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419 Scam Blow-by-Blow
timbos writes "Check out this six-page dissection of a 419 scam at The Register. In particular, the fake banking site that the fraudsters set up is interesting..."
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...the new Spam mail with links? I just received a very reasonable sounding spam that talked about how some official was involved in a money scam, and recently died. It then backs up those statements with the following links:
l eId=2696 / f111052004.html
i cl eId=26962 /headline/ f111052004.html
http://www.businessdayonline.com/index.php?fArtic
http://www.vanguardngr.com/articles/2002/headline
The thing was so convincing, that it went right past Google Mail's SPAM filter and landed in my inbox. (All other Nigerian scams ended up in the SPAM folder.) Takes things to a whole new level.
In case anyone's interested, here's the complete text:
Subject: Hi...partner needed
I do not want to intrude so I will be brief and try and get to the point. I
have to use this way to contact you because it is quicker and more secured
for me. In today's world, I know it is sometimes hard to believe stories from
someone you dont know because I know we have never meet. In our world a
female's rights are not equal to a man's. Hence I need to look for contacts
outside our shores. My name is Angela Afolabi. My father, Sunday Afolabi,
just died some weeks back in a London Hospital of Cancer. He was a former
Internal Affairs Minister inmy country up till last year. This was before he
fell out with the present government. And since then and up till his death,
life was not easy for me and the family, but I give thanks to god that I am
still alive.
Before the death of my father, things were not easy and though my father died
leaving a fortune to us, the Government has refused to release the funds. My
father was imprisoned for several months last year and I am sure this is what
hastened his death. He had been arrested for being involved in a National
Identity contract scheme involving a lot of money.
For more on this, go to:
http://www.businessdayonline.com/index.php?fArt
http://www.vanguardngr.com/articles/200
I and my family have gone through alot.
Currently, I need an agent for reasons which I will say later. I was close to
my father and you see my father revealed to me certain information about some
bond certificates and money with a firm abroad when he was sick. I never
realised he would die so soon. I am unable to act on it now for security
reasons.
As a young woman here in this country, my options are limited. So I need an
agent or a partner in this endeavour.
Thank you.
Angela.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
Fraud is wrong. Laws against it should be enforced. But even so, this whole matter raises some questions...
By increasing the speed, reach and convenience of communication, are we creating a world where those who refuse to learn are more readily identified as fools, and then allowed to screw themselves up?
Might that, on some level, be a Good Thing(tm)?
I work in tech support. I am continually amazed by the lack of critical thinking skills people exhibit.
This is not a "technical" thing. People act like retards because they have no sense of responsibility for their own selves.
At what point do we say "The world has tried to protect you from yourself long enough. It's on YOU now!"
-- I could tell right away that she was impressed with my HUGE Slashdot Karma.
Every time I see a TV programme where someone who was interviewed who had been ripped off, I have to keep remembering that all semblence of common sense and decency went out of their minds in the pursuit of wealth.
This is an interesting component of 419 schemes that cause US law enforcement resources to not care about them. See, since any 419 scheme in order to be credible involves an offer of what would have been an illegal transfer of money to you, the fact you got burned becomes a natural consequence of your attempt to break the law.
If we have so many laws against money transfers to terrorists, just how do you think a few million is going to be given to you in any way that the IRS can't get its hands on?... You should know that if you do get the money promised in the way they promise you'd be breaking the law, and that's why law enforcement isn't behind you when you go crying "SCAM!"
Sounds like a similar scenario from SBC Internet Service. They told my mother that "there was a problem with her IP Telephony Stack Throughput" and that they would have to send a technician out there at $50/hour for about 3 hours to fix it. I re-started her DSL modem and it worked again. Brilliant.
If you haven't followed it, it was essentially "If you put $150-$180 million in this offshore bank account, I'll give your company a $5 billion contract for a Nigerian Natural Gas plant; and even kick back $5million to you personally."
Apparently even this big company that should have nown better said "sure".
I had a similar experience where a company such as SBC wanted to send someone out that would charge by the hour.
I said, that's ok, just cancel my account cause there are other ISP's in my area, thanks. Before I could hang up they of course said "wait a minute" and "got the manager" etc etc.
Needless to say, they sent someone out to fix the problem...which happened to be a real hardware/line problem...for free.
While this may not always work, it most cases it does.
"Music is everybody's possession. It's only publishers who think that people own it." - John Lennon.
Why can't my bank store it's customers account information inside a java applet. That way I could download my account and take it with me ;)
strings account.class | grep -i welcome
Welcome Richard J Cronan
WELCOME SIMON K. YI
WELCOME DONALD GENE GILMORE
WELCOME KURT OBAN
Welcome GUENTER REITH
Welcome RAYMOND SEAH
Welcome KENNETH W. BUSSA
WELCOME VINCENT STURDIVANT
WELCOME MONIQUE RODRIQUEZ
WELCOME ROYLEAN COLLINS
WELCOME Jean Paul Bouchet
Welcome ALBERTO T ORTEGA
Welcome Orin Gillian
Welcome Teimuraz Ramazashvili
Welcome HENRY PARK
Welcome MAURICE AMANG
"WELCOME DR. HENGAMEH GHAEN-MAGHAMI
Poor old DG, or should I say "DONALD GENE GILMORE"
interestingly the java class also contains the string "Please Produce Anti-Terrorist Certificate"