How to become rich!

[Vel]

Heh - here's an email I just got:

FROM:ABRAHAM ZAD
TEL/FAX: 27-72-302-4106


20 BOTHA CRESCENT,
SANDTON, JOHANNESBURG,
SOUTH AFRIAC

MD/CEO,

APPEAL FOR ASSISSTANCE


I know that this message will come to you as a surprise
since we don't know each other before, but for
purpose of introduction, I am ABRAHAM ZAD the Bank Manager
of AMALGAMATED BANK OF SOUTH AFRICA (ABSA).

There is an account opened in this bank in 1990 and since
1998 nobody has operated on this account again. After going
through some old files in the records, I discovered that if
I do not remit this money out urgently it would be
forfeited for nothing. The owner of this account is MR.
SAMUEL CARTER , a foreigner, and a miner at Kruger gold
co., a geologist by profession and he died since 1998.

No other person knows about this account or any thing
concerning it, the account has no other beneficiary and my
investigation proved to me as well that his company does
not know anything about this account and the amount
involved is (USD$35M) thirty five million
United States Dollars.

I am only contacting you as a foreigner because this money
cannot be approved to a local bank here, but can only be
approved to any foreign account because the money is in US
dollars and the former owner of the account is MR.
SAMUEL CARTER a foreigner too.

I know that this message will come to you as a surprise as
we don't know ourselves before. We will sign an agreement,
but be sure that it is real and a genuine business.

Please reply urgently so that I will inform you the next
step to take immediately. Send also your private telephone
and fax number including the full details of the account to
be used for the deposit.

I want us to meet face to face or sign a binding agreement
to bind us together so that you can receive this money into
a foreign account or any account of your choice where the
fund will be safe. And I will fly to your country for
withdrawal and sharing and other investments. I am
contacting you because of the need to involve a foreigner
with foreign account and foreign beneficiary.

I need your full co-operation to make this work fine
because the management is ready to approve this payment to
any foreigner, who has correct information of this account,
which I will give to you later immediately, if you are
capable and willing to handle such amount in strict
confidence and trust according to my instructions and
advice for our mutual benefit because this opportunity will
never come again in my life.

I need truthful person in this business because I don't
want to make mistake I need your strong assurance and
trust. With my position now in the office I can transfer
this money to any foreigner's reliable account, which you
can provide with assurance that this money will be intact
pending my physical arrival in your country for sharing. I
will destroy all documents of transaction immediately we
receive this money leaving no trace to any place. You can
also come to discuss with me face to face after which I
will make this remittance in your presence and two of us
will fly to your country at least two days ahead of The
money going into the account. I will apply for annual leave
to get visa immediately I hear from you that you are ready
to act and receive this fund in your account.

I will use my position and influence to effect legal
approvals and onward transfer of this money to your account
with appropriate clearance forms of the ministries and
foreign exchange departments.

At the conclusion of this business, you will be given 30%
of the total amount, 70% will be for me.

I look forward to your earliest reply through
TEL/FAX: 27-72-302-4106

Yours truly,

ABRAHAM ZAD

[TheDude]

I've been getting these emails for almost a year... There's a site dedicated to scamming the scammers that send them:

http://www.419eater.com/html/letters.htm

[Vel]

Well, how the hell could I know?

[Ghormak]

It's only the most popular kind of scam in the world...

[LordHart]

...and its probably one of the oldest internet scams.

[Flippy_D]

And it's absurdly obvious.

[Barbarian]

It's a re-worded re-hash of the 'old "Nigerian Advanced Fee Scam", or the "Nigerian 419 Scam", which unfortunately have cost some victims more than just thier money, but in some cases thier life:

http://www.scambusters.com/NigerianFee.html
http://www.dawodu.com/oyesanya1.htm
http://www.crimes-of-persuasion.com/Crimes/Business/nigerian.htm

You can find many more examples of this. Do a google of "nigerian scam". Even the FBI has posted warnings about this scam.

[Las Naranjas]

Hell, for about 6 months in the late 90's the back page of the Sydney Morning Herald had a weekly section where readers sent in scams they'd received since the readership enjoyed the amusement calue.

[Czar]

IT IS ALL TRUE!!!

DO IT NOW!!!

Trust me!


8)

[Andail]

I did what they wanted in one of those letters, and I'm now the duke of Botswana, with my own national park and a golden hunting-jeep

so it can't be all bad

[MrColossal]

oh my god you're THAT Andail?!

all the pieces are falling into place!

ps, can I borrow 20 bucks?

