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Sydney 419 Scammer Jailed
kjots writes "The ABC is reporting that the Sydney District Court has sentenced a disability pensioner to more than five years in jail for his part behind a Nigerian email scam. One down ..."
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About time they hit down on those causing real grief.
Use ISO 8601 dates [YYYY-MM-DD]
How come when they finally get busted, it's not the stereotypical sleazeball you hope for? Life would be easy if it were 1 dimensional. Oh well, still good to see crime being punished.
I modify the namea/dates/amounts/etc, and fire this off:
Dear DR.ONORIODE BOBOLO,
It is so good to hear from a fellow-countryman, having been raised and lived for many years in our most beautiful homeland, Nigeria. I want to send you my sincere thanks and gratitude for your kind offer of USD$25,000.000.00 (TWENTY FIVE MILLION UNITED STATE DOLLARS) for taking part in this funds transfer transaction.
However, I am a businessman too, and I make my living transferring large sums of money from and to my friends, relatives, and business associates in Nigeria. Therefore, I know that you would agree, that in order to participate in this wonderful opportunity, I must have an advance monetary commitment from you -- a good faith gesture on your part -- in order to proceed.
Therefore, I ask that you deposit just 10% ($2,500,000) of the $25M into my PayPal account as an indication that you truly possess the funds and are actually authorized to release them. Using the online PayPal service is a very convenient and secure way to transfer funds. All you need do is access the PayPal web site -- http://www.paypal.com -- open a PayPal account, deposit the funds into your new account, and then transfer the money into my existing account, which has already been set up to receive the $25M.
You only need my email address, which you already have, to transfer the funds into my account. Therefore, the complete safety of your account, as well as mine, is guaranteed and insured unconditionally. You have asked that this matter be handled with the strictest confidentiality, and I will agree to that condition, provided that the transfer takes place in a reasonable period of time, say by Friday, 5 October.
If the money has not been received by that time, I must assume that you are not making a legitimate offer, and that you might be someone other than who you say you are -- although I can tell by the exceptional language of your email, that is probably not the case. However, if that is the case, then I will be forced to embark upon a most unpleasant course of action that I would prefer not to undertake.
Because I have so many loyal friends in the Government of Nigeria and the Military, and many close ties within the Security Service where you work, it would be quite easy to locate your office and your home, as well as learn the identities of your friends and relatives.
I truly don't believe that you would want to jeopardize their health and well-being, and your own future. I will access my PayPal account on next Saturday to verify that your good-faith payment has been made. Once that takes place, we can move forward with the final transfer.
I trust that you will not disappoint me in this matter, since the consequences for non-compliance could be quite severe. I look forward with great anticipation to working with you.
Yours faithfully,
Issa Gidada, JD, MMB,
President & CEO
U.S./Nigeria Funds Transfer Organization
Beverly Hills, CA
Although scammers are nasty creatures, shouldn't people know better than to send money to pay for something they supposedly won? This isn't a troll; I'm totally serious. Are people not taught common sense and critical thinking skills? In any case, I'm glad this person's going to jail.
US businesses that currently accept chip and PIN/signature
With due respect,trust and humanity,I write this letterto you seeking your help and assistance,though its difficult since we have not met before.I got your address from the SOUTH AFRICA INFORMATION EXCHANGE (S.A.I.E)regarding your business profile and sincerity.I believe that you are capable and reliable in handling this urgent international transaction of this sort.
I am MR.RUFUS MUKHENZE,the first and only son of COMRADE.BORDER D.MUKHENZE,the Zimbabwean former Minister for Youth & Gender Equality who is also a businessman and politician,in the Zimbabwean political arena.My father was the famous politician who stood firm against President Mugabes idea of continuous fight in Democratic Republic of Congo and my father also stood against the seizure of white owned farms and the distribution of it to the blacks without Compesiation to the white owners.Before my father's death, in his "WILL"he specifically drew my attention to this sum of US$21,320Million,(TWENTY ONE MILLION,THREE HUNDRED AND TWENTY THOUSAND UNITED STATE DOLLAR)which he deposited in a safe box of a private security company in south Africa,INFACT MY FATHER SAID IN HIS WILL AND QUOTE:-
"MY beloved son,I wish to draw your attention to the sum of US$21,320,000.00(TWENTY ONE MILLION,THREE HUNDRED AND TWENTY THOUSAND UNITED STATE DOLLAR), which I deposited in a box with a security company in Johannesburg,South Africa. Incase of my absence on earth caused by death,only you should solicit for reliable foreign partner to assist you to transfer this money out of south Africa for investment purpose.I deposited the money in your name and it can be claimed by you alone with the deposit code.Your mother has all the document.Take good care of your mother and
sister
From the above,you will understand that the lives and future of my family depends on this money,I will be very grateful if you can assist us,we are
now living in South Africa as political asylum seekers and the financial laws of south Africa does not allow asylum seeker certain financial rights to such huge amount of money.In view of this,I cannot invest this money here in south africa,hence I am asking you to assist me transfer this money out of south africa for investment purpose.
