhere before on the nigerian scam, a lot of people responded "Serves him right for being stupid with his money" I don't agree with them though. We're talking about a guy with the emotional maturity of a 9 year old.
The same mentality that would perform this scam on weak minded and lonely adults is the same mentality that would take advantage of a little kid. Spare me the "Theives code of honor" I hope this guy gets life.
this 'nigerian spam' idea has appeared in other forms as well.
i'm trying to sell my car and posted it on a few free car sales websites. so far, i've received 4 of emails exactly like this:
"We have a client who is interested in purchasing
your ( 2000 vw gti vr6 glx ) for the price of $( 14,500 ).Please forward me your final asking price "
of course, i then reply with the price confirmation, but then i get this:
"Hello,
Thanks a lot for your mail and the information, also for all your efforts towards making this transaction a success, i really love it and wish to buy as soon as possible. Anyway, this is how we are going to seal this transaction there is an associate of mine in the US who is owing me $19,800 i am going to instruct him to send you a cashier's check for that amount,and when it clears your bank you can now send my balance by Westernunion. Although i know that the value of the check is more than the price of the 2000 VW GTI VR6 GLX, but i am willing to trust you with my balance So if this offer is acceptable to you,let me have your contact information so that i can instruct my associate to send you a check,that is your name,address and phone number Please get back to me as soon as soon as you get this mail so that i can know your decision regards this transaction. I am banking on my balance so that i will be able to settle my shippers here in there local office because it is cheaper and faster.My regards to the family
Banks"
so this scam basically falls upon the same principle. obviously we all know where this is going, but i decide to play along anyway and sent him a bogus PO box to send the check to.
the next email was this:
"Thanks so much for the mail and the rightful information. Anyway, i just want you to know that what is required is your physical address and phone number, so as to deliver the payment to you in person. So, do well to let me have your Full name, physical address and phone number, in order to get the payment to you as soon as possible. And what do you mean by "terrifc deal"?. Waiting to hear back from you soon. Thank you and God bless.
Regards
Banks"
my question: why does he need my physical address and phone number? it's obvious at this point he will let me know about some snag and that i need to send him some money for whatever reason.
on a side note, i am selling my Volkswagen GTI VR6 GLX if anyone is interested.
so, people selling their autos online, be wary of this scam.