419 er Watch

Had to Happen Really

Had to, eventually, one of the scams finding it's way to someone who really was in that situation:

I recieved this email this morning and went on a search for scams and frauds online this is how I found your site. My husband really has liver cancer and is dying! I am his caregiver and my days are spent tending to a man drugged out of his right mind he's very demanding and somewhat childlike at times. I'm online this morning whle he's sleeping. Sad thing is we have very little money, we live on a fixed income. Thanks for your site, pass this one along too.

PLEASE READ,GOD BLESS YOU

Good Day,

My name is Mrs.Hannah Jack Williams I am a dying woman who have 
decided to donate what I have to you/Organization. I am 59 years old
and I was diagnosed for cancer about 2 years ago,immediately after the
death of my husband, who had left me everything he worked for. I have
been  touched by God to donate from what I have inherited from my
late  husband to you for the good work of God than allow my relatives
to  use  my husband hard earned funds ungodly.
Please pray that the good Lord forgive me my sins. I have asked God 
to forgive me and I believe he has because He is a merciful God.

I will be going in for an operation tomorrow morning I decided to 
WILL/donate the sum of $3,500,000(Three million five hundred thousand 
dollars) to you/Organization for the good work of the lord,and also to
help the  motherless and less privilege and also for the assistance of
the  widows according to (JAMES 1:27).
At the moment I cannot take any telephone calls right now due to the
fact that my relatives are around me and my health status.  I have 
adjusted my WILL and my Executor is aware I have changed my will, you
and him will arrange the transfer of the funds from the Private 
Finance company to your humble self.This decision was taking after
going through your personal profile.

I wish you all the best and may the good Lord bless you
abundantly,Please use the funds well and always extend the good work
to others.

Contact my Executor with this specified  Email:
_________________________________________________
BARRISTER EDWARD HAYES
Email addres:  [email protected]
_________________________________________________
 
with your full names contact telephone/fax number and your full
address and tell him that I have WILLED($3,500,000.00) to you and I
have also notified him that I am WILL-IN that amount to you for a
specific and good work. Thanks and God bless.

NB: I will appreciate your utmost confidentiality in this matter until
the task is accomplished as I dont want anything that will Jeopardize
my last wish.And Also I will be contacting with you by email as I dont
want my relation or anybody to know because they are always around me.

Regards,
Mrs.Hannah Jack Williams.

MARK PHILLIPS

An interesting variation here. We have the 'special diplomatic courier' again. We have the huge box of money that will be delivered to your address again.

But, you must send them a promissory note before the money is delivered.

This is where the bite will come in. It will either be that the promissory note will have to be a letter of credit or similar, or that you will be asked to pay the fee to the courier company in advance. There will be some charge that you have to pay before the package arrives with you, you can be sure of that.

In the end, this is an advance fee fraud. You will pay money, the criminals will keep it and nothing will ever arrive with you.

Ignore it.

OFFICE OF REVD.FR MARK PHILLIPS
DIRECTOR SPECIAL DUTIES, UNITED NATIONS ORGANISATION
IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND
WORLD BANK FACT-FINDING & SPECIAL DUTIES OFFICE
DAKAR, SENEGAL.
TEL: + 221 418 3317
FAX: + 221 823 9007
EMAIL: [email protected]

ATTN:  THE BENEFICIARY,

I am Revd. Fr. Mark Phillips, a senior staff with the World Bank fact finding & special duties office. I am writing you this letter based on the fact that cool penny is better than millions of dollars means,it's better for one to live and die poor honest man than a rich dishonest one.

I and the Chief security officer (CSO) of this organisation have arranged with an officer in the computer section in person of Engineer Peter Cliff to bring out part of your total pending payment with reference number (LM-05-371) amounting to US$10 million (Ten Million United States Dollars). Why we did this is because according to information gathered from the bank’s/security computer, you have been waiting for a long time to receive this payment without success. As I found out that you have almost met all the statutory requirements in respect of your pending payment. The problem we feel you are having is that of interest groups. A lot of people are interested in your payment and those people are merely doing paper works with you and that explains why you receive different kinds of untrue fax and phone messages from different people everyday. Also we found out that some of the officials of the parastatals have been extorting a lot of money from y!
ou with the pretext of helping you receive your money. I can assure you this will keep happening if you do not do away with those officers. For security reasons you do not have to tell anybody that your have your payment on the way until the payment gets to you.

