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Nigerian "Scam Police" Shut Down 800 Web Sites
Sooner Boomer writes "Nigerian police, in what is named Operation 'Eagle Claw,' have shut down 800 scam web sites and arrested members of 18 syndicates behind the fraudulent scam sites. Reports on Breitbart.com and Pointblank give details on the busts. The investigation was done in cooperation with Microsoft to help develop smart technology software capable of detecting fraudulent emails. From Breitbart: 'When operating at full capacity, within the next six months, the scheme, dubbed "Eagle Claw," should be able to forewarn around a quarter of million potential victims.'"
Would you like to help me transfer millions of nira to me? You will be well paid!
In other news, Americans now falling victim to fraudulent spam emails from individuals claiming to be members of the Royal Family of the Ivory Coast.
Anybody want my mod points?
using the same smart technology software they used to track the rewards for all those Microsoft Giveways email forwards...
http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/nothing/microsoft-aol.asp
I didn't get my money from the Prince yet!
Finally! It's about time that international police and anti-crime resources put the same effort in stopping online cross border crime that they do for offline!
Kudos to Microsoft for helping. Heck, I would accept help from Satan himself, if it reduce the spam and online crime.
Unfortunately, humans are quite stupid. Even smart people are often stupid outside their area of expertise. I know someone professor at a major university who almost fell for one of these scams. It is hard to draw the line between ignorance and stupidity but as long as ignorant or stupid people exist unethical will try to take advantage of them. And they'll just find new ways of doing it. More education is probably the key. But even then, they'll just modify the scams accordingly.
So what are the odds the "smart technology software capable of detecting fraudulent emails" is just spamassassin ?
I rather enjoy getting those letters. The last one I replied that I was extremely interested but that I had recently had a dispute with my Internet Service Provider and my access to email would be shut down soon. I would be more than willing to help them if they could send $98.43 to Time Warner Cable referencing account number ################.
There are other variations. Such as I can help them get the money out of the country but I need more money to pay my lawyer to settle some estate disputes. Buy me a ticket to Nigeria and I will come there personally. My rich family members think this is a joke and I have been cut off from the family money but I can show them if I can just get to Nigeria and show them that this is real.
My record so far is stringing these guys along for 2 weeks. They finally give up frustrated. I actually had one of them write me back asking to be left alone and stop sending him emails.
Some king just died and his cousin needed my help and promised to repay me half a million dollars for my bank account information, which I sent of course, because I'm not an idiot. But just how the hell am I supposed to contact him now?
In an effort to make their products look good, Microsoft paid off a bunch of Nigerian police who have known about these people for years and didn't really care.
Those Who Sacrifice Liberty For Security Deserve Neither.
Did I do it right? Will I get more mod points if it's in bold?
Technology cannot eliminate human stupidity. What person doesn't know not to go double clicking on random EXEs, install random Active X controls, etc. yet the number of virus infested Windows boxes shows that most people don't follow that advice. Seriously, how many people think they can make millions by following the directions in these e-mails?
The success of these e-mails is a testament to human stupidity in and of itself.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
How am I supposed to get my share of the money now that they have arrested the Nigerian prince who was going to transfer millions of dollars using my bank account?
"Funny business? Why, Miss Chase, you hurt my feelings. I mean, there ain't nothin' funny about...the EAGLE CLAW!"
- Argyle, "stalwart Ghoul manservant" of adventurer Herbert "Daring" Dashwood.
Step 1: Was the email sent via "Genuine Microsoft Outlook 2009"?
Step 2: If not, it's clearly a scam. You know how those "free software" people are.
Once my supervisor told me, there is no need for doctors if there is no disease. If everybody is smart as you said, keeping their computer free of viruses, all IT people will be out of the street, waiting for people to throw pennies to the cup, hope to able to buy something to eat at the end of the day.
New Economic Perspectives
I hope the message they send out is "you're an idiot if you believe the crap they're sending you." That's all the warning most people need.
Google's Super Secret Search Algorithm: SELECT @search_results FROM internet WHERE @search_results = 'good'
The "victims" of these scams aren't as stupid as they are greedy. Combine the two, and you'll understand how Wall Street works.
For justice, we must go to Don Corleone
As the result of this "eagle claw" operation, Nigeria will experience a 25% reduction of their GDP and seeing trade deficit for the first time in their history.