For your efforts,am prepared to offer you 25%of the total fund, while 5%will be set aside for local and international expenses and 70%will be kept by my family and me.All I want you to do is to furnish me with your entire personal phone and fax numbers for easy communication. Note that this transaction is 100% Risk free and absolutely confidential.
Looking forward hearing from you.
Yours Faithfully
MR. RUFUS MUKHENZE
sig.
and later: Marinellis will first be eligible for parole in February 2008.
Do they let just anyone in Australia do the reporting?
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
How disabled? If he's one of those "disabled" people that you see up on the roof fixing tiles despite a "bad back", then this is no huge surprise. If we're talking wheelchair then I officially lament how times have changed. It used to be that wheelchair-bound geeks ran the local BBS.
You followed the election last week, didn't you?
Make them work for dell customer support for the rest of there lives.
Selling software wont make you money, selling a service will.
There are more news organizations around the world than those we are familiar with in the USA.
Simply awesome!
418 to go.
just the Australians.
Making the moon less necessary since 1998.
It's great to see them finally do something about it. Here check out real ways to make money.
------
insert sig here,here, and here
419 Eater is one of the funniest sites on the net. Check it out when you need a good laugh.
They even have an annual conference. Check out this site for a laugh!
In fact this is one of the funniest MP3s I've ever heard, of an actual 419 scammer calling an actual victim: http://419eater.com/images/audio/martins_jide/mart ins_jide_191004b.mp3
Come to think of the NYC Video Festival Red vs Blue extra.
- Hi, I am Nigerian royalty, and I want you to send me money. Please disregard the fact that I can't spell Nigeria or royalty.
THIS IS THE INTERNET. PLEASE PICK UP YOUR SERIOUS BUSINESS SUIT AT THE FRONT COUNTER.
it was a joke.
Don't be consumed by greed. Although people taken by this scam are indeed victims, I have trouble feeling really bad for them. They thought they could get something for free, with no work, effort or percieved risk and they end up paying for it. Life teaches really hard lessons if you don't take notes before hand. Either way, you will learn these lessons. Just hope you are a good student so you don't have to be taught by example.
"If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, A hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer
Hopefully these accounts will then be shut down before any potential victim can respond. The fact that the scammers often use a different email address in their follow-up communication indicates that these accounts are indeed often short lived.
I have thought of mail bombing these accounts until they are shut down, preferably with legit looking bogus responses that the scammers have to read one by one, wasting their time and hopefully having them pay for extra online time in their Lagos cybercafe. It would help if each of you would send a response on any scam e-mail you receive (don't use your regular email account).
Frankly I don't have the time and the talent for elaborate scambaiting (http://www.419eater.com/html/joe_eboh.htm is hilarious!), but I am interested in any other simple but efficient ideas for frustrating these scambags.
en tea
-- Be careful what you say. Someone might remind you about it another day.
The war on spam is a very tough one. I have found that there are some email databases on sale at MercadoLibre (eBay branch for Latin America). Vendors also offer software for capturing emails on the Internet and for sending (up to 30000 emails per hour). You may see my finding here: http://abundando.blogspot.com/2004/11/se-lucran-eb ay-y-mercadolibre-con-el.html
I'm sorry guys. Post is written in Spanish.
Now that's plain racist.
Try "if people were not protected from themselves, they would turn into the USA" on for size.
Next try some tolerance...
DROS - Open-Source Robot Software
...I'm surprised people are _that_ dumb.
From a New Zealand Herald article:
Although described in court as a church-going disability pensioner and a diagnosed schizophrenic who cared for his ailing parents, police said his assets included a A$970,000 house and seven other properties in New South Wales, five cars, and an office complex in the British city of Nottingham.
Seems this guy (Nick Marinellis) wasn't real smart though...
Police said they were first alerted in February last year when the Hungarian Consulate had complained that a "Dr Nick Marinellis" had demanded US$2500 ($3604) in connection with an attempted scam.
So he's an idiot, and he still managed to make megabucks...
Regardless of how old someone is or what mental / physical state they are in. Ripping people off is not acceptable.
This news item is little old. Many nigerian scammers have been prosecuted.
---
Company scammers who do paid-for posts on weblogs without attribution (i.e. This is a paid advertisement) are criminals and should do jail time for fraud.
And I was wondering how long till somebody mentions Bush's foreign policy...