[Flippy_D]

....which unfortunately have cost some victims more than just thier money, but in some cases thier life.

Whoa. Really? How so?

[Andail]

....which unfortunately have cost some victims more than just thier money, but in some cases thier life.

Whoa. Really? How so?

I aimed at a giraffe, but hit one of my slaves instead

[TerranRich]

I hate it when that happens.

[Barbarian]

....which unfortunately have cost some victims more than just thier money, but in some cases thier life.

Whoa. Really? How so?

The scam sometimes involves the vitims going to meet the people promising the money, and in some cases they end up getting held-for-ransom and/or murdered. You can read it for yourself from many of the sites warning about the scam. Here's a quote:

"Lurking Dangers

Whether you accept their initial invitation or travel to Nigeria in an attempt to recover your money you are told that a visa will not be necessary to enter the country. They may then bribe airport officials to pass you through Immigration and Customs. 

Because it is a serious offense in Nigeria to enter without a valid visa, your illegal entry may be used as leverage to coerce you into releasing additional funds to them.

If your desire to pursue it wanes you are then pressured or threatened to provide one or more large sums of money to save the venture.  Unsuspecting victims are intimidated, stripped of their money and sometimes even killed. 

Under an awareness program, federal authorities have even gone to airports and convinced victims with thousands of dollars in their possession not to embark on flights that would have eventually placed them in harm's way.  Surprisingly, such warnings occasionally go unheeded, so convinced are the victims that the deal is genuine.

U.S. Secret Service agents have been assigned on a temporary basis to the American Embassy in Lagos to locate and rescue potential victims. In one month alone, in the summer of 1995, agents extricated seven U.S. victims from Nigeria, though one American was murdered while pursuing his lost money and numerous other foreign nationals have been reported as missing.

Held for Ransom

More and more often, reports are appearing of individuals being held for ransom after first being lured overseas with the promise of culminating these exceptional business transactions.  In July, 2001 the Sunday Times reported on the exploits of a former deputy mayor who traveled from Northampton to South Africa and was then kidnapped by the fraudsters.

Luckily he was rescued in an international police operation, but not before being stripped naked and having a gun held to his forehead and told he would be shot if he did not pay a £20,000 ransom.

After flying to South Africa to meet his new "business partners" he was met at the airport by a man and a woman who drove him off in a car to a rented house to meet a "Mr. Ford". There he was confronted by two men armed with a pistol and informed they were holding him prisoner.

Only by alerting his wife of his predicament, in his Polish tongue, during a call he was allowed, was he able to garner police assistance in the form of two detectives who flew to Johannesburg to link up with the South African police.

There telephone traces led the police to a rented house in the East Rand area of the city where the victim had been held in a locked room for nearly 48 hours enduring threats of having his ear cut off and being kneecapped.

As officers began to surround the house, the kidnappers panicked and drove off, eventually leaving him abandoned by the side of the road.  Three Nigerian men were later arrested as they were about to collect the ransom money at a bank.

Police had previously rescued a 42 year old Romanian businessman, Danut Mircea Tetrescu, who was kidnapped ( Nov 9/99 ) and held in Soweto for a $500,000 ransom after flying from Bucharest in response to one of the letters.

At that time police arrested seven suspected gang members, five South Africans and two Nigerians who were being to see if they were the same people who had kidnapped, and probably killed, Kjetil Moe, a 65 year old Norwegian millionaire, in September of 1999.

Mr. Tetrescu and Mr. Moe were among at least nine businessmen known to have fallen victim to this new version of the 4-1-9 scam which weds Nigerian guile to South African strong-arm tactics.

A Japanese businessman, Kensuke Matsumoto, who managed to escape his captors without serious injury, ran into a hotel restaurant in Durban for refuge and to summon the police.

He had been forced to call his son in Japan earlier with the message, "I have been confined. They will not release me until the money is paid. Please send $50,000."

Death By Deception

One of the nine, Jean Pierre Li Shing Tat, a Canadian resident of Mauritius, was found bound and shot twice through the head next to the motorway south of Johannesburg in June/99.  He flew to South Africa in response to a "419" letter later found at his home. After a few days his family received a demand for $200,000 but the deal went wrong and he was murdered.  Four others had survived after paying a ransom, and a fifth had been freed by police. 

While direct violence leads to several deaths each year from this crime, there are also several victims, often unreported, who end up taking their own lives after being roped in to the point of financial or reputational ruin.

Whether Doug Ambrose, director of finance for WaveCom Electronics in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan knew he had been duped by the Nigerians prior to taking his life in July 2001 is open to speculation.  What he did know was that his unauthorized transfer of $105,562 from the company pension fund account had been discovered and he was about to be confronted.

