What is this rubbish??

[Yonnee]

I can't get back to sleep after my CFA pager went off earlier, so I'm on the computer... and this comes through the e-mail.

"From RIchard Komo
Abidjan, Ivory Coast
West Africa.
Email: [email protected]
Dear Please permit me to contact you for assistace.I am Master Richard komo the only child of late chief and Mrs Joseph komo ,my father was poisoned to death by his business associates because of his wealth and during my fathers sickness he called me on his sick bed as his only child because my mother died when am young and told me about the money($10.500.000) he deposited in a bank here in our country that it was because of this money he was poisoned that if he dies i shall look for some one whom i trust to help me transfer this money out of this our country to his account for investment purpose abroad while i will continue my education then the person will be managing the investment.Dear am soliciting your assistance to help me transfer this money out of this country for my life sake while i will come to meet you to continue my education in your country.
Dear am looking forward to hear from you so that we can discuss on what will be your compensation for this assistace.
Please reply me directely on this my private mail box for more details.
[email protected]

Thanks
RICHARD."

From "richguy @ Woodwork Forums"

How many more got an email from this scam? As if I'm going to send my bank details to deposit $10.5mil, only to have it cleaned out completely!!!

The nerve of some people!!

[Barry Hicks]

Yonnee, you should be honoured that that poor boy chose you from all the people on earth.
Why don't you help the lad? Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!
By the way, what were you doing opening emails from unknown senders?

Barry Hicks

[Sebastiaan56]

I can't get back to sleep after my CFA pager went off earlier, so I'm on the computer... and this comes through the e-mail.

"From RIchard Komo
Abidjan, Ivory Coast
West Africa.
Email: [email protected]
Dear Please permit me to contact you for assistace.I am Master Richard komo the only child of late chief and Mrs Joseph komo ,my father was poisoned to death by his business associates because of his wealth and during my fathers sickness he called me on his sick bed as his only child because my mother died when am young and told me about the money($10.500.000) he deposited in a bank here in our country that it was because of this money he was poisoned that if he dies i shall look for some one whom i trust to help me transfer this money out of this our country to his account for investment purpose abroad while i will continue my education then the person will be managing the investment.Dear am soliciting your assistance to help me transfer this money out of this country for my life sake while i will come to meet you to continue my education in your country.
Dear am looking forward to hear from you so that we can discuss on what will be your compensation for this assistace.
Please reply me directely on this my private mail box for more details.
[email protected]

Thanks
RICHARD."

From "richguy @ Woodwork Forums"

How many more got an email from this scam? As if I'm going to send my bank details to deposit $10.5mil, only to have it cleaned out completely!!!

The nerve of some people!!

I had one of these guys going for about 2 months before I forwarded the whole lot to ASIC. Im buggered if I know how they got my email but hey, it was fun,

Sebastiaan

[artme]

Wise move to send it to ASIC.
Often these people simply fish for information. They hook you into giving details that they may be able to use to gain access to other personal details and then onto God knows what, but often it's bank accounts.

[switt775]

From "richguy @ Woodwork Forums"

How many more got an email from this scam? As if I'm going to send my bank details to deposit $10.5mil, only to have it cleaned out completely!!!

The nerve of some people!!

You should feel insulted. Last week I was offered 45% of 384,000,000 pounds. But I'm holding out for a better offer...

[dennford]

Yonnee, By the way, what were you doing opening emails from unknown senders?

Barry Hicks

Denn

[Wood Butcher]

If anyone ever receives anything like this that is seemingly linked to the Woodwork Forums can you please contact on of the Administrators immediately. We do not take this sort of matter lightly and I will be looking into this a lot further!

Yours

Rowan Cahill - Wood Butcher
Administrator
Woodworking Australia's
WOODWORK FORUMS

[DJ’s Timber]

From "richguy @ Woodwork Forums"





By the way, what were you doing opening emails from unknown senders?



