Microsoft Helping Nigeria Fight Scammers

encodics writes "News.com is carrying a story today about how Nigeria is asking Microsoft for help in fighting scammers." From the article: "Microsoft will provide technical expertise, training and other security resources to Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), which is tasked with fighting cybercrime in the country. Nigeria was initially slow to respond to the problem of '419' e-mail scammers operating in the country, who were duping unsuspecting Internet users out of thousands of pounds by promising a share of the secret multimillion-pound fortune of a deposed African dictator. "

Comments

This just in - Copy of letter sent to Bill Gates

[coastin]

Allow me to introduce myself. I am Matubu Huntu Smith, my father was the head of "Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission" until his untimely death. I am writing to implore you to assist me getting a large sum of money out of my country. We will need much security help to accomplish this and I am repaired to compensate you at a rate of 52% of the nearly twenty two million dollars my father was able to secure before his death.....

DIR SIR OR MADAM (someone had to do it)

[Humba]

Chairman tender
Board of nigerian
National petroleum
Coporation (n.n.p.c)
Tel:+234-80-33013920
Fax:+234-1-7597156

Dear:sir/madam,

I guess this letter may come to you as a surprise since i had no
Previous Correspondence with you. I am the chairman tender board of nigeria National Petroleum coporation (nnpc) i got your contact in the course of my Search For a reliable person with whom to handle a very confidential Transaction Involving the transfer of fund valued eight million two hundred Thousand United states dollars ($8.2m) to a safe foreign account.

The above fund in question is not connected with arms, drugs or money
Laundering. It is the product of over invoice on contract awarded in
2005 by nnpc, to Microsoft for providing technical expertise, training and other security resources to Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), which is tasked with fighting cybercrime in the country. The
Contract has long been executed and payment of the actual contract
Amount Made to the foreign contractor leaving the balance of $8.2m u.s
Dollars in A dormant account which my colleagues and i now want to transfer out of Nigeria into a reliable foreign account for our personal use.

--H

Re:DIR SIR OR MADAM (someone had to do it)

[k3s]

Must see Fox Trot on point Nigerian Scam

Whaddya mean, thousands?

[SysKoll]

thousands of pounds by promising a share of the secret multimillion-pound fortune of a deposed African dictator.

Thousands? Only thousands? What a rip-off. My deposed dictator offered me $350 millions for only $500 of participation.

//High-Fives Coastin and Humba !!

[kulakovich]

Damn I was too slow. I thought I had it all.

ok, blast me now for off topic so I can go home.

kulakovich

Isn't that a bit like

[Anonymous Coward]

asking McDonalds to solve a food shortage problem in Africa.

Re:Isn't that a bit like

[Gordonjcp]

While producing meat is not extremely efficient energy wise

I don't know, it seems pretty energy efficient to me.

1. Get cow
2. Put cow in rough pasture
3. Wait until cow is bigger
4. Profit!

Of course if you do stupid stuff like pump cows full of drugs so they can digest whole grain (hint - they're ruminants, they're good at foliage, not cereals) then I suppose it is less efficient.

Re:Isn't that a bit like

[Xugumad]

Not to mention deforestation so they have somewhere to put cows. Y'know, until the ground becomes unusable because it no longer has forest to protect it from the weather.

The big efficiency issue with cows, however, is people putting them on land that would be fine for growing more or less anything directly consumable by humans, which happens a lot more due to the increased demand for meat, because everyone seems to have this belief it's a good idea to eat lots of it. Actual recommended daily intake of meat is 5-7 ounces/140-200 grams.

So, right, yeah, had a point. Cattle aren't efficient if used where vegatables/fruit could be grown, and eating less wouldn't do you us any harm.

Re:Isn't that a bit like

[Xarius]

Yeah, McDonalds sent the Africans 100,000 straws with the food.

The Africans sent a letter back saying "thanks for the leg warmers!"

*runs away*

MS providing scammers free copies of MS Money

[Anonymous Coward]

In hopes that they will use it, significantly slowing down their ability to manage their ill-gotten gains.

Helping...

[b1gk1tty]

Doesn't seem to me that Nigeria needs help from M$ to scam Americans... Although MS has been doing it a lot longer...

Correct me if I'm wrong but...

[Anonymous Coward]

Those unsuspecting internet users were basically robbed while attempting to commit a crime, were they not?

Everyone who got dupped should be procecuted for thier crimes not smothered with pity.

Dictator?

[Otonotachibana]

Dictator? She told me she was an african princess! I feel so used...

The REAL letter...

[kulakovich]

1835 73rd Ave NE
Medina, WA 98039
USA


Dear President Obasanjo,

My name is WILLIAM HENRY GATES III, and I am President of the Microsoft Corporation...

Dear Prince Olemeade

[Anonymous Writer]

I am writing to acquire your assistance in recovering significant assets I have acquired from monopolistic business practices. Due to a recent antitrust lawsuit settlement, the funds are being held up by a bunch of government lawyers.

