Scammers we have known

  • Another standard wording of an e-mail hacker scam: "I'm Sorry to disturb you with this mail, I'm out of the country in London and found myself in a situation which i really need to take care of now, I can't even make calls because my mobile can?t work here so I didn't bring it along. I need a loan of $2,000 USD I'll explain better and refund the money back to you immediately I get back. If you can help me out with the money or whatever amount you can come up with I will really appreciate it. Get back to me asap. Please keep it between us."
    (This was on 28.1.11.) Just how idle does a con-man have to be, to use patter which has already been reported on the Web? including an inappropriate currency? But it seems that a lot of them are.

  • This one refers to the second-hand book mart abebooks. If you search for a book there in the ordinary way, you get a list of results in increasing order of price (including postage). This would be very helpful if the prices were honestly declared. But in the case of a book I recently ordered from Librairie Lire et Chiner, Colmar, the price was understated by some £15. All price comparison websites face this problem. But abebooks appear to condone the delinquency; they forwarded the bookseller's demand for further payment, without apparently penalising the original misstatement in any way. While there will of course be cases in which prices are incorrectly listed without any deliberate intention to deceive, I think they ought to discourage the practice; for instance, by simply telling the customer "order cannot be fulfilled", deleting the entry in their list of books for sale, and inviting the bookseller to re-submit the entry at the correct price.
    I ought to add that the book in question arrived promptly and in good condition, and that even at the increased price I think it was fair value.

  • From: mohammed habib, mohammedchabib@gmail.com
    (also BARRISTER MOHAMMED, mohammed@chambers.com)
    Subject: FROM THE DESK OF MOHAMMED AHMED HABIB LAW CHAMBERS NO: 15 JALAN TUN ISMAIL, KUALA LUMPUR MALAYSIA
    Your e-mail address came up in a random draw conducted by my law firm
    "Mr.Abdullah A. Rahman a well known Philanthropist"

  • Received: from BLU122-W25 ([65.55.111.137])
    From: Alhaji. Mohammed Musa, alhajimohammedmusa54@live.com
    From: ALHAJI MOHAMMED MUSA, mbuidang@yahoo.co.uk
    I am initiating this contact as a springboard for partnership. I represent a small clique of very senior public Officers who share a common vision for investment overseas. The Investment portfolio is worth $4.2 Million Dollars. The focus is to establish a partnership for investment. Please reciprocate this contact.
    Direct Number, + 234-80-99272329

  • Received: from 92.127.106-206.xdsl.ab.ru ([92.127.106.206] helo=User) by mail-08.primus.ca with esmtpa (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from help@your.egg.com) One Mr. Samuel Oliver made a payment into your egg account. And As part of our security measures to keep to keep you update. http://pfa88.com/site/your.egg.com/security/customer/login.aspx/Login.php

  • Turaki Davis, turaki_d@yahoo.com, ifeanyionuora1@sify.com, CONTACT AGENT MR PAUL OBIKA, NC 27609, 419.

  • Google Online Promo, Francis Henson (giveaway.agent01@gmail.com). "Your e-mail have emerged as a winner of £500,000.00 GBP (Five Hundred Thousand British Pounds) in our on-going New Year Promotion", 31.1.09

    Unusually, he used a genuine e-mail address belonging to a (presumed innocent) hotel-keeper in Costa Rica.

  • Here is a new one. At least some of the forms issued by the office of the Public Guardian in London (the British government office dealing with powers of attorney and other matters concerning legal authority to manage the affairs of those unable to do it themselves) refer to a web page publicguardian.co.uk. This page in fact carries advertising. It seems to belong to Elephant Orchestra AS of Slezska 2170/111, Praha 3.

    I should like to believe that the original printing of publicguardian.co.uk (rather than the correct publicguardian.gov.uk) was just a typist's error. This seems to have been picked up by someone who registered the site publicguardian.co.uk and has been selling space on it.

  • This one was rather fun, and only mildly inconvenient, but it could have been expensive. In March 2008 I sent a cheque, drawn on the Cooperative Bank, to a colleague in Mbarara, Uganda; it was deposited in an account at the Standard Bank, Mbarara, and correctly debited to my account in April 2008. At the end of May a cheque for approximately ten times the amount was presented against my account and refused by my bank solely because the balance in the account was inadequate. (I trust that everyone is aware that British banks do not normally look at cheques.) I was notified of this (somewhat discourteously) by the Cooperative Bank. On my declaring that no such cheque had been issued, they sent me a rather poor photocopy of the cheque. It was made out to the "Mount Kenya Safari Club". I think that this must have been carefully copied from the valid cheque sent earlier, and while without seeing the original I cannot be sure, I think it was copied by hand rather than by machine. There are three pointers to suggest that the fraud was perpetrated by experienced people: (i) the amount of the cheque -- it seems a reasonable rule of thumb that an account can be expected to pay out ten times the amount on a cheque you have seen; (ii) the number of the cheque -- they chose a number towards the end of the chequebook from which the valid cheque had been taken; (iii) the quality of the forgery, which was more than sufficient to deceive anyone unfamiliar with the cheques of the Cooperative Bank.

    The matter has now been resolved, but the Cooperative Bank appear to be taking no action to make repetition of the fraud more difficult. Mr Clemence Karanja of the Mount Kenya Safari Club has been most helpful; the cheque was deposited to pay for a holiday on Mt Kenya for a party; the booking was cancelled with the excuse that one of the members of the party had died; the Safari Club was asked for a refund by wire transfer; naturally they refused. The fraudster gave a common Ugandan name (Nasser Ssenyonga), a false address in Kampala ("Rwenzori Courts, Yusuf Lule Rd") and the telephone number +256751087399.

  • "Spammers", rather than "scammers" (at least, as far as I know, and I have no intention of finding out), but certainly tiresome blisters: Permission Request Information (info@permissionrequest.com).

  • Joy Ogeh, e-mail missjoyogeh001@yahoo.fr; $18.5 MILLION EIGTEEN MILLION AND FIVE HUNDRED U.S DOLLARS.

  • Casco Grupo Seguridad S.A. and the Euromillones Loteria, address Avenida da la Abufera 75, C/P 28008, Madrid; tel. 0034911011222, 0034695758274; fax 0034692892957; e-mail info@.cascogrupo.com; claims agent Luis Alberto, vice-president Mario Munez; see here.

  • Domain Registry of America, tel. +19054792533, www.droa.com; Domain Registry of America, 56 Gloucester Road #526, London, England SW74UB; see Wikipedia.

  • European City Guide, see here and here and here. Also Premium Recovery AG.

  • Winterthur Seguros S.A., addresses Miramar 9 block 4 Madrid 28002, Mayor 11 Madrid 29006; e-mails winterthur_seguros@madrid.com, winterthur-seguros@madrid.com, winter005seguros@netscape.net; tels +34695729034, +34651064531; faxes +34695729035, +34654286694; references Annumada International Lotto, EGS/0007459015/03; see here and here.

    3.2.11