Do email scams really work?

Pi1otguy

Pi1otguy

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Display name:
Fox McCloud
I don't mind that are lying abour their location (IL through a Korean server according to header?). I don't mind the obvious appeal to one's greed. I not that mad that they spoofed a army email as that kind like the zebra being mad at the lion.

Regardless of my political leanings I'm mad and offended at the implied stupidity of both me and members of the army who apparently email random people to assist in apparently illegal activities involving shipping and presumably laundering millions in paper currency from a war zone.

Does this really work any more?

email said:
Dear Friend,
With a very desperate need for assistance, I have summed up courage to contact you. I am from(will disclose this later), presently working in Iraq with an international organization that I will also disclose later, I found your contact particulars in an address journal.I am seeking your assistance to evacuate the sum of(US$18.523 Million Dollars) Eighteen Million, five Hundred And Twenty Three Thousand US Dollars to your country or any other safe country of your choice, as far as I can be assured that my share will be safe in your care until I complete my service here,this is no stolen money,and there are no dangers involved.
SOURCE OF MONEY:
Some money in various currencies was discovered concealed in barrels with piles of weapons and ammunitions at a location near one of Saddam,sold palaces during a rescue operation, and it was agreed by all party present that the money be shared amongst us, this was quite an illegal thing to do, but I tell you what? no compensation can make up for the risks we have taken with our lives in this hell hole The above figure was given to me as my share, and to conceal this kind of money became a problem for me, so with the help of a German contact working here, and his office enjoys some immunity, I was able to get the package out to a safe cation entirely out of trouble spot. He does not know the real contents of the package,and believes that it belongs to an Asian/American who died in an air raid, and before giving up, trusted me to hand over the package to his business associate. I have now found a secured way of getting the package out to a safer country for you to pick up, and!
will discuss this with you .
Your full name:
Your country:
Contact phone number:
Age:
Occupation:
I await your urgent reply
Regards,
[name removed incase it is somehow real]
20 Armoured Brigade in Basra
Click to expand...

For the techies
header said:
From MR (name removed) Fri Dec 19 15:11:15 2008
Return-Path: <(removed)@us.army.mil>
Authentication-Results: mta448.mail.re4.yahoo.com from=us.army.mil; domainkeys=neutral (no sig)
Received: from 210.92.140.22 (EHLO ckdpharm.com) (210.92.140.22)
by mta448.mail.re4.yahoo.com with SMTP; Fri, 19 Dec 2008 15:24:24 -0800
Received: from User ([67.217.36.132]) by ckdpharm.com with Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.1830);
Sat, 20 Dec 2008 08:11:35 +0900
Reply-To: <(removed)@hotmail.com>
From: "MR (Name removed)"<(removed)@us.army.mil>
Subject: ASSIST ME OUT OF IRAQ URGENTLY
Date: Sat, 20 Dec 2008 00:11:15 +0100
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain;
charset="Windows-1251"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Bcc:
Return-Path: (removed)@us.army.mil
Message-ID: <CKD-ADSJIEoPXCFbN4T0000b4b1@ckdpharm.com>
Content-Length: 1841
Click to expand...
 
For 99% of the people it just as you say.
There was a story recently on CNN or FOX of a women in California I believe that gave up a VERY large sum of money thinking that in the end she would get her "cut". Above 50K I believe.
They are just looking for that 1%. I used to get this stuff all the time, why it stopped I don't really know, didn't do anything special but was entertaining to read sometimes the stories they came up with.

Mark B
 
markb5900 said:
For 99% of the people it just as you say.
There was a story recently on CNN or FOX of a women in California I believe that gave up a VERY large sum of money thinking that in the end she would get her "cut". Above 50K I believe.
They are just looking for that 1%. I used to get this stuff all the time, why it stopped I don't really know, didn't do anything special but was entertaining to read sometimes the stories they came up with.

Mark B
Click to expand...

I saw a similar story years ago about a former university prof that was getting scammed thousands of $ at a time. The scammers kept saying something like "we need to cover this $2000 fee" for months to the tune of ~$15,000.
 