Bank officials failed to notice earlier transfers ranging from $3,600 to nearly $30,000 as they fell below the threshold of observation.  The total amount lost to the scammers has yet to be determined though it is known that he had wired money for the escalating "expenses and fees required" to Nigeria, Beirut, Amsterdam and Frankfurt.

Known as a great guy with a spotless record, Ambrose, 44, must have felt there was no way out of his dilemma even though he was far from the first, or last, professional to be taken in.  One key requirement of victims is that they must have access to relatively large amounts of money themselves, either directly or through fiscal responsibility.

Certain that the "borrowed money" will come back in multiples, lawyers, accountants, bookkeepers and other financial trustees represent a large portion of advance fee fraud victims.  Once hooked beyond the ability to repay their clients' or employer's money they must advance ever further into debt in the deluded hope that the promises of redemption given them shall eventually come true. "

[Primus]

Hi, Vel

That's a way they believe they become rich - not you. They will demand you go somewhere, there they'll eg try to kidnap you or else (eg demanding a sum of money for getting the "big" prize) and demand a sum of money from you to get rid of them. I receive those emails since I haveÃ,  emails - most from "lost treasures" in African countries. So delete those emails and do not worry you - and us - about.

Don't you "google"?!Ã, Ã, 

http://www.mail-archive.com/archive@jab.org/msg86260.html
http://mailman.sil.at/pipermail/medien/2004-May/000004.html
http://mailman.sil.at/pipermail/medien/2004-May.txt
http://list.cineca.it/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0405&L=security-archive&F=&S=&P=19217
and alotta more...

[YOke]

I know that this message will come to you as a surprise as
we don't know ourselves before.

It seems like an amateurish scam, but then suddenly he gets into deeply philosophical thoughts. 

And I know of one case where a Norwegian guy disappeared after going down to South Africa to find out where his money were. Price of being a sucker I guess... 

[Primus]

Thanks, TheDude, for this link:
http://www.419eater.com/html/letters.htm

I became addict to this site, and was sad I didn't know it earlier...
And I have already laughed my lungs of...

As I speak English, alotta years ago a friend of mine asked me toÃ,  receive a call at his work, in his name. Then I received a very strange call, on which a guy with a strong African accent said my friend should go to (I don't remember now which) an African country. I immediately realized it was a trap. I warned my friend at once he shouldn't ever believe on those guys, as if he went there he would be, at least, robbed and, in the worst case, killed. That was my first "close encounter" with those aliens. He has never explained to me how he came up with that strange call.

I just understood that strange call when I started receiving those emails myself. Tired of just deleting those scams, I once answered to a scam sending a very big and naughty video, where a girl was being sodomized by a black guy. So the Nigerian guy answered me telling he didn't understand what was for what I sent to him, and so on. Then I answered him it was to place that money he had in the account up his... And also wrote a friend of me in the Interpol would also give a hand... er... a p3nis... on that matter. Well, from then on that email didn't receiveÃ, those scams (was receiving about about six-ten a year) anymore.
If I knew the above site, I'd got (or come up with) an idea for phucking those "suns of a beach", as demanding they should perform very ridiculous and phucking tasks - as the ones on that site: I look forward one of them has the unlucky idea of sending me an email...
I am almost sure there are organizations, and those scams are not individual iniciatives.

Yoke, there are "believers" (read suckers) anywhere... and greed itself may turn people into suckers, too.

PS: Barbarian, I've checked your links too, and they are very good and informative: thanks for them, too!

[Paper Carnival]

Being a scamm baiter is extremely fun really... Just make a free yahoo account or something, search in google for "guestbook +mugu +guymen"... Then post your e-mail in the guestbook as well as a comment like "very nice site" or something positive. In a couple of days, you should be getting free e-mails from scammers! Then you can mess with them (check www.419eater.com, it has some great examples) and waiste their time. The idea is, the more you waiste their time the less time they have to steal money from potential victims.

[Primus]

Hi, Guybrush!Ã, 

Thanks for your very useful info, but I'd prefer to waitÃ,  one of those "Mugus" would be too lucky to get an email of mine now, as I've learnt to become more and more cautious about my own personal and professional emails, mostly due to SS (Scam and Spam). Unfortunately, I don't have spare time now for becoming a "scammbuster"... Only if one of them let an email on one of my ones, I repeat. Thanks again!

But I think Vel could make that one dance and sing accordingly, if he wants...Ã,  and even get ideas for a game about it.