Really lame and blatant Nigerian 419 scam
Today, I received an email containing a Nigerian 419 scam that while laughable for its horrible spelling and punctuation, makes an upfront demand for payment. Normally, these scams hide the fact that victims are asked to pay in advance before the (fake) hundreds of thousands of dollars will be released to the beneficiary (victim).
Let's take a look at this scam from a curiosity point of view.
First of all, the sender has covered his tracks by using compromised email relaying PCs in a botnet. Two computers were used, both belonging to US residents. One belongs to an organization named "Secured Private Network" - which is obviously not so well secured! The second relay occurred via an open relay in a mail server belonging to CrystalTech Web Hosting.
The return path was interesting. It used a (possibly spoofed) account on a Ukrainian domain: [email protected]. However, the From address shows [email protected], which is obviously spoofed.
The message body claims to be from the "United states ambassador to nigeria
Ambassador terence mccauley" - yet it is filled with incorrect grammer, bad spelling and letter cases. I have to believe that any school kid in the USA knows that titles, countries and personal names always have the first letter capitalized.
The scammer claims to have plans to be: "coming to your country for an official meeting and i will be bringing your funds of ($500,000:00) FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND UNITED STATES DOLLARS {bank draft} along with me." He goes on to demand an up front payment of $250 processing fee! "the cost of registering it is $250 USD the fee must be paid in the next 48 hours via western union."
Finally, to add insult to injury, the scam contains this outrageous statement:
Please, if you know you will not or can not send the requested $250 USD, please, dont bother replying this mail.
You can read the full text of this 419 scam on my SpamCop report
It is the up front, advance fee demands that gave these scams the name 419 scam. You see, section 419 of the Nigerian Penal Code makes it a serious offense to commit financial fraud involving advance fees. Yet, Nigerians go to Internet Cafes every day and mail out thousands of such scams to people in all parts of the World, but especially English speaking people in North America, the United Kingdom and the lands down under.
Never reply to a Nigerian scammer and never give them your phone number! There is no 500 Gs waiting for you, and you are not the beneficiary of anybody who died and left millions in a Nigerian bank. They will bleed you out of all your money with new fees and bribes and never send you the promised funds (because they do not exist). This has happened over and over to greedy people who fall for such scams. W.C. Fields once said "Never wisen up a chump or give a sucker an even break." That is exactly how Nigerian 419 scammers behave. They target the elderly as well as business owners and town clerks.
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