Nigerian E-mail scam, at it again....

Just got the following e-mail...a dupe of the old Nigerian dead relative leaving you money bit..... DON'T FALL FOR THIS!!! (though I seriously doubt anyone would at this point...)

*********

»¿ Justice Mensah.
Mensah & Associates Law Firm
Solicitors, Attorneys, Advocates & Notaries
Public Lagos Nigeria.

Dear (last name),

I am Justice Mensah a solicitor at law. I am the Personal Attorney to Engr (last name...are they serious? "Engr"???), a National of your Country,who has lived in Nigeria for the past Twenty years, and whom here in after shall be referred to as my client.

On the 2nd December 2001, my client, his wife and their only daughter were involved in a car accident along sagbama express road . All occupants of the vehicle unfortunately lost there lives, my client was one of them.

Since then I have made several enquiries to your embassy here to locate any of my clients extended relatives, this has also proved unsuccessful.
After these several unsuccessful attempts,I decided to track his last name over the Internet, to locate any member of his family hence I contacted you.

I have contacted you to assist in repatriating most especially the money left behind by my client before they get confiscated or declared
unserviceable by the bank, where this huge deposits were lodged.

The deceased had an account valued at about 12 million United States Dollars and the bank has issued me a notice to provide the Next of kin, or have the account confiscated.
My late client did alot of contracts for different Governments in West Africa and died a very rich man.

I seek your consent to present you as the Next of kin of the deceased since you have the same last name so that the proceeds of this account valued at 12 million dollars can be paid to you, as my clients Next of Kin, and then we can share the amount on a mutual agreed percentage. All legal documents to back up your claim as the deceased Next of Kin will be provided.

All I require is your honest co-operation to enable us see this deal through. I guarantee that this will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the law. Please get in touch with me to enable us discuss further about this transaction.

Best regards,

Barr.Justice Mensah.

********

That´s a good o. I got tons of these. One of them I got from "Dr. Lulu" in Nigeria. She was the daughter of some obscure "king" who had to play some hide and seek with the current administration. Apparently this King was very rich. She wanted to "give me" 18 million dollars if I would be so kind to give her information about my bank account. She "needed to transfer all their money out of Nigeria". Yeah right...

yup it's anew twist on that scam all right. wonder how much they want to take you for? also the way it's written up seems to make clear that it is a case of fraud to begin with , i imagine this is so that one would be reluctant to go to the police with a complaint considdering that yet again you are being ripped off while possibly committing a crime. a nice touch with that idea i must say

i can see these scams becomming more prolific as people are trying to make mony any way that they can think of. unfortunately the internet is wonderfull place to run scams. i know personaly i am sick and tired of getting spammed for viagra sales, sometimes i get up to 10 of those a day from 10 differant senders with as many differant subject lines but the ad is otherwise identical in every way. HELLO i am young and don't NEED crap like viagra to get it up but i guess we must all suffer from this type of spamming as it is rather hard to realy controll stuff like that on the web.

P.S. anyone want to buy the cn tower, broklen bridge or empire state building? resonably priced to sell. (just kidding DUHH)

Originally posted by drogo
sometimes i get up to 10 of those a day from 10 differant senders with as many differant subject lines but the ad is otherwise identical in every way. HELLO i am young and don't NEED crap like viagra to get it up

I get asked every day if I want bigger breasts...
...and I´m male.

Originally posted by Hellmutt

Originally posted by drogo
sometimes i get up to 10 of those a day from 10 differant senders with as many differant subject lines but the ad is otherwise identical in every way. HELLO i am young and don't NEED crap like viagra to get it up

I get asked every day if I want bigger breasts...
...and I´m male.

you might suit them.

Originally posted by Hellmutt
I get asked every day if I want bigger breasts...
...and I´m male.

Just wait til you're in your 40's and they usually come naturally.

Of course for some guys they come in the mid 30's and for other not at all.

Actually I heard about some norwegian rich kids who got tricked by these nigerians. They went down there to claim back their money. They got beat up pretty bad and was lucky to survive. They were stupid enough to go on tv afterwards and tell everybody how stupid they were too.

These guys means business, you don´t mess with them. Never ever answer these emails, even if you feel like telling them "something". Don´t...!

I got one of these, almost the exact same, the only difference was that it said they died on the concorde crash, rather than a car crash.


I got one from one of them, claiming to be Irish and stuff, I sent a very nasty threatening reply, have'nt gottena single one sense.

Hehe a 419 !

If you ever want to read hilarious stuff from people toying with those scammers and thus scamming the scammers go here

he goes for "trophy's" from these scammers, pictures of them holding up sings, and other hilarious stuff.

[edit on 5-7-2005 by XyZeR]

You Can Bank On It

Justice Mensah?