New Economic Perspectives
I'm no rocket surgeon, but that doesn't seem like much of success rate.
Just a quick note. Most "smart" people assume giving the person the account information is the scam. When it isn't. They just use that info to make some official looking forged documents.
They make money by having small charges that they need paid. Transfer fees that if you pay (from a couple hundred bucks upwards of 10 grand) will help make the process go far quicker. Then even more charges show up.
They don't need to manually drain your account when you'll do it willingly.
Sooner or later they disappear of course. And you're 30 grand poorer.
Just shut the fuck up, you wanna-be karma whore.
Finally! It's about time that international police and anti-crime resources put the same effort in stopping online cross border crime that they do for offline!
Kudos to Microsoft for helping. Heck, I would accept help from Satan himself, if it reduce the spam and online crime.
Well, I suspect that even though the tech is not fully deployed yet, these sites were already showing up as scam sites in Firefox and the latest versions if IE.
I suspect the Nigerian police snarfed up the already useless sites and shut them down in a halfhearted show of being proactive even while on the take. Probably took the opportunity to get rid of a few competitors as well.
These guys have been operating there for so long that only a corrupt police force could have missed them. There is plenty of evidence these guys are less than squeaky clean: http://hubpages.com/hub/Nigerian-Police--bribe-and-fraud and http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=76458 etc.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
Well, there goes about a quarter of the scam email I see on my servers.
Per HOUR.
Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
Greetings, I was referring to you by my dearest friend, my name Bendo Haoraabn and I am writing you in great confidence from Nigerian prison...
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
I AM A LOWLY CIVIL SERVENT RESPONSIBLE FOR CLEANING UP AFTER THE GLORIOUS OPERATION 'EAGLE CLAW' AND HAVE DETERMINED THAT YOU HAVE BEEN PREVIOUSLY DUPED INTO GIVING $ 77, 056 USD TO NIGERIAN SCAM OFFICER. AS A RESULT OF THE NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT TIRELESS SEARCH OF TRUTH AND JUSTICE, I AM HAPPY TO SAY THAT WE WILL BE RETURNING ALL OF YOUR MONEY.
PLEASE FAX US ALL OF YOUR CURRENT BANK ACCOUNT AND IDENTIFICATION DOCUMENTS TO 01-234-419-23222 AND WE WILL IMMEDIATELY BEGIN TO PROCESS YOUR INFORMATION, AS WELL AS ADDING A $5,061 DOLLAR REWARD FEE AS REQUIRED BY THE NIGERIAN FEDERAL COURT. TO FACILITATE THE PROCESSING OF YOUR INFORMATION, PLEASE INCLUDE THE ROUTING NUMBER, ACCOUNT NUMBER, AND SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER ASSOCIATED WITH YOUR PRIMARY BANKING ACCOUNT (FAILING TO INCLUDE THIS NUMBER WILL DISQUALIFY YOU FROM CONSIDERATION FOR THE $5,061 REWARD).
YOUR FAITHFUL CIVIL SERVANT,
MOGWAH MUBUGASHS
Given Nigeria's cash-poor economy, they probably forgot to bribe a policeman. Given that they 800 web sites, it was probably only a few servers or desktop machines. We can expect this scam to be in force until their upstream connectivity is willing to do _anything_ about such abuses.
That's no eagle claw, it's just the way Wikus's hand grew back, you insensitive MNU clods.
Village idiot in some extremely smart villages.
I know that you will be shocked to have received this notice,but let me explain.I am Mr.Officer MUGABE AKINSO TSUKWAME with the Nigerian National Police Force,Special Internet Fraud Task Force.Following a recent raid on the offices of Mr.OLOSEGUN OBASANJO,President of Nigeria,we have secured illicit funds in the amount of FOURTEEN MILLION (US$4,100,000.00).We are certain these funds are tied to illegal fraudulent activities including electronic mail fraud,fiduciary embezzlement,and blackmail.To ensure that this evidence is kept securely until the trial,due to the risk in the Nigerian Government,we are seeking your assistance in holding these funds in a bank in your country.Please provide the standard necessary information NAME,DOB,NAME OF MOTHER,NEXT OF KIN,BANK ACCT NUMBER,ROUTING NUMBER,PIN,ZIP CODE,FAVORITE COLOR,COLLEGE MASCOT,FINGERPRINT,NATIONAL ID SOCIAL NUMBER,MIDDLE INITIAL.May God shine upon your soul for helping Nigeria rid itself of corruption and fraud.