Pi1otguy said:
I got a $800,000 ATM card comming to me from Nigeria. I'll split it 70/30 if you front me $150 in fees.:D
Click to expand...
Heck, I'd make the whole offer contingent upon a satisfying dinner at Outback. I'm not greedy! :)
 
It might not amount to much, but one good thing you can do is to forward the email to abuse@<whatever>.<whatever> (hotmail.com in this case) for the address that they tell you to contact them at or the reply-to. It's not exactly a gratifying death-blow to scammers everywhere, but it'll most likely at least end up in that one address being shut down -- and maybe a few active scams being stopped in their tracks. :dunno:
 
Never, ever underestimate greed and stupidity... :frown2:

And remember: "Anything free is worth what you pay for it." :D
 
I am old enough to remember when we used to get these, by postal mail, from Nigeria. They were typed on very thin onion-skin paper, and personally-addressed. Where the mailing lists came from, I do not know.

Nothing new here.

My (legitimate) Nigerian clients tell me that the core issue is that the Nigerian populace is, as a whole, well-educated, but with the degree of corruption in Nigeria (and most of equatorial Africa), the lack of genuine opportunity means that, denied an honest living, innovators will try for a dishonest one.
 
SCCutler said:
I am old enough to remember when we used to get these, by postal mail, from Nigeria. They were typed on very thin onion-skin paper, and personally-addressed. Where the mailing lists came from, I do not know.

Nothing new here.

My (legitimate) Nigerian clients tell me that the core issue is that the Nigerian populace is, as a whole, well-educated, but with the degree of corruption in Nigeria (and most of equatorial Africa), the lack of genuine opportunity means that, denied an honest living, innovators will try for a dishonest one.
Click to expand...

Um, er, like certain occupations are pereceved in the U. S.? :rofl:
 
wabower said:
Um, er, like certain occupations are pereceved in the U. S.? :rofl:
Click to expand...


Now, now. There are many who consider Chiropractic to be a legitimate healing art, and lacking core knowledge on the point, I'll not challenge them.
 
SCCutler said:
...My (legitimate) Nigerian clients tell me that the core issue is that the Nigerian populace is, as a whole, well-educated, but with the degree of corruption in Nigeria (and most of equatorial Africa), the lack of genuine opportunity means that, denied an honest living, innovators will try for a dishonest one.
Click to expand...

Nigeria has a culture where the teefs are actually celebrated and looked up to.

You should hear my neighbor talk about figuring out which Nigerians legitimately have fuel vs. 98% that want to rip them off.
 
SCCutler said:
Now, now. There are many who consider Chiropractic to be a legitimate healing art, and lacking core knowledge on the point, I'll not challenge them.
Click to expand...

Oh. I was thinking more about people in the aviation business, but you make a good point.
 
ReverendSlappy said:
It might not amount to much, but one good thing you can do is to forward the email to abuse@<whatever>.<whatever> (hotmail.com in this case) for the address that they tell you to contact them at or the reply-to. It's not exactly a gratifying death-blow to scammers everywhere, but it'll most likely at least end up in that one address being shut down -- and maybe a few active scams being stopped in their tracks. :dunno:
Click to expand...

When I used to get the Nigerian emails, I would send them to the U.S. Secret Service, who deal with such things. The FBI didn't want anything to do with them.
 
Spike, I had no idea that these Nigerian scams went that far back. It makes more sense with eMail, where the cost to send out thousands of eMails is virtually nothing. For them to have done it with international postage is far more interesting.

I often wonder if it's humans who write these. Let's see what I have in my spam inbox since last night when I deleted it (17 messages):

hi from alyssa (something about a dating website?)
Relax and take your time. (CIALIS)
Watch your pounds disappear! (weight loss)
SPECIAL Pharmacy Discount! 10Viagra+10Cializ=$69.99 (duh...)
Relax and take your time. (Why do these people think I have ED?)
Always be ready (No, seriously, I have no need for Viagra)
tdupuis(at)gmail(dot)com,Limited-Time Offers (I don't even know what this is)
Receive the watch you've always dreamt of. (Wow, a Timex?! I never thought I could afford one!)
A prestige watch is a part of your image. (You're right, I should get my watch at WalMart)
GenericViagra 12 pills 100mg $42.56 (Seriously, this is getting old)
Christmas Sale: Luxury Rep1icaWatches $220 (I already said I'm buying my watch at WalMart)

Alright, you get the idea. Seriously, do humans come up with this stuff?

