05-31-2004, 04:20 AM
Many have seen thies letters in their Email box. I personaly over the last 4 years have recieved over 50 of them. The info changes but all have the same results that takes money.
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
The most prevalent and successful cases of Advance Fee Fraud is the fund transfer scam. In this scheme, a company or individual will typically receive an unsolicited letter by mail from a Nigerian claiming to be a senior civil servant. In the letter, the Nigerian will inform the recipient that he is seeking a reputable foreign company or individual into whose account he can deposit funds ranging from $10-$60 million that the Nigerian government overpaid on some procurement contract.
Here is a general description to help you spot the scams.
Sir/Madam
You are receiving this email because our spam detection software has
identified you as the potential victim of a Nigerian 419 Advance Fee
Fraud. This fraud typically originates with the scam operator soliciting
your assistance to move millions of dollars from Africa to a different
continent. Sometimes you may be told that this money belongs to you as
the next of kin of a deceased person. Quite often this fictitious sum of
money will supposedly be deposited with an online bank with your own
account. The "bank" will simply be a fraudulent website with completely
bogus "accounts" to fool you. You will eventually be asked to pay fees
ranging from a few thousand dollars to hundreds of thousands of dollars
for administration fees, storage fees, transportation costs, clearance
documents. In the final stages you will be asked for hundreds of
thousands of dollars to either pay for government taxes, or procure
insurance documents, or terrorist clearance documents, or chemicals to
"clean" the money, or generally some other excuse for you to pay a lot of
money. Some times you will be asked to travel to an African country or to
Europe to claim the money. Several persons who have traveled have been
kidnapped and even killed.
It is also possible that the scam artists may send you a counterfeit
cashier's cheque for a large amount of money and then ask you to
immediately wire that money to a third party. Most banks will not be able
to identify the cheque as counterfeit for at least three or four weeks.
If you receive such a cheque ensure that you wait for at least four weeks
after depositing the cheque before using any money from such a cheque.
Be advised that this is an ongoing scam that has been happening for over
forty years and to date it has successfully bilked unwary victims of
billions of dollars. There are currently thousands of persons, primarily
of West African origin, perpetrating this scam. Note that all parties -
the person originally soliciting your help, the "lawyers", the "online
bank", the "security company" - are part of the scam.
There is no money. The only persons who stand to gain in this business
are the criminals operating this scam. If it sounds too good to be true
then it is. If you have already paid any money to these criminals it is
almost certainly lost for good. If you are still in contact with the
criminals it is in your best interests to cease all communications and
forward all correspondences to the authorities in your country.
For detailed information on this scam please refer to the following
websites:
Univ. of Pennsylvania Alert:
http://www.upenn.edu/computing/security/...9scam.html
The 419 Coalition's homepage: http://home.rica.net/alphae/419coal/
The 419 Fraud homepage: http://www.419fraud.com/
London Metropolitan police page:
http://www.met.police.uk/fraudalert/419.htm
US Secret Service page:
http://www.ustreas.gov/usss/financial_cr...m#Nigerian
Nigerian Police webpage: http://www.nigeriapolice.org/419.html
Freeman Institute:
http://www.freemaninstitute.com/419cbn.htm
If you reside in the United States and have lost money to the criminals
please contact the United States Secret Service financial crimes division
by referring to their page at:
http://www.secretservice.gov/alert419.shtml
Sincerely,
419 Alerts
[signature]
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
The most prevalent and successful cases of Advance Fee Fraud is the fund transfer scam. In this scheme, a company or individual will typically receive an unsolicited letter by mail from a Nigerian claiming to be a senior civil servant. In the letter, the Nigerian will inform the recipient that he is seeking a reputable foreign company or individual into whose account he can deposit funds ranging from $10-$60 million that the Nigerian government overpaid on some procurement contract.
Here is a general description to help you spot the scams.
Sir/Madam
You are receiving this email because our spam detection software has
identified you as the potential victim of a Nigerian 419 Advance Fee
Fraud. This fraud typically originates with the scam operator soliciting
your assistance to move millions of dollars from Africa to a different
continent. Sometimes you may be told that this money belongs to you as
the next of kin of a deceased person. Quite often this fictitious sum of
money will supposedly be deposited with an online bank with your own
account. The "bank" will simply be a fraudulent website with completely
bogus "accounts" to fool you. You will eventually be asked to pay fees
ranging from a few thousand dollars to hundreds of thousands of dollars
for administration fees, storage fees, transportation costs, clearance
documents. In the final stages you will be asked for hundreds of
thousands of dollars to either pay for government taxes, or procure
insurance documents, or terrorist clearance documents, or chemicals to
"clean" the money, or generally some other excuse for you to pay a lot of
money. Some times you will be asked to travel to an African country or to
Europe to claim the money. Several persons who have traveled have been
kidnapped and even killed.
It is also possible that the scam artists may send you a counterfeit
cashier's cheque for a large amount of money and then ask you to
immediately wire that money to a third party. Most banks will not be able
to identify the cheque as counterfeit for at least three or four weeks.
If you receive such a cheque ensure that you wait for at least four weeks
after depositing the cheque before using any money from such a cheque.
Be advised that this is an ongoing scam that has been happening for over
forty years and to date it has successfully bilked unwary victims of
billions of dollars. There are currently thousands of persons, primarily
of West African origin, perpetrating this scam. Note that all parties -
the person originally soliciting your help, the "lawyers", the "online
bank", the "security company" - are part of the scam.
There is no money. The only persons who stand to gain in this business
are the criminals operating this scam. If it sounds too good to be true
then it is. If you have already paid any money to these criminals it is
almost certainly lost for good. If you are still in contact with the
criminals it is in your best interests to cease all communications and
forward all correspondences to the authorities in your country.
For detailed information on this scam please refer to the following
websites:
Univ. of Pennsylvania Alert:
http://www.upenn.edu/computing/security/...9scam.html
The 419 Coalition's homepage: http://home.rica.net/alphae/419coal/
The 419 Fraud homepage: http://www.419fraud.com/
London Metropolitan police page:
http://www.met.police.uk/fraudalert/419.htm
US Secret Service page:
http://www.ustreas.gov/usss/financial_cr...m#Nigerian
Nigerian Police webpage: http://www.nigeriapolice.org/419.html
Freeman Institute:
http://www.freemaninstitute.com/419cbn.htm
If you reside in the United States and have lost money to the criminals
please contact the United States Secret Service financial crimes division
by referring to their page at:
http://www.secretservice.gov/alert419.shtml
Sincerely,
419 Alerts
[signature]