That's is the thing Barry, Yonnee received this email via the Woodwork Forums email system because the sender sent it by using the link via Yonnee's username dropdown box hence the reason for Wood Butcher asking for cooperation if anyone receives anything similar

John Saunders - DJ's Timber
Super Moderator
Woodworking Australia's
WOODWORK FORUMS

[Koala-Man]

These scams are huge and there are a huge variety of them. You have to be on your guard becuase the people running them know just which buttons to push and they are very well organised.

I think I heard once that internet scams accounted for over 4 percent of Nigeria's gross domestic product.

The Wikipedia entry lists 25 different varieties and those have many different sub-variants:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance_fee_fraud

An acquaintance of mine was nearly sucked into the "romance scam" version of it. He was fully in love with a very cute American gal with cheerleader looks. In reality she did not exist - she was probably an invention of a roomful of Russian gangsters - and her photo was just some random picture the scammers had copied of the web somewhere.

In this version (as with many of the others) the sting comes when you're asked to help transfer some money out of some country your new soul-mate is stuck in. You give out your bank details and they deposit some money into your account.

Then you kindly transfer it on to an account at a money-transfer service, which the scammers use rather than banks because the money can't be traced.

So far, so good, but then your bank calls you and says the deposit was made with a phoney travellers cheque and it's your responsibility to pay it back.

In the case I know about, my wife told me her old friend was in love with a women he'd met on the internet. They just clicked, blah blah blah and she wants to come out to Australia to meet him blah blah blah and they have all these things in common blah blah blah.

My immediate response was to say that of course she doesn't exist and to predict (accurately, as it turned out) that there'd soon be a request for help with transferring the money.

The really interesting thing about this is just how hard it is to convince people they are being ripped off.

The "girlfriend" had set up a credit card account in his name but claimed she needed his help to get the money out of some obscure country she was trapped in because she couldn't access her own bank in the US. (She was supposed to be a globe-trotting antique dealer. Yeah, right.)

The absurdity of this - somehow being able to set up an account in someone else's name and transfer money into it, but not being able to transfer money to an existing account - was as clear as day, but it was still very, very hard to convince him it was a rip-off.

This was even after alerting him to the numerous web sites devoted to combatting these scams, including sites with hundreds of stock photos the scammers use in their phoney romances.

Apprently this is not unusual. The urge to believe something wonderful is happening is simply too hard for many people to overcome and it's tough to admit you've been sucked in.

This story on the ABC web site is instructive - even when the police tell them face to face it's a rip-off a large proportion of people still continue to send the money to these scumbags:

http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2006/s1560220.htm

The intenet is a wonderful thing, just like the ocean - just watch out for sharks.

[namtrak]

Do some research on Scam-baiting or mugu hunters etc

Basically about people who scam the scammers, some very funny stuff in there. Also some very sad stuff there was well

http://www.419eater.com/html/ethics.htm

[Koala-Man]

Do some research on Scam-baiting or mugu hunters etc

Basically about people who scam the scammers, some very funny stuff in there. Also some very sad stuff there was well

http://www.419eater.com/html/ethics.htm


There is one I came across a while ago where the guy baits a scammer by pretending he's plotting to blow up the British house of parliament. He's actually recreating the whole Guy Fawkes story, using the real names of the plotters and all, unbeknown to the scammer. He even sends the scammer a copy of the actual newspaper report from way back all those years ago. It's hilarious. The irony is that the scammer is so willing to believe what he's being told.
Gaz.

[orraloon]

I had one of those about 4 years ago claiming to be a persecuted christian who had fled his country and had to get his money out. I had some fun by playing along for a bit and then told him to give thanks he had escaped the heathen and not be grubbing after money. Root of all evil, eye of the needle and all that. Never had another one since. I better not go to Nigeria as I may be on a hit list after I post this.

[Zed]

why dont you just tell Richard Komo that you've already spent all your money on on-line penis extension kits??? Being a scammer he might have som professional courtesy and leave you alone to the shark who got the first bite....