[
> "Nigerian police in what is named Operation 'Eagle Claw' have shut down 800 scam web sites..."
That leaves only 9,262,341 to go...
Ahem...
BURN!
I suspect the Nigerian police snarfed up the already useless sites and shut them down in a halfhearted show of being proactive even while on the take. Probably took the opportunity to get rid of a few competitors as well.
Never discount the possibility that a different organisation can offer a higher bribe.
Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear
Damn, They we're just about to send me a check....
I am no rocket scientist either but even I know in real terms that is a MASSIVE success rate, better than most legitimate spam marketting campaigns.
i represent the late james smith esq of lagos, nigeria. the late mr james left a substantial amount in his will to fund the development of a network of wireless sensors atop lampposts here in lagos, however due to a bug in the software that generates the front page of popular website slashdot.org, the money has mistakenly gone to cambridge, ma instead. i seek your assistance in paying for urgent legal counsel in your great country of america as to transfer the lawyers fees from here would take several months due to the bureaucratic and corrupt nature of our public servants. in return, we will award you 10% of the amount we recover. please send the amount of usd5000 in cash to our lawyers office address at an anonymous dropbox in netherlands.
YOURS GRATIOUSLY,
MR GEORGE BURNS III
I don't know why people are complaining. I've made millions helping out these poor people transfer their money! I'm sure you can all pitch in. Nigeria needs all the help it can get. I'm moving to my private island next week. Ta-ta!
Aw man! That must be why the Honorable Mr. Ngoti Mbutu is not returning my calls. He happened to know my uncle, the esteemed Doctor Alfred Mookiemu, who unbeknownst to me was rich and was sitting on $9,764,546.56, when he was killed in a car crash with his whole family. Fortunately for me Mr. Mbutu was managing his account at the time of his death and found me in the International business archives. He is taking a great risk by contacting me to help me get my uncle's money. All he asked for in return was my bank account numbers, my personal info, and my Social Security number! Sadly, I haven't heard from him since I gave him my info. Gee, I hope the little fella is OK. He seemed like such a nice guy with his endearingly bad grammar and spelling.'
One of my alltime favorites on getting back at the scammer:
http://www.zug.com/pranks/powerbook/
I've got a feeling that Nigeria will be the next country to enter the US's list of "evil nations".
The largest prime factor of my UID is 263267.
Where can i get my Mugu jollies from now? /served
Are you sure they closed down 800 sites, and not 419 sites? ;-)
Program Intellivision!
Or does this part sound suspiciously like the contents of an email scam:
"The investigation was done in cooperation with Microsoft, to help develop smart technology software capable of detecting fraudulent emails. "
Sounds like the old BETA Email Tracking Application to me. I wonder if AOL is involved?
This doesn't make any sense at all. The second article says it's 800 email addresses, not websites. I doubt the scammers has many websites hosted in Nigeria, if needed they usually set up accounts on European webhotels where neither Nigeria nor the Microsoft Empire has any form of jurisdiction.
In other words: 800 email addresses somehow shut down. Wow. I bet it will be really hard for new scammers to open new accounts on gmail or yahoo.hk, or set up a new somescammingbank.co.uk at some cheap webhotel using fake names.
Dear Sir: As you may know, we of the Nigerian police force have recently shut down some 800 websites alleged to be operating fraudulently to illegally obtain transfer of funds from rich Americans. In the course of our investigation we discovered 51 bank accounts in different false names, holding a total of $437,509. If our superiors learn of these accounts, they will just take them to share with their corrupt friends, many of whom took bribes to look the other way for so long in the matter of these scams. We would like your assistance in extracting this money to American bank accounts so we can move out of this pit of a country. In return for your consideration, we are willing to split the funds equally with you. Please respond quickly, or we must regretfully offer this opportunity to some other worthy American.
Heck, I would accept help from Satan himself, if it reduce the spam and online crime.
Allow me to introduce myself, being Dr. Faustus a business associate of Mr. Satan who as you know is an excellent Prince of Darkness and Spam, resident in many parts of Nigeria. I am sure we can come to an amicable arrangement whereby Mr. Satan's spam services are directed to others instead of yourself. Some anticipated administrative expenses needing to be circumvented, please be replying with your credit card and banking details, and numerous photographs of naked women.
