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Louisana Police Bust an Infamous Nigerian Email Spam Scammer (hothardware.com)
MojoKid writes: You have probably at some point been contacted via email spam by someone claiming you are the beneficiary in a will of a Nigerian prince. As the scam goes, all you have to do is submit your personal information and Western Union some funds to process the necessary paperwork, and in return you will receive millions of dollars. One of the people behind the popular scam, Michael Neu, has been arrested by police in Slidell, Louisiana.
This may come as a shocker, but Neu is not a prince, nor is he Nigerian. He is a 67-year-old male possibly of German descent (based on his last name) who is facing 269 counts of wire fraud and money laundering for his alleged role as a middle man in the scheme. According to Slidell police, some of the money obtained by Neu was wired to co-conspirators who do actually live in Nigera.
This may come as a shocker, but Neu is not a prince, nor is he Nigerian. He is a 67-year-old male possibly of German descent (based on his last name) who is facing 269 counts of wire fraud and money laundering for his alleged role as a middle man in the scheme. According to Slidell police, some of the money obtained by Neu was wired to co-conspirators who do actually live in Nigera.
...I am writing to tell you about a dear friend who is trapped in a country by horrible forces in the States of Louisiana. He was to handle a large transfer of funds. But now we must have the money transferred and some for use in his legal issues. He gave us your most worthy name as a trusted dear friend who could assist and you can keep some of the money.
More importantly, good old Michael Neu probably answered an ad for too good to be true pay for light office work. These guys are called arrows, who receive and fire the money through a series of other persons.
Ladies and gentlemen, if the pay's too good and the work's too easy, no catch, it probably means you're involved in a scam.
Every poker table has a sucker. Look around the table. If you can't find him, congratulations, it's you.
Science advances one funeral at a time- Max Planck
My favorites were actually the ones which purported to be from the widow of either a banker or a military officer. Invariably they would initially talk about being a dear Christian woman, then invariably progress to asking for help with some illegal transaction - tax fraud, theft from the estate of a dead person, etc.
I thought most of these 419 scammers had faded away... but apparently not.
#DeleteChrome
Gullible people were NOT his only victims. What about everybody who does not want to receive unsolicited shit mails in their inbox all the time? This crap keeps getting through all the SPAM filters and makes email a useless joke. Anybody participating in the misuse and abuse of the email system should be punished heavily, they are beyond redemption.
If I had a DeLorean... I would probably only drive it from time to time.
Allow me to introduce myself. I am a Sherriff in Louisiana. My department has recently impounded a large amount of stolen money ($153,210,093.12, to be exact) from a highly illegal internet swindling operation. Following the trial and conviction of the brigands, and after a dutiful records search it, appears that some of these funds were from a relative of yours. Unfortunately that relative is now deceased, and we believe you have legal title to approximately one third of the money once you establish your bona fides Please forward us your details and a $925 fee for the services of a court appointed trustee from the law firm of Dewy, Cheetam, and Howe, to process your claim and send you a check. If your include your bank account details we can wire the money to your account directly and can refund you half of the processing fee. Please do not delay as tax law changes under discussion may result in a loss of up to 30% of the money due you.
Respectfully
Larson E. Maggot
Sherriff, Louisiana
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
This crap keeps getting through all the SPAM filters and makes email a useless joke.
Nonsense. These "Nigerian" scams are the easiest things in the world to filter out. The are actually specifically designed to look like obvious scams, and the misspellings and even the claim to be Nigerian are intentional fabrications.
You see, for these scammers, the worst thing in the world is to waste time on semi-intelligent people who may fall for the initial hook, but then turn skeptical when asked to front money. So they only want to deal with the stupidest of the stupid. So they design a scam that only a total idiot would fall for, in order to separate the idiots from the herd.
If your filter isn't triggered by "Nigerian prince", then you deserve to be spammed.
> Louisana Police
That had to have been very... very low hanging fruit