*delete all spam messages now*
 
Now thinking about another form of this. A number of scammers made it to eBay. While some exist in selling, most of them exist in buying, as in trying to get your goods for free. The one time someone tried to scam me was about 4 years ago when trying to sell my '97 GMC Sierra 2500 SL. To give you an idea of how great this truck was, it was a 4x2 long bed extended cab with vinyl interior (ooh... nice) in traffic safety yellow with a black hood. The reason I was selling it was that, with 173,000 miles on the odometer, the #8 connecting rod on the mighty 6.5L Turbo Diesel decided to free itself from its bonds of slavery, and thusly ejected itself from the engine, taking out the oil pan and starter with it.

And so I received a correspondence along the lines of:

Scammer: "HELLO SELLER, IS THE VEHICLE STILL FOR SALE?" (while the auction is still going on)
Me: "Yes, the truck is still for sale. Do you have any questions?" (figuring this is a scam, but I may as well be polite)
Scammer: "Dear sir, I am glad to hear that your car is still for sale. Let me explain who I am. It is a matter of great urgency that I purchase your vehicle immediately. I am working in Nigeria and we need your vehicle."

I'm sure my grammar and spelling are better than his were. I found it amusing that it was highly urgent for my 2 wheel drive truck with only 7 cylinders was somehow urgently needed in Nigeria. I ended communication there.

Interestingly, though, international buyers who are not scammers do exist. One of my friends sold his truck (a '93 Chevy Silverado 3500 crew cab long bed, also 4x2 with the 6.5 TD) to some people who then drove it down to Guatemala for it to live there. Go figure - it had 214,000 miles when he sold it and needed a transmission, plus the rear axle was binding up. And those were the best features the truck had. They were legit, paid him in cash, and now the truck lives down in Guatemala.
 
SCCutler said:
I am old enough to remember when we used to get these, by postal mail, from Nigeria. They were typed on very thin onion-skin paper, and personally-addressed. Where the mailing lists came from, I do not know.

Nothing new here.

My (legitimate) Nigerian clients tell me that the core issue is that the Nigerian populace is, as a whole, well-educated, but with the degree of corruption in Nigeria (and most of equatorial Africa), the lack of genuine opportunity means that, denied an honest living, innovators will try for a dishonest one.
Click to expand...

Ditto. I've done some work with Liberians and Nigerians - Spike's comment is generally on the mark, except to add that in *some* parts of those two countries dishonest work is actually considered to be making an honest living. Sorta like (oh, never mind, that'll put this thread in spin zone...)
 
I have a physical letter I received from Nigeria a number of years ago wanting assistance in retrieving some government bank fund from some widow of some government official. I kept it somewhere because it was just so funny at the time.
 
gkainz said:
I have a physical letter I received from Nigeria a number of years ago wanting assistance in retrieving some government bank fund from some widow of some government official. I kept it somewhere because it was just so funny at the time.
Click to expand...

The also sent random faxes. My Seattle Sutton's guy showed me the "I must transfer a large amount of money" fax he got and wondered if it was legit. I assured him it wasn't. He was from South Africa and should have known better.
 
I know for a fact that these emails very definitely do work, and that the gullible are bilked out of millions of dollars. In fact, I'm personally working with a Nigerian prince who got rich this way, and who needs my help to get his riches out of the country, for which he will reward me handsomely.
-harry
 
mantakos said:
I know for a fact that these emails very definitely do work, and that the gullible are bilked out of millions of dollars. In fact, I'm personally working with a Nigerian prince who got rich this way, and who needs my help to get his riches out of the country, for which he will reward me handsomely.
-harry
Click to expand...

Lucky you!

And here I was thinking how lucky I was when the guy sent me a $4,000 cashiers check for my $600 item, telling me to keep $400 for my trouble...
 
