@maninayton - I Seem To Be Receiving A Lot Of 'Advance Fee' Scams Recently.

maninayton (58)in #community • 7 years ago

Just recently I have received a lot of Advance Fee Scams in my private email. I thought I would share them with you to give a heads up to those who may not be aware of them.

What Are Advance Fee Scams?

Advance Fee Scams are unsolicited emails that take the form of a business proposition, a lottery win, notice of an inheritance or a request to help transfer money. The list of cover stories is endless but they nearly all have a common theme. They all say that they will give you a percentage of a large sum of money if you help them in some way.

What the criminals who send these emails are after are the victims' money and personal information.

At one time this type of scam email was commonly sent from Nigeria and were hence called 'Nigerian' scams. These days this type of scam message can be sent from anywhere in the world.

People Still Fall For Them

Despite having been around for decades - they predate the Internet - people are still falling victim to this type of scam every day. Not only do people lose large amounts of money, they also become victims of identify theft. Once caught it can take years for someone to recover from the effects of identity theft crime.

A report published in the United Kingdom in 2006 stated that this type of fraud it cost the economy £150 million annually. That is a staggering average of £31,000 per victim.

The emotional trauma these scams inflict can also have fatal consequences. In Cambridgeshire in the UK, a man doused himself with petrol and burnt himself to death after discovering that a $1.2 million internet lottery win was bogus. A student at Nottingham University, also in the UK, committed suicide after falling foul of a similar lottery scam.

Examples Of Emails

The following example is an actual email that was sent to numerous people. Notice how generic it is; there is no salutation, just the word 'Congratulations'. This lack of personalisation is a common feature of scam emails.

The U.K. National Lottery
Online Lottery Promo Dept.
Customer Service.
PO Box 1010
Liverpool
L70 1NL United Kingdom.
Date of Notification 27-04-2007
Ref N0: KPL/09-002/JA.
Attn: Winner.

Congratulations!

Your e-mail address attached to the Batch N0:P2/0056 with Serial number: 06/1055 drew, 25-04-07 [5] [11] [13] [17] [14] [48] [25], which subsequently won you a prize in the category “B”. You have therefore been approved to claim a total sum of £1,500,000.00 (One Million , Five Hundred Thousand Great British Pounds) in cash credited to file Ref N0: KPL/09-002/JA.

Please be advised as follows: To file for your claim, kindly contact our certified and accredited claims agent with the information below:

Name: Phil Smith
E-mail: [email protected]
Claims processing agent
For: The U.K National Lottery.

You are advised to provide him with the following
information:
Names:
Telephone/Fax number:
Nationality:
Age:
Occupation:

Yours Faithfully,
mrs,patricia spencer
Online Co-ordinator

The next one is a real example of an inheritance scam that was sent via snail mail. Similar ones are also sent as emails. Note the bad grammar and poor English. Also, the lack of paragraph breaks is how it appears in the original.

I'm David T Duddias, expert in corporate and legal claims; I'm a partner at Thomson &
Associates.
I am contacting you in regards to a deceased client who died in an auto accident on the
Madrid Highway in lV{arch 2005, he was a prominent client of mine. He happens to share the same LAST NAME with you.

Before his death, my client deposited (22million$) at the vault of a financial institution here in Europe, documentations regarding these transaction indicates that claims can only be made by his relative/family member. Unfortunately he had no will at the time of his death. All efforts made revealed no link to any of his family member.

However, the New EU law of succession/claims/fund indicates a duration in which such claims could be tolerated. The financial institution have mandated me to present the next of kin or a relative who will claim the funds and Failure to respond to this ultimatum would legally allow the financial institute to report this funds to the central bank of EU as unclaimed funds(Lack of supersede).

I and my colleague have put in place all necessary requirements concerning the release of this funds and It is my intention to introduce this opportunity to you as the beneficiary. Please note that I'm legally equipped with all necessary information/documentations
concerning this fund.

Upon your decision of acceptance, I would process the release of these funds to your possession; you would be entitled to 50% of the said funds and 50% for me.
For security reasons, I have decided not to add more information into this letter, but immediately you get in touch with me, I would be able to inform you on how this could be concluded.
For time difference and confidential reasons, I strongly advise that you firstly contact me via fax or email.
Its' been my wish to have an investment outside my country, so this is an opportunity for me to invest my share of these funds