A much more informative piece can be found on the Syndey Morning Herald web page at http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Internet-con-m an-gets-five-years-jail/2004/11/08/1099781322257.h tml
First, I must request your anonymous cowardice in this transaction. This is by virtue of its nature as being 'Top Taco'. I am sure and have confidence of your abaility and moderation points to prosecture a transaction of this great magniture.
I am Timothy of the slashdot editoral staff review board who is interested in the distribution of moderation points and karma points in return for never pointing out duplicate posts. These points are currently trapped in an NT4.0 box. In order to commence this business we solicit your moderation to enables us to transfer into your account said karma.
The source of this fund is as follows; during the slashdot buyout by OSTG corrupt editors setup fake usrs and awarded them insightful posts, which were grossly overrated. The present moderating team has set up a topic review panel (although as you know it is ineffective) and have identified a lot of karma poitns which are presently floating in a cardbox box underneath CmdTaco's bed.
By virtue of my position as editor I am free to ignore any emails pointing out duplicate posts but I cannot acquire the karma points in my name. I am therefore looking for an overseas partner into whose 0wn3d windoze box we can transfer this karama, to a grand total of SDK1024 (ONE THOUSAND AND TWENTY FOUR slashdot karma). I are writing this email as I am willing to share the karma points with you, 20% for you, the account owner, 70% for us, 10% to bribe people to shut up about duplicate posts.
Please note this transaction is 100% safe as we will use paypal and we hope to commence the transfer latest 7 banking days after the next topic which attacks Microsoft without ever reading the links in the topic.
Please email by return your username, password, IP address, inside leg measurement and pictures of Natalie Portman, naked, petrified and covered in grits.
I look forward to doing business with you.
YOURS FAITHFULLY,
Timothy
NOTE; PLEASE QUOTE THIS REFERENCE NUMBER (KARMA/WHORE) IN ALL YOUR RESPONSES.
Common sense? Are we talking about "homo sapiens"?
The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
Last Friday evening, I sent a scammer I was baiting a fake Western Union certificate, which he was going to cash in yesterday. I haven't heard anything from him or any of his aliases. I think he probably just got wise to it, but I can only hope... ;)
The more common benefit is 'sickness allowance' which is a temporary payment to people who are not able to work for a certain period of time (ie. due to a back injury).
A disability pension is only available to those deemed unable to work at all for an indefinite period of time. I imagine it's a little harder to get a doctor to commit to that sort of time frame (though, there's always the corrupt ones).
It's pretty difficult to get a full disability pension if there's any chance of you working again.
One of my favourite anti-spam sites (including the name) is What's the bloody point?? I especially like bait number 8 featuring Miss Maureen Adje Charlse only surviving daughter v Norman Gorman Smith-Bidet III & Gonad McDangle.
Kevin
"It's not the cough that carries you off, it's the coffin they carry you off in" O. Nash
Perhaps I'm in the wrong here, I honestly don't recall any convictions, but how come the US, supposedly the most technically advanced nation in the world, is always way behind on upholding the law involving cyber crime?
Every article you read always comes out of somewhere else.
Got Mike. Mo meets a pretty woman is a classic.
Scan-O-Rama
Insolitology
Tastes like gold
Ebola monkey man. Well worth a read, very funny.
Quatloos, The Brad Christensen Exhibit. Check out ROSEMARY KABBAH -- Romancing the Pickle Taco.
and last but not least 419 Eater which has a personal recommendation on the front page.
Enjoy!
Kevin
"It's not the cough that carries you off, it's the coffin they carry you off in" O. Nash
Apparently his disability is a mental illness.
r ian_busts_2003.htm
http://www.crimes-of-persuasion.com/Nigerian/nige
Woe be on to them, all who rise against poor people, shall perish in a the end. Buju Banton
You have had 11 posts in one day! and 4 from the previous day! A lots of one mod point, few offtopic and one troll, they probably think you are spamming.
Excessive bad posting, over the last week?
....while I've certainly read about people elsewhere that are suckered too, I think it really fits well to the american mindset. What mindset? The dream to make it big. Real big. The american dream and all that. Like "The apprentice" and Donald Trump.
Many people realize that they aren't going to be the next Bill Gates, but they still dream. So they play on the lottery and hope that one day their dream will be fulfilled. Along comes this email promising the riches you desire.
Of course people aren't convinced at once, but they become convinced through smooth words. Why? Because they want to believe. They want to believe that their luck has changed, that they will become rich, and that everything is true. There is no critical thinking because they've already accepted the premise - that their luck has changed - and thus this offer must be real. Flawed logic at its best.
Once you live that lie, you're caught. Your life stops revolving around what is real and starts revolving around what it will be. Not what might be, what will be. And you just have to get there, do what it takes to get there. Once you do, everything will be so great that any sacrifice you make along the way doesn't matter. And so people sell all they have and believe.