[Waldo]

I had this piece of carp come in last week to me through the Forum.

"Dear Sir/Madam:
We are very interested in working with your company, it's our great honour. Please allow me to take this opportunity to introduce our company as one of the leading and premier manufacturer of coated abrasives based in China. We offer a wide range of products ranging from abrasive cloth rolls, abrasive cloth belts, velcro discs, self-adhesive disc,etc. The factory was founded in 2000 and is a renowned manufacturer specializing in coated abrasives . The factory owner is getting involved in this field more than 30 years,Taking advantage of 30 years experience, its products have reached the world top level and at the same time we have created their unique company culture and manufacturing technology.we specialized in custom-made products as per your requirements and specifications.

We have continuous ongoing R & D together with well trained - personnel to produce, develop and update the product as per users latest need. We believe in total service to the user and the total satisfaction of the user is our motto.

We look forward for details of your requirement or any query you may have related to the product. We assure you of our best attention and prompt service.


best regards,
Richard
"

WoodButcher, if you want to PM with your email or whatever I'll forward the full thing on to you.

[wood duck 2]

Can you please elaborate?I really hope your not saying that those penis enlargement pills are a scam!The email I was sent showed real photos as proof that they do work!Quite an impressive improvement in size.Those pills were for my brother of course and not for me.

[Rossluck]

How on earth could anyone be taken in by these scams? :?:?:?:? I mean, you'd have to be a bit dopey wouldn't you? I wouldn't send them $5.00 if they sent a stamped/addressed envelope.

I remember the first one I received, well before they were famous, and I just read through three quarters of it, laughed, and went about my business.

A part of me says that people who get sucked in by these things deserve it a little. Am I being harsh?

[Gra]

How on earth could anyone be taken in by these scams? :?:?:?:? I mean, you'd have to be a bit dopey wouldn't you? I wouldn't send them $5.00 if they sent a stamped/addressed envelope.

I remember the first one I received, well before they were famous, and I just read through three quarters of it, laughed, and went about my business.

A part of me says that people who get sucked in by these things deserve it a little. Am I being harsh?

These things have been around for ever, I remember receiving them via telex at my first job. Even as a green mail boy I figured it was a scam... Some people are just greedy, see the money and nothing else

[ubeaut]

We are doing our best to eradicate this stuff but the buggers are getting really cunning. Thanks to these scumbags the members can only send 1 pm or email at a time and with 5 minute intervals between each. This is the only way we can stop the mongrels from flooding the pm and mail of members.

I am currently trying to work on a more permanent fix for the problem but the only one so far would involve a 24 hr moderator watching all new members and that just isn't on.

Cheers - Neil

[munruben]

It amazes me that some people are taken in by these things. I mean its so obvious that its a scam and a fraud.

[Gra]

It amazes me that some people are taken in by these things. I mean its so obvious that its a scam and a fraud.

people as a group are stupid and greedy. you will always find someone greedy enough to ignore their instincts and chase one of the scams

[Wood Butcher]

Waldo,

I got you email thank-you and the perpetrator has been dealt with!

[Waldo]

Waldo,

I got you email thank-you and the perpetrator has been dealt with!

:2tsup:

[pawnhead]

,,,
http://www.419eater.com/html/ethics.htm,,,
The irony is that the scammer is so willing to believe what he's being told.
Gaz.Yeh, 419eater is a funny site. Some of the reverse scams that he pulls are a riot, but I think the most famous one on the web was the p-p-p-powerbook scam.
A scammer tries to steal a laptop that's being sold on eBay by using a fake escrow service that he's set up himself to pay for it. The guy selling the laptop saw through the dodgy payment method, and he ended up making the scammer pay a lot of import duty for this package (http://www.hot.ee/ppppowerbook/) (note the 'bluetooth' mouse :U)

edit: BTW, none of the mirrors on that site lead to the story. It's quite a long read, but if you're interested you can read about it in this pdf (http://newssocket.com/downloads/thepowerbook.pdf).