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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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Please carry out the following tasks, if it doesn't work then try from a different PC.
1.Click On Internet Explorer
2.Go to The TOOLS MENU
3.Go to Internet Options
4.Go to Advanced
5.Scroll down the list and Click/Tick the check box enabling Java
6. Restart Your Computer
7. Log on to UMCIB and go to e-banking then enter your usernameand password, this will take you to the transfer page.
If this doesnt work, please call me, my direct line is: +44-778 057 2211
The accounts department insist that there is no problem from here and the problem is from your end.
I apologise most sincerely for the delays and your inability to access your account, however it is not a problem from our end as the system shows that everything is working perfectly and you are the only one with this problem, please try again and if the system persists please let me know.
Sounds like a Comcast technician talking to a subscriber about why their billing system charged twice the month's bill every month for six months or why there has been intermittent block sync on the cable modem.
Service Tech: "Oh, if you were to purchase this $50 line filter we could install it for $90/hr and you wouldn't lose block sync anymore!"
The 419 scammers can't get away with it why should Comcast?
Moderators please note: this was an attempt at humor.
Off topic, but the first time I saw a "419" scam I thought it had something to do with Ohio. :)
So, is anything actually done to promote awareness of these kinds of scams. I always chuckle at the variations I get in my inbox, but surely we're not just relying on common sense to save the majority of the populace... are we?
Thats about how I feel. Also its important to realize that scams like this exist everywhere, not just the internet.
This seems like a lot of work that could have been just as easily been expressed as "Hey, dumbass -- do you go around mailing random Africans to give them stacks of money? Well, they don't do that either! Just delete the damn emails!"
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
...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
Never before (outside of a David Mamet script) have I seen such a detailed picture of con artist
playing on someone's combined greed and credulity.
The art of the Con is alive and well...
The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.
I mean, he got an e-mail that says:
US $8,370,000.00 has arrived here and you should have access to your account by Noon today.
This guy's rich. I hope someone sends me an e-mail telling me how I can get rich like him.
for maximum effect, the preceding post should be read monotone and at a steady cadence
Just in case nobody else posts it:
http://www.419eater.com/
Whenever I see the make money fast schemes on television or on the internet, my first question is always, "What do they need me for?" Schemes that actually make money sell themselves. All I know initially is that rather than invest money into the scheme itself they are spending it recruiting new people. Does this sound fishy? A person that really intends to commit fraud probably won't trust a random stranger.
I understand that people fall on hard times and get desperate for salvation, but outside of cinema does it ever just fall into your lap? I once went to a meeting that I didn't realize at the time was for a pyramid scheme when I was looking for a job. I assume I was being recruited based on that fact. I shudder to imagine how worse it would have been had I bought into that crap.
Hope is a beautiful thing until it makes people stupid.
I don't practice what I preach because I'm not the kind of person that I'm preaching to.
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.
For example, who really thinks that there is nothing wrong with going about pretending to be a dead persons uncle to claim money that isn't rightfully yours?
Avantslash - View Slashdot cleanly on your mobile phone.
please stop bashing the 419 scammers .. the poor guys have enough problems already
"There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action." Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
I love natural selection.
Me too, taking your lunch money and giving you swirlies helped me get the cheerleaders in high school, which increased my confidence, leading to better jobs, which further increased my attractiveness as a potential mate, which led to me having much better luck in my mating endeavors than you.
Sincerely,
the rest of the world who is tired of attempted slashdork elitism
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.
...is as interesting site found when researching these scams, Scam-o-rama. It contains lots of e-mail conversations with scammers and also some funny pictures. They also have an interesting case when somebody actually scammed the scammers (see the stories marked in red)
><////>
You're new here aren't you?
I doubt it, that poster has the appropriate level of Slashangst.
Note to Soviet moderators: This humor is an attempt at you!
They also offered to accept my $3000 RIAA apology-for-using-KaZaA payment.
And next week they've promised me a toaster for opening my new account.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
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"
Relatives of really rich or powerful people DO NOT email random people to move money out of the country.
There are plenty of other, easier, and safer ways to do that, especially for rich people.
There's nothing reasonable about it.
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
I am moved by your plight and would sincerely like to help however I can. Would you please leave your contact information so I know where to to send the money?
-- Clive Bannister
This post written under Gentoo-linux with an SCO IP license.
I know of two Nigerian scammers who are willing to defraud a church of over $20,000. How do I know this? Because I claim to be a pastor of the church with the means to give them church funds. They are so greedy that they were willing to be baptized in the name of our Church. I even got them to sign the church membership agreement.
Now if I can just get a tithe from them...
STOP MISUSING APOSTROPHES, YOU MORONS!!!
I have a SOLUTION for 419 victims. If you've been a victim of a 419 scam, you can sign up on my "419 Blacklist". The way it works is that all 419 scammers are required to check their victims against this list, and if they are on the list, THEY CANNOT BE SCAMMED!
This is like a "Do Not Scam" registry (like the FTC's "Do Not Call"). It REALLY WORKS!
All you need to do is send your Name, address, SSN, and the credit card numbers, bank account numbers, and PINs of any and all accounts you wish to protect. Just a single email, and you're PROTECTED FOR LIFE!
This service normally costs $100 initially plus $50 per account you wish to protect, but I am making it available to Slashdot members for a special rate. I will WAIVE THE $100 SIGNUP FEE! Just send the information and paypal the fee to me and you will be PROTECTED FOR LIFE!
How can you lose? See what other members are saying:
"I feel protected. FOR LIFE!" -- Jack Hortens, 2003
"Thanks for protecting me for life." -- Peter Luzzo, 2003
"I've never felt so protected, especially for life." -- Thomas Frank, 2004
Sign up now.