When you're first on that path, it is as if you're falling and the prize is there at the bottom to catch you. You can dismiss all your friends, family, bank manager, lawyers and even the police. You will believe any lie of how getting to the prize is harder, and how they need more money. But you can't accept that there is no prize.
It is quite simply circular reasoning - because there's a price at the bottom, you're going after it - and because you're going after it, the price must be there. Most people can't see a cirular argument if it kicked their butt. (Example: God created Nature, hence Nature exists. Nature is a divine creation, hence God exists.)
Kjella
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Only 12 hours between the time I submitted the EXACT SAME STORY and had it rejected before it was posted.
Keep up the good work guys.
Slashdot: where you can be sure of a duplicate story every other day and where the editors don't talk to one another.
Mod me down. I don't care. Karma to burn.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
He should also have to de-spam the victims inboxes while he is serving his time, and for 10 years there after.
Why UNIX?
I'd like to send him an email saying that I can get him out of jail and have a ton of lawyers standing by prepared to give him free legal representation. All he needs to do is send me $30,000 in processing fees.
2004-11-08 14:16:00 Aussie "Head of 419ers" Jailed (Index,It's funny. Laugh.) (rejected)
5 years in jail may be an equitable trade off for the millions that he received.
http://www.scamorama.com/bigmac.html
I love that game. Fun to play, easy to win.
Sysadmins need to be given legal authority to throw people in jail.
Hmm. Maybe not.
Assume I was drunk when I posted this.
Umm . . .
Inheritance?
46,000,000 (FORTY-SIX MILLION)... to go...
bunch of lower case letters to increase the ratio of caps to uncaps to please the slashdot filter...
damn it, why would you assume the guys' disability is fake? because you think crips cannot be sleazeballs by definition? that's mightily prejudiced of you, poor tiny tim cannot possibly be bad, can he?; equality of rights and opportunities includes the right of being sleazeballs and crooks and criminals if we damn please. Get used to it. And if a gimps chooses a criminal carreer, he might as well go for 419s schemes, id theft, and other equal opportunities online crimes which doesn't involve all this messy and sweaty running around and shooting and being shot at of many more mainstream criminal activities.
Just wondering...
ATTN: Dearly Beloved
.
This communication to you is strictly
confidential, with due respect. Sorry at this
perceived confusion or stress you may have receiving
this letter from me, Since we have not known ourselves
or met previously. Despite that, I am constrained to
write you this letter because of the urgency of it.By
way of self introduction, I am Mrs. Sarah Kobe, the wife
of late Brigadier - Gen.Maxwell Kobe former ECOMOG
ARMY COMMANDER [West African peacekeeping force in
Sierra Leone] who died in the Sierra Leone civil
disturbance [War]. My three daughters and I are
trapped in obnoxious custom and traditional norms.
We have suffered maltreatment and untold hardship in
the hands of my late husband's family, simply because
I did not bear a male child [heir apparent] for my
late husband. By tradition, all that my late husband
had, [wealth] belongs to his brothers/family. And
myself is to be remarried by his immediate younger
brother which I vehemently refused. They have taken
all that I suffered with my husband to acquire
including treasures, houses and his bank particular
seized by them. I wanted to escape to the United State
of America [USA} with my children on exile, but again
they conspired and stole my international passport and
other traveling document to further frustrate me.
Thank God, two weeks ago, I received Key Text Code
[KTC} from a Security & Finance Company abroad, that
my late husband maintains a saftey deposit box of high value
with this company and i am the next of kin sotherefore i should
make necessary arrangements to come for the claim
of the box
It has therefore, become very necessary and
urgent to contact someone, a foreigner like you to
help me receive/secure the consignment
while we i and my children find a way of getting out to
meet with you in your country.
The consignment was kept on an "OPEN BENEFICIARY MANDATE"
with the Security Company to avoid detection, seizure
or diversion. I have had several telephone discussions
with the Assistant Director of the security company,
who has expressed willingness to help me on meeting the
company's demands. This is why I have
contacted you to help save my children and I, receive/secure
the safety box on our behalf. But, you would need to give
me sufficient assurance that if you help me, you would
not divert its contents which i will reveal to you
as this is an information known only to me and no one else.
My children and I have resolved
to give you a certain percentage for your honest assistance
to us and i shall open up to you as i have to be careful
for this is the only way i and my children stand to live
better lives.
This is all my children and I have got to live on.
Please, I have reposed my confidence in you and hope
you will not disappoint me. I look forward to your
urgent response, including your private phone / mobile
No and also your fax no for easier communication.
NB: The secret codes (e.g Pin No., Secret Access Code)
for the box are safely kept with me which I will give
you as soon as you express desire to help me.
Stay blessed.
MRS.Sarah Kobe.