Hmm i wonder if Bernie Madoff used email to market his investments.... Maybe I should check my spam fileter :-)
 
vontresc said:
Hmm i wonder if Bernie Madoff used email to market his investments.... Maybe I should check my spam fileter :-)
Click to expand...

They have a special on Bernie on CNBC. It turns out that many of his victims were personal friends. He was well known, popular and a philanthropist in the affluent Palm Springs / Country Club Jewish community. :eek:
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Interestingly, though, international buyers who are not scammers do exist. One of my friends sold his truck (a '93 Chevy Silverado 3500 crew cab long bed, also 4x2 with the 6.5 TD) to some people who then drove it down to Guatemala for it to live there. Go figure - it had 214,000 miles when he sold it and needed a transmission, plus the rear axle was binding up. And those were the best features the truck had. They were legit, paid him in cash, and now the truck lives down in Guatemala.
Click to expand...

My trainee from Guinea was asking me about the prices of things on eBay after I bought a car on eBay while he was with me. He said that a $1500 Honda that would be regarded as junk here would be worth a LOT over there. It sounded like he was interested in cars for profit, and he was interested in farm equipment to help his brother - Just a simple tractor, and it'd be their first. It's a whole different world over there.
 
Most of these email scams originate in Nigeria and Ghana. I run a website and we get a lot of these scam emails everyday. It's quite time consuming to weed them out and it's also hard to get them all.

You can get IP blockers that will filter some of the IP addresses from Africa and that will take some of it.

Never reply to these messages, if you do they know that your email-address is valid and they will sell it and then your email box will be full of spam and porn in not time!
It's a growing problem and worlwide people are spending thousands of dollars to fight it.
 
lekp1 said:
Most of these email scams originate in Nigeria and Ghana. I run a website and we get a lot of these scam emails everyday. It's quite time consuming to weed them out and it's also hard to get them all.

You can get IP blockers that will filter some of the IP addresses from Africa and that will take some of it.

Never reply to these messages, if you do they know that your email-address is valid and they will sell it and then your email box will be full of spam and porn in not time!
It's a growing problem and worlwide people are spending thousands of dollars to fight it.
Click to expand...
It really isn't all that bad. Spamhaus + SpamAssassin takes care of most of these. Honestly, I haven't received any sort of Nigerian scam e-mail in at least 3 or 4 years.
 
SCCutler said:
Now, now. There are many who consider Chiropractic to be a legitimate healing art, and lacking core knowledge on the point, I'll not challenge them.
Click to expand...

How many chiropractors does it take to change a light bulb?

Only one.

It just takes 28 visits. (Or until your insurance won't pay anymore)
 
lekp1 said:
You can get IP blockers that will filter some of the IP addresses from Africa and that will take some of it.

It's a growing problem and worlwide people are spending thousands of dollars to fight it.
Click to expand...

IDK if blocking IPs will help. I mean a lot of the ones I've seen come from an asian server (Russia, Korea mainly) or through Western IP (botnet?).

jesse said:
It really isn't all that bad. Spamhaus + SpamAssassin takes care of most of these. Honestly, I haven't received any sort of Nigerian scam e-mail in at least 3 or 4 years.
Click to expand...

The spam filters have caught up to a great deal now a days. Yahoo does a great job stopping hundreds of spam emails from hitting my 10 yr old email to the point that I only see 3-8 scams/spams a week. One would think the cost and hastle of shifting to new emails, ISPs & spoofed sites each week or so would get old for the scammer.
 
Pi1otguy said:
IDK if blocking IPs will help. I mean a lot of the ones I've seen come from an asian server (Russia, Korea mainly) or through Western IP (botnet?).



The spam filters have caught up to a great deal now a days. Yahoo does a great job stopping hundreds of spam emails from hitting my 10 yr old email to the point that I only see 3-8 scams/spams a week. One would think the cost and hastle of shifting to new emails, ISPs & spoofed sites each week or so would get old for the scammer.
Click to expand...
Most of these guys are unemployed and are hanging out at Internet cafes. They have plenty of time and if only a rube or two a year responde they still make profit.
 
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