Based on the name, I presume the sender is a high court judge who values his intelligence more than anyone else does.

For some reason, I find these emails both charming and strangely comforting.

If Nigerians are still sending out email hustles, then all must be right with the world.

I just finished read the scam baiter site. Man, that is exactly what I wanted to do. He seems to enjoy wasting their time as much as I would. Great stuff.

A follow on from XyZer's post. 419 scams are also related to the 'You have won a lottery that you never entered' type letters that come by post as well as email.

For more great scam baiting stuff:

www.scamorama.com...
A bit more serious and informative than other sites.

www.whatsthebloodypoint.com...
This is a good site for those wishing to learn how to bait these guys.

www.419eater.com...
Same as above, lots of pics too!

There are some scary stories on these sites from people who have been scammed out of a ton of money. As Gazrok said, everyone needs to inform others about these scammers as not everyone is aware. They will catch out the unwary or the vulnerable.

Hilariously enough, not too long ago there were too graduate students who fell for this email scam. They took their grant money (and I think that it was also money that somehow belonged ot other people that they were researching with, but that they had oversight on or some-such), and tried to 'invest' it in one of these nigerian bank scams. Of course they lost it all. Unbeleivable.

I've gotten a ton of these e-mails too. Believe it or not, these con artists make hundreds of millions of dollars a year on the scams. Their success is thought to be the result of unemployment in Nigeria, wanting to 'get rich quick', and plain old American greed.

Helmutt, those Norwegian kids are a few of many who have been lured down to Nigeria. In some of these scams, the person being conned is told that they need to be in Nigeria, or at least a border country in order for the transaction to go through. They are told that there's no need for a Visa in Nigeria, and that's its safe to come by. The con artists, meanwhile, bribe airport officials to alow the victims through Immigration (because you DO need a Visa in Nigeria) and basically use the threat of being arrested as leverage to obtain large amounts of money. Copied from the sources:

In almost every case there is a sense of urgency;
The victim is enticed to travel to Nigeria or a border country;
-There are many forged official looking documents;
-Most of the correspondence is handled by fax or through the mail;
-Blank letterheads and invoices are requested from the victim along with the banking particulars;
-Any number of Nigerian fees are requested for processing the transaction with each fee purported to be the last required;
-The confidential nature of the transaction is emphasized;
-There are usually claims of strong ties to Nigerian officials;
-A Nigerian residing in the U.S., London or other foreign venue may claim to be a clearing house bank for the Central Bank of Nigeria;
-Offices in legitimate government buildings appear to have been used by impostors posing as the real occupants or officials.

The most common forms of these fraudulent business proposals fall into seven main categories:
-Disbursement of money from wills
-Contract fraud (C.O.D. of goods or services)
-Purchase of real estate
-Conversion of hard currency
-Transfer of funds from over invoiced contracts
-Sale of crude oil at below market prices

"Victims are almost always requested to travel to Nigeria or a border country to complete a transaction. Individuals are often told that a visa will not be necessary to enter the country. The Nigerian con artists may then bribe airport officials to pass the victims through Immigration and Customs. Because it is a serious offense in Nigeria to enter without a valid visa, the victim's illegal entry may be used by the fraudsters as leverage to coerce the victims into releasing funds. Violence and threats of physical harm may be employed to further pressure victims. In June of 1995, an American was murdered in Lagos, Nigeria, while pursuing a 4-1-9 scam, and numerous other foreign nationals have been reported as missing."

"Victims are often convinced of the authenticity of Advance Fee Fraud schemes by the forged or false documents bearing apparently official Nigerian government letterhead, seals, as well as false letters of credit, payment schedules and bank drafts. The fraudster may establish the credibility of his contacts, and thereby his influence, by arranging a meeting between the victim and "government officials" in real or fake government offices."

"Indications are that Advance Fee Fraud grosses hundreds of millions of dollars annually and the losses are continuing to escalate. In all likelihood, there are victims who do not report their losses to authorities due to either fear or embarrassment."

www.secretservice.gov...
www.fbi.gov...

Great post Zhangmaster. When reading the scam baiting sites and having a laugh over how stupid these guys can sometimes be, it is easy to forget that they are serious criminals and are potentialy capable of far worse than a few emails.

The first time I heard of these scams was when a person in my local shop gave me a letter saying he had won a Spanish lottery. He didn't read English well enough to fully understand (I live in Greece) so he wanted me to varify it. He sure as hell knew the figures involved though!
I checked it out on the web and found the links to the sites I mentioned previously. The point was, I had to tell this guy it was fake and that he hadn't won millions. He was just a simple guy who wasn't aware that these things went on. Obviously he was disappointed and releived at the same time. But I hate to think what would have happened if he had contacted them and was told to release his money he would have to pay $7K or whatever.

The more of these 419'ers caught and banged up the better.