After all, the retards of the world must be good for something. ^^
Look at it like this: The service that they offered, was natural selection. If you're too dumb to get such a primitive scam, you will have less money. Which is good for the rest of us, who still have their money. Because we will then have an advantage. Something that it all too rare, in this world of anti-selection, where the worst are the most supported.
I always looked at them doing me a free service. :) If I sell my own products and services to Nigeria, the money gets back here, and no nationwide harm is caused.
This whole movement of anti-selection is really sad. It's the one thing, prior to wars, criminality, pandemics, meteors falling from the sky, and other global catastrophes, that I think has the biggest chance of destroying all of humanity.
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
So you actually wished for the retards of the world to have more power? Because that's exactly what they have now. Because they now have more money.
Wait for them spending it on the things you hate the most. Making TV, politics, and the whole country... just a little bit worse.
Oh thank you so very much!
Because I don't have to live in your country. So now I will have an advantage over all of your country. Including you.
But hmmm... I could do even better... Hey, I have a REALLY nice spam filtering system on my servers. With graylisting, spamasassin, amavis, 3 anti-spam networks, SPF, etc. I offer it at the price of only one soul! How's that? The butt-rapings are only daily! Buy now! :P
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
This means I'm not getting all those millions from Princess Zubikila anymore? Damn police!
Maybe now those pesky Nigerians will finally have to learn how to spell "guarantee" correctly, hehe. Hell, even I could have written the software that figures that one out.
Kudos to Microsoft for helping. Heck, I would accept help from Satan himself, if it reduce the spam and online crime.
Dealing with Satan has a rather high cost. Ask Faust all about it.
... and we have shut down several scams. One of the companies we closed owes you money. Please send your name, address, SSN, and banking account information to me.
It's Linux, damnit! Pay no attention to renaming attempts by self-aggrandizing blowhards.
I know the Nigerian Scam Police. They keep sending me emails claiming they are the FBI.
My guess is that in a very poor country like Nigeria, the authorities might even turn a blind eye to their citizens scamming foreigners, unless pressure is placed on their country by said foreigners.
Why? These scammers are cheating US citizens out of millions of dollars, which then flow conveniently... into the Nigerian economy.
More foreign money flowing into your economy means more prosperity for everyone. Not just the scammers, but everyone else because those scammers will spend their ill-gotten money throughout the country.
So unless pressure is brought upon Nigeria by other countries that Nigerians are scamming, the local authorities are really not going to care all that much, outside maybe a dozen token arrests where they just slap the scammer on the wrist and say "You bad boy, don't do that again!"
At least that's my theory.
Damm, now I'm never going to get the millions of dollars I've been told to expect any day now.
Now I will be able to know when I won a real lottery and when I am being scammed!
This is an international criminal conspiracy that has stolen millions of dollars from citizens of foreign country through fraud, deliberately and repeatedly.
If the persons responsible are not arrested and prosecuted in their home country by the local authorities, after repeated requests from the victimized country, then an act of war has been committed.
What we have basically is about 50-100 high-level con artists paying off the local fraud squad to look the other way in a corrupt backward third-world country that has a lot of oil and far far too many people. The Americans should threaten to block financial transfers to the Nigerian 'government' and block internet access (if possible) until all of the stolen money is returned.
Faust Post!
/ducks
There is no right to feel safe thru security vaudeville at the expense of everyone's freedom, privacy and tax money.
Heck, I would accept help from Satan himself, if it reduce the spam and online crime.
But would you accept help from Microsoft?
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Further it is projected that advisory mails to be sent to victims and potential victims will be about 230,000 monthly.
So we're augmenting the flow: now not only will I get "Greetings Dear, I am Ivan Ilych of the First National Bank of Nigeria" but also "Warning from Operation Eagle Claw: You may have been pwn3d!" And no doubt, "Warning from Operation Eagle Claw: You have been pwn3d. Your identity has been stolen by a Nigerian scam syndicate. Please verify your identity by sending us your SSN and we will fix everything."
"The biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has taken place."
I don't understand why these SCAM sites stay up so long anyway. Tracing a site is simple, even though a smart individual may be able to hide their tracks. Just turn off the domain the e-mail links to...it is that simple! If the scam site is international and registration authorities there won't play ball, block DNS referrals to that country. They will start playing nice in short order.
Given that the police seem incapable or unwilling to really go after these people, maybe it is time for the tech community to quit complaining and start doing something.