I am willing to pay you $50 million dollars to help me liberate these assets, please provide your banking information so I can wire you the funds.

Sincerely, Bill Gates

Statistics for 1997-2005

[ianscot]

From the National Internet Fraud Watch site, here are some:

Internet Fraud Statistics from 1997 through the first half of 2005

According to those Nigerian money scams were 8% of the total, with an average of two-and-a-half grand lost per victim, in 2004.

(I can't say this group isn't overstating the problem to boost its own importance, but those are stats, anyway.)

Well look at the bright side...

[Yonder Way]

Nigeria was initially slow to respond to the problem of '419' e-mail scammers operating in the country, who were duping unsuspecting Internet users out of thousands of pounds by promising a share of the secret multimillion-pound fortune of a deposed African dictator.

At least they are combating the obesity epidemic.

Check out today's Foxtrot

[pmike_bauer]

On a related note check out today's foxtrot comic.

Let's do this right...

[pieterh]

To the CHAIRMAN of MICROSOFT CORPORATION

Dear MR or MISS CHAIRMAN,

I am OLUSEGUN OBASANJO, the current president of Nigeria, a country in West Africa. I have been referred
to you after Conducting Enquiries, and I hope you treat this contact as a sincere and confidential message
from a friend. Contacts through the Internet have become difficult, with many scammers and tricky boys.

It recently came to my notice that my predecessor, General SANI ABACHA, who is still in good heart and
health, despite my daily visits to the leopard fetish, left a large number of TOP QUALITY SCAMMERS alive
and well in the country of Nigeria, especially concentrated in two regions: Lagos, and Port Harcourt,
thanks to the presence of many internet cafes in those regions.

These scammers, also known as "419 boyos", present me, and my present regime, with a problem. We cannot
ship them out of the country legally, since the very presence of such a mass of scammers in any single
plane or aiport lounge would cause the substance and material of the local internet to collapse, not
to mention the local economy, which would surely be drained of all resources as the boyos did their work.

I am actually contacting you because I have understood that Microsoft has certain problems that we may
be able to resolve in a beneficial fashion.

My Minister for International Relations, Dr Shine-Shine BOBO, has overseen a series of tests. We have
compared the top-rated business development consultants from the USA, India, the UK (London), and the
Chinese Economic Development Zone. We found that the average time taken to sell a new license of Windows
VISTA to the average ITC manager was between two hours and five days, according to the economic incentives
offered, the availability of compromising photos of the aforementioned manager, and the presence or not of
on-site "sales assistants", most of whom previously worked as security personnel for Russian businessmen.

Next, Dr BOBO tested the skills of a group of 419 boyos, captured in a lighting raid by the Special
Business Improvement Task Force (Armed) last July in Benin city. We gave them the choice of selling
VISTA or being tortured with chili peppers (this has worked very well for tax collection, and the
Ministry of Finance has now a special Pepper Insertion unit, responsible for a 30% increase in tax
revenues since 2003!). Most chose VISTA, and the results were impressive!

Not only did 80% of managers agree to buy VISTA within 1.5 hours (as compared to 30% after three hours,
and 60% after two days), but these managers also agreed to pay an average of $150,000 per licensed seat.

Dear MR slash MISS CHAIRMAN. I do not need to mention that with virtual licensing, this could raise
as much as $600,000 per computer.

We are willing to provide you with our best 419 boyos in exchange for only 10% of this new and
exciting revenue stream.

Please contact me rapidly, my email address is obasanjo_olegun_the_second@gmail.com. If you are
serious in your intentions, I will invite you to Abuja to meet my wives.

BEST REGARDS

O. OBASANJO

Re:Pounds?!?

[VJ42]

Yes, you know, these: £££.

Scambait: 419eater.com

[digitaldc]

http://419eater.com/

Has info about scambaiters, kind of a funny effort. But the question must be asked, do 2 wrongs make a right?
article links from last year:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3887493.st m
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/07/13/164 2255&tid=133&tid=111

Interesting and funny read

[Failover]

I came across this on a forum dedicated to exposing 419 scams a few months back, and though it's not one of those emails promising riches (it's an eBay scam), it's still relevant. It's extremely funny, but it also shows the lengths to which they will go to get your money, including threats. http://www.thescambaiter.com/forum/showthread.php? t=109

Re:How many have fallen for these scams?

[Rinnt]

Anyone remember how a diplomat was murdered over these scams?

They asked Microsoft first....

[WoodstockJeff]

... because most of the ones we've received in the past few months are sent by MSN/HOTMAIL users. While many actually used MSN.COM or HOTMAIL.COM accounts, Microsoft has a few hundred "vanity domains", for which there is no accountability whatsoever - attempts to report the spam get bounced, because there is no "abuse@" for these domains, and abuse@hotmail.com will only accept reports of hotmail.com accounts, just as abuse@msn.com will only accept them for msn.com accounts.