The said payment is been arranged in a security-proof box weighing 75kg. In order to get this box shipped to you I and the (CSO) Yesterday went to this four courier companies Dhl, Ems, FedEx and Ups to make arrangements on how to get the box shipped to you by courier, but to no avail the above courier companies all made us to understand that they will have to open the box for inspection by the customs before shipment. This is something we want to avoid because this box is been padded with synthetic nylon and to open it you will have to cut the pad before you will meet the button that you will press to open the dial code-lock. There is no way you can open the box and be able to close it again because it was padded with machine. We told the courier services that the box contained film materials and when open will spoil the materials. <N: B> we did not declare money because courier does not carry money.

Today a friend of mine who is diplomat disclosed to me that there is a security courier service company that is specialised in sending diplomatic materials and information from one country to another, which also has diplomatic immunity and consignment such as this cannot be checked by any customs anywhere in the world. I have therefore met the official of the security courier service and concluded shipping arrangement with them, which they will commence as soon as I have your go ahead order. The diplomat who will be bring in this consignment to you is an expact and has been in this line of work for many years now so we have Notting to worry about. After all arrangements we have concluded that you must donate Five Hundred Thousand United States dollars (US$500,000.00) to any charity organisation I designate as soon as you receive your money. To this effect, you will send to us a promissory note for the donation along with your address where you will like!
the box to be delivered to by courier. Please maintain topmost secrecy as it may cause a lot of problems if found out that we are using this way to help you. You are advised not inform anyone about this until you received your money. Am helping you on this because something in me is tells me that you are an honest person. When you conclude this and you send our promise, we will help to ship the final part of your money to you.

May God be with you as i await for your response either Via fax or email: [email protected]

Yours Faithfully
Revd. Fr. Mark Phillips
Director, Special Duties. UNO/WBF Feel free to call me if you will like us to discuses more on this TEL: + 221 418 3317

DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITY PAYMENT SYSTEM

Ahahahaha! Lots of laughter here.

This is a quite wonderful variation on the old scam. The claim is that there are already some people trying to defraud you, this kindly diplomat has stepped in to save you and he's got your $15 million just waiting for you.

They even offer to deliver the money, in cash, to your home!

The thing is, you have to send them your ID card for identification. So, they get, for the price of having sent an email, a real and legitimate ID card that they can sell to other criminals.

It's a lovely scam but it is a scam, a fraud.

Ignore it.

FROM THE DESK OF
DR PETER WILLIAMS
HEAD AFRICAN DIPLOMATIC UNIT
LONDON

Sir /Madam

DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITY PAYMENT SYSTEM:

My name is dr Peter William, the head of African diplomatic unit in London. I have been mandated to contact you because of the security reports we are receiving regarding your inheritance payment with the federal republic of Nigeria.

The Nigerian government has arrested two {2} men that are impersonating you with the intension of claiming your contract / inheritance fund with the Nigeria government with story that you are death and that they are your next of kin. The two men were brought to our office here in london and they confessed working with their Nigerian cohorts who supply them with informations of foreign contractors to pull the scam.

In line with this, the Nigerian government has handed over the payment of her foreign contractors to this office. You are advised to contact Dr. Peter Williams for the immediate payment of your contract / inheritance fund of $15 million us dollars.

If you are still alive, you are to forward the following informations to us for immediate communication and contact:

1. full name and address
2. phone and fax numbers for communication
3. your driving license or id card for
identification
4. your company name and your position

All this information is needed to enable us compare with the payment informations we have in our
file.

Payment options include:

1. bank to bank wire transfer
2. diplomatic immunity payment system {cash delivery
to your residence}

All your payment documents have been given the final ascent. We are waiting for your reply and subsequent claim. We need an immediate response to this email to prove that you are still alive for subsequent claim of your fund.

Thanks and have a wonderful day.


DR PETER WILLIAMS

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
This message is for the designated recipient only and may contain privileged,proprietary, or otherwise private information. If you have received it in error, please notify the sender immediately.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Raw Alluvial Gold Dust

This is an interesting little variation on the usual advance fee frauds and 419s.

As my day job is actually in the metals industry I can tell you what the problems is.

The price they are asking for is absurdly low, about 60% below the current market. So people will think that they're going to get a great deal.

But the important part is that inspection must take place in Ghana. Unh, unh, that's not how the market works. Any and every gold seller knows that you ship it to a neutral place, where inspection and weighing will be done by neutral people, and only then does anyone start to think about paying for it.

This will be a bait and switch operation. You pay, they wave the cargo off on the aeroplane and then, when you open the box at the other end there'll be no gold in it. Maybe sand, maybe copper powder, but definitely no gold.

Ignore it.

Dear
We the undersigned acting with full corporate authority and
with full legal responsibility do hereby irrevocably
confirm and commit subject to the Law of perjury that we
are ready willing and able to sell Raw Alluvial Gold Dust
under the condition and procedure
set out hereunder,
Commodity - Gold dust
Quantity -850kg
Quality -23b Carats plus / 93.5 Purity
Price -:$12000
DOCUMENTS TO BE. PROVIDED BY SELLER
Certificate of ownership/Origin Export permit, Bank of
Ghana formA2 Customs and Excise paper Sages/Assay report
PROCEDURE
Buyer sends letter of intent to seller responds with
Performa invoice and draft copy
of contract. Buyer and Seller signs sales and Purchase
Agreement Buyer comes down to Ghana for inspection, and
signing of contract. Seller commence supplies based on the
Agreement between the two parties
we anticipate a cordial business relationship with you. We
shall be very much obliged to update you with our
transaction proceedings please contact us on this email
[email protected]
Thanks,
Mr. John 

Edward Smith

Ooooh, glorious! At last, an interesting variation upon the 419 scam.

It is, of course, a scam, a fraud. There is no pot of money, no lawyer and if you do get involved you will be asked to provide fees in advance. Bribes, legal costs, insurance, whatever they think you will pay. If you send any money the criminals will simply keep it and nothing will ever be sent to you.

But the interesting bit?

a client who shares the same surname with you

Because, of course, he doesn't actually know what your surname is, because he's sent this email to 50,000 other people as well. One thing I do know, given my own very odd surname, is that there most certainly wasn't anyone who shares it on that flight.

It's a scam, ignore it.

Date: 3rd October, 2006
Letter of Enquiry

Attention: Sir/Madam    

My name is Edward Smith Esq. and I write to inquire if you are in anyway related to
a client who shares the same surname with you and was involved in the January 31, 2000 Kenya Airways Airbus A310 that plunges into the Ocean after take-off from Ivory Coast's economic capital of Abidjan and killing 169 passengers on board.

Before this unfortunate incidence, The deceased was my client here in South Africa and he was also a contractor to the Department of Minerals and Energy of South Africa. He was over the years, a major contractor to the Minerals and Energy
Department and in May 1999, My client filed a lawsuit against the Minerals and Energy Department demanding compensation of Nine Million two hundred thousand Dollars ($9.2 million) for breach of contract agreement and I was his Legal Counsel. The lawsuit was awaiting final verdict of the Supreme Court when my client got killed in the ill-fated plane clash in January 2000.

Since the death of my client, I have made frantic effort to trace any member of his family who will come forward and claim his gratuity from the Department of Minerals and Energy of South Africa as the Supreme Court has recently passed rulings in favour of my late client.   

I basically contacted you because of the similarity in your family name. Be that as it may, I will be glad if you could create time to respond to this mail ASAP. I am
Currently on holiday in the Netherlands and will be returning back to South Africa in Six weeks.Please send your response to me at: [email protected] 

Thank you for your time.

Cordially,

Edward Smith,   BA, LL B (Hons).
Barrister and Solicitor. 
E-mail: [email protected]

CENTRAL BANK OF NIGERIA

This is at least slightly more interesting than the average Nigerian scam.

Of course, there is no pile of money. You will be asked to pay various of the expenses in advance. For legal fees, for bribes, to pay storage at the security company, whatever they can think up that you might believe.

The criminals will just keep whatever you pay them and no money will ever get to you as there isn't actually any money.

But don't you just love the careless insouicance of :

'MY COLEAGUES AND I WHO WORK IN THE SAME DEPARTMENT UNANIMOUSLY DECIDED TO INCLUDE AN ADDITIONAL CONSIGNMENT CONTAINING $15M (FIFTEEN MILLION US DOLLARS) FOR OUR OWN BENEFIT'

They just had $15 million lying around? How wonderful, eh?

Ignore it, it's a scam, a fraud, like all the others.

MY DEAR FRIEND,

I KNOW THIS MAIL WILL COME TO YOU AS A SURPRISE BUT I PLEAD WITH YOU TO TAKE TIME TO GO THROUGH IT AND GET BACK TO ME.

I AM MR. MARK SMITH. I WORK WITH THE PACKAGING AND COURIER DEPT AT THE CENTRAL BANK OF NIGERIA.

DURING THE AIR-LIFT OF SOME PRESIDENTIAL CONSIGNMENTS TO EUROPE, MY COLEAGUES AND I WHO WORK IN THE SAME DEPARTMENT UNANIMOUSLY DECIDED TO INCLUDE AN ADDITIONAL CONSIGNMENT CONTAINING $15M (FIFTEEN MILLION US DOLLARS) FOR OUR OWN BENEFIT AND LABELLED IT AS "PHOTOGRAPHIC EQUIPMENT MATERIALS" FOR SECURITY REASONS.

I AM CONTACTING YOU TO ASSIST US IN GETTING THIS CONSIGNMENT CLEARED AND DELIVERED TO YOU AS THE BENEFICIARY FROM THE AGENT IT HAS BEEN DEPOSITED WITH BASED ON THE AGREED TERMS.

(1) ALL RELEVANT DOCUMENTS TO CLAIM THIS CONSIGNMENT WILL BE PROCURED IN YOUR NAME TO ENABLE THE AGENT CLEAR AND DELIVER SAME TO YOUR MAILING ADDRESS.

(2) THAT YOU WILL BE ENTITLED TO A SHARE OF 25% OF THE TOTAL AMOUNT.

(3) 5% OF THE TOTAL FUNDS WILL BE SET ASIDE FOR SUNDRY EXPENSES.

(4) 70% OF THE TOTAL FUNDS WILL BE FOR MY COLLEAGUES AND I.

IF THIS BUSINESS TRANSACTION AND IT’S TERMS ARE OK BY YOU, YOU CAN CALL ME ON MY PRIVATE TELEPHONE NUMBER: +234-803-245-1744 OR YOU SEND ME A RETURN E-MAIL INDICATING YOUR INTEREST TO PARTNER WITH ME IN THIS VERY PROFITABLE BUSINESS DEAL.

SEND ME YOUR FULL NAMES, FULL MAILING AND CONTCAT ADDRESS, YOUR PERSONAL TELEPHONE / FAX NUMBERS FOR EASIER COMMUNICATION WITH ME AND THE AGENT IN EUROPE WHERE THE CONSIGNMENT WAS DEPOSITED.

PLEASE TAKE VERY IMPORTANT NOTE THAT THIS BUSINESS TRANSACTION IS 100% RISK FREE AS ALL RELEVANT DOCUMENTS TO BACK YOU UP WITH THE CLAIM OF THE CONSIGNMENT WILL BE PROVIDED FOR YOU HENCE WE ADVICE YOU TO KEEP THE ENTIRE TRANSACTION ABSOLUTELY CONFIDENTIAL UNTIL YOU HAVE RECEIVED THE CONSIGNMENT.

FOR SECURITY REASONS OTHER MODALITIES WILL BE DISCUSSED AS SOON AS YOU GET BACK TO ME.

YOURS FAITHFULLY,

MR. MARK SMITH.
COURIER DEPARTMENT (CBN).

Theresa Macdavis

Oooh, what a variation here. We get the non-existent lottery combined with the standard 419.

There is no money in a special account. If you reply to these people you will be asked to pay a series of fees in advance, for bribes, notarization, travel, legal. Whatever you pay will simply be kept by the criminals.

No money will ever be sent to you.

Ignore.

Dear friend.
   
I will like to begin by way of introduction. My name
is Theresa Macdavis.  I am an officer with a Finance Company here in
Amsterdam the Netherlands. The purpose of this letter is to solicit
your assistance in a matter of utmost financial interest which would be
of immense benefit to us upon completion. The said financial interest,
which is valued at US$1.5 Million represents a Lottery winning pay
settlement for Mr. Van Bouderwijn.  Under the terms of the transfer of
claims entitlement entered into between Mr.Van  Bouderwijn and the
finance company (my employer), Mr.Van  Bouderwijn was scheduled to
claim the balance of his entitlement in the amount mentioned above
since November  2005.  Since then, several attempts have been made
without success to contact Mr. Van Bouderwijn or any of his close
relatives in whose favor the cash value of his settlement can be
paid.   I am quite aware that you may feel completely taken aback and
unsure about what my intentions may be.

Honestly, I must confess that
my colleague and I have being monitoring this account for six months
till now.  And now that Mr.Van  Bouderwijn still has not come forward
to claim his entitlement, my colleague and I have decided to work
together to get this achieved for our benefit.  Since we are in the
relevant department, and familiar with the procedures of filing and
claiming entitlements, we are very confident that with your
cooperation, the entitlement can be ours for good. Please we urge you
to keep this matter very confidential as we are still currently
employed by the Finance Company.   

I want to assure you that my
colleague and I are in a position to make the payment of this
entitlement possible, provided you are ready to meet with us, and give
us a very strong guarantee that our share Will be well secured, and
that you will not take advantage of our position, since the cash value
of the entitlement will be paid to a bank account directly under your
control.

Please be rest assured that there is absolutely nothing to
worry about in view of this claim.  It is perfectly safe with no risk
involved, and it is not subject to form of inquiry, since we will be
handling the claim process directly in Netherlands on your behalf. I do
hope this proposal is acceptable to you. Please acknowledge the receipt
of this letter through my colleague's email : [email protected] ,
his name is Mr.Robert Hestley, so that he can provide you with more
clarification about the claim, and how we intend to make this deal
beneficial to everyone involved.

Please reply with this email:
[email protected] 

Sincerely Yours,   

Mrs. Theresa Macdavis.

Mr.Malick Diatta

A slight variation on the 419.

Here you are being asked to do something highly illegal, pretend to be someone else in order to inherit some money. Because this very process itself is illegal, if it turns out to be a scam, then you won’t be able to go to the police, will you?

Of course, it will turn out to be a scam: there is no money in some secret account. You will be asked to make a series of payments, for legal fees, for travel expenses, for taxes, for bribes: all that money will simply be kept by the criminals and you will never receive anything.

Ignore.

Attn:Please,
I am so very sorry if I pried into your privacy but due to your honesty,I am convinced that you would be capable to provide me with a solution. I am Mr.Malick Diatta of MA Legal Consultancy Services, Dakar Senegal. I am writing on behalf of my late client Mrs. Andréa Eich,a successful businesswoman from your country that base in Dakar Senegal who died unfortunately with her family (Her Husband and two kids) in an air mishap in July 2000.

I am contacting you simply to assist in claiming her deposited assets valued at US$13M before it gets confiscated by the Netherlands Bank. The Bank has written me as her consultant and issued a final notice to provide any of her relatives or have the assets channel to the Netherlands National Treasury as unclaimed fund within the next 5 working days.

Since there was no relatives or next of kin left in our record, I seek your consent to present you as her only surviving relative, so that this funds can be paid to you. Therefore, on receipt of your expression of interest (EOI),I have agreed that you will inherit 45% of this fund for your help and sincerity,45% for me while 10% for the refunds of processing expenses and to pay tax in your country(if any) upon successful confirmation of this funds in your bank account. Thereafter, all the related legal documents will be destroyed and we part ways.

Since I have been unsuccessful in locating her relatives,my aim now is to usher you in legally as her relative since you are of the same nationality so that the fruit of her labour will not be in vain. All I require from you is your honest cooperation to enable us see this transaction through. I guarantee that this will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of law.Please urgently reply if you can handle it.

Best Regards,
Mr.Malick Diatta
MA Legal Consultancy Services,Dakar Senegal.
Tel:+221-430-4431

Babatunde Williams

An interesting little variation on the standard 419 scams. Using Eurobonds as the bait.

Of course, Eurobonds can indeed be sold or discounted in Nigeria: Standard Chartered Bank would be happy to do it.

This is the same old scam. You will be asked or a series of fees, for transport, for legal costs, for taxes, and if you pay them over they will simply keep the money. You will most certainly never receive anything.

Ignore.

  To Project Euro Bonds

My name is Babatunde Williams,son of Engineer Anthony Olufunso Williams,frontline Politician who was recently murdered by unknown assassins.Please see the following web links for some details:

http://allafrica.com/stories/200607280608.html
http://www.nigeriamasterweb.com/paperfrmes.html
http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=54697
http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/news/article01

Two days ago,I received a death threat from unknown persons,and I have decided to flee from my Country.But first, my mother advised me to liquidate and turn into cash Eurobonds denominated in three currencies,The US$, British Pounds Sterling, and Japanese Yen.The US$ Bonds total US$25million, issued by the World Bank,France and Sweden; The UK Pounds Sterling Bonds total 20 million Pounds Sterling,issued by The Asian Development Bank and the Caribbean Development Bank;The Japanese Yen Bonds total 40 million issued by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the Inter-American Development Bank.

The maturity dates for the Eurobonds denominated in US$ is 25.04.2007; the Pounds Sterling Eurobonds will mature in 09.02.2007,and finally the Eurobonds denominated in Japanese Yen will mature in 04.05.2007.

For security reasons, these Eurobonds which belonged to my late father cannot be sold or discounted in Nigeria;I therefore need your help to sell or discount them abroad… If you can help me,please reply immediately so that I can give you more details,including details of the Eurobond Certificates which are all registered.Please reply me through my private E-mail address [email protected]

Please respond urgently because my life is at stake!
Regards,
Babatunde Williams
Lagos,Nigeria

Ms jannifer modu

Rather than the usual claims of having a huge amount that must be transferred this one makes vague hints about wanting to invest with your help.

Still the same old 419 fraud though. There is no money. You will be asked to help with a series of feees and expenses, all of which must be paid in advance before the "real" money arrives.

No money ever will arrive, of course.

Ignore.

Hello,

Please, consider this mail as very important and do let me know your honest response within the shortest time possible…Obviously, you have no knowledge of who I am, but I am Ms jannifer modu, from Sierra Leone, but
resident in Sengal  (West Africa). I am interested in investing in any lucrative business enterprise in your country and do want to use this opportunity to seek your advice on the possibility of investment in your area. Over the recent years, there have been cases of political instability in most
countries here in Africa and as a result, I am afraid to invest my money here. On this note, I have decided to look else where for possible investment
opportunities, hoping that I would achieve this goal with the assistance of a reliable person.  I would like to know if it would be secured and
lucrative to invest in your country and after a careful feasibility study of the various possible fields or industries in your country by your kind
assistance, I would transfer my funds to your country for investment. In a nutshell, I do have a large amount of money to establish an ultra modern company in your country, but I will like to know the possible channels available in your area. Please, do assist me carry out a careful survey and get back to me on the various possibilities. If you do not have any much
knowledge about investment or business, I will appreciate if you could recommend me to some business experts individuals/companies/business consultants) in your area, who might be of help to me.  I do hope to know you better in the course of time and if trust is established between us, I might need you to be actively and directly involved in this proposed venture. But for the time being, I would like to know you better and hope we could get acquainted within the shortest time possible. In my next correspondence with
you, I will give you a clue of how much I intend to invest in your country, but for now, I look forward to receiving your response and hope this opportunity
would bring us closer for a possible business relationship between us in the near future. Have a nice day and best regards,

Ms Jannifer modu