It's a nifty little scheme - use one of the vanity domains, and you can send spam for months. The mail is delivered through HOTMAIL.COM servers, so blocking by IP doesn't work. Unless, of course, you are willing to take the colateral damage of blocking all HOTMAIL and MSN customers.

Which, it turns out, might not be much real damage at all...

Re:They asked Microsoft first....

[bani]

but wait! it gets even better.

microsoft is running a SPAMFILTER on their abuse@hotmail.com account!

that's right. if your complaint isn't bounced with:

Unfortunately, we cannot take action on the mail you sent us because it does not reference a Hotmail account.

then your complaints get bounced with:

----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors -----
abuse@css.one.microsoft.com
    (reason: 550 5.7.1 <Your e-mail was rejected by an anti-spam content filter on gateway
(131.107.3.125).Reason...uage, graphics, or spam-like characteristics. Removing these may let the e-mail
through the filter.>)

i think this is a great example of what's wrong with microsoft in general.

Counting the number of morons:

[EmperorKagato]

When does scamming have to do with Microsoft Windows XP?

Re:huh?

[swimmar132]

I see you work for the Microsoft. How's work at the Microsoft? Are you enjoying being part of the Microsoft?

Get out that email tracker!

[hanshotfirst]

I'll bet the Nigerians heard about that Email Tracking Program Bill tested a few years ago. That would be really helpful in seeing who spammed and who got spammed along the way!

It's not just Nigeria... But it's always Microsoft

[glowworm]

Here are a few sample letters from my harvesting mailbox (All original live letters untouched and unedited):

"Dear Sir/Madam

I am an Industrialist and exporter based in China. I established a company named--CHANGZHOU WENDI MANUFACTURING COMPANY LTD in the year 1994. The company principally produces and exports raw materials such as Calcite, Barytes, Manganese Dioxide, Mica, China Clay and Ferrous (Iron) Oxide.
My company's Export market is fast expanding. Owing to our determined efforts to increase the market in Europe, America and Australia, there is the need for us to scout for an Agent/Representative in these continents. Primarily, the Representative if appointed will liaise with our customers for prompt payment.
If you are interested in becoming an Agent/Representative to our fast growing company, kindly send to your proposal/conditions to the CEO's private email address:- wendimanufacturers@yahoo.com.cn
It is imperative to state that your phone/fax number and contact address should be included in your proposal, please.

Yours faithfully,
Changzhou Wendi"

from: changzhouwendimanufacturing2@msn.com

"Dear Acquaintance,

Please permit me to introduce myself, I am John Gray, head of Mortgage department, Royal Bank of Scotland, Liverpool Commercial Banking Centre, 1st Floor 1 Exchange Flags Liverpool L2 3XN, England.

Am introducing you into a project which would need funds to execute and I have made a feasibility study on how much we need to carryout this project, I found out that it will cost about $35,000.00 U.S Dollars. Please do not panic as I have made arrangements for an investor in the United States to help us out,do kindly write back if you are still interested in my brief
explanations which is as follows;

Only recently I discovered that one account belonging to Ms. Fiona Watts now DECEASED has remained dormant for the past two years, after intensive investigations, I found out that Late Ms. Fiona Watts died in a ghastly auto accident in June, 2002.

At this point I am contacting you concerning a business acquaintance that will necessitates you to act as a new beneficiary cum next of kin to the said dormant account as I hope to give you more technical details on how i think we should transfer the funds into your nominated
offshore/residence account. Please I need you to help me with your personal details such as Full names, home/office address, phone and fax numbers respectively, you can also reach me on +44 703 194 4854 or mail back @ JohnGray1@HotPOP.com should you be interested.

PLEASE, YOU MAY ALSO IGNORE THIS LETTER AND RESPECT MY TRUST IN YOU BY NOT EXPOSING THIS TRANSACTION, SHOULD YOU NOT BE INTERESTED.

Sincerely,
John Gray."

from: jgrayofrbs_bank@hotmail.co.uk

"From the Desk of the Head Co-Ordinator
Global Sweepstakes Lottery International
1 Craven Park
Harlesden
London
NW10
United Kingdom
Tel: +447040110537
Fax: +447092865468
Ref: GSL/988/05

Dear Sir/Madam,
WINNING NOTIFICATION.

Over the years the prestigious Global Sweepstakes lottery has set out and
sucessfully organised Sweepstakes on a daily,weekly,and annual basis. We
have equally maintained a standard unrivaled in the industry as it concerns
the pay out of winnings to sucessful participants.
In line with the commemorating event marking our 10th year anniversary we
rolled out over &pound;2,000.000.00(Two million British Pounds) for our 10th year
Anniversary Draws. Participants for the draws were randomly selected and
drawn from a wide range of web hosts which enjoy our patronage. The
selection was made through a computer draw system attaching personalised
email addresses to ticket numbers.
Your email address as indicated was drawn and attached to Ticket Number
003895337498 with serial numbers GSL/9080118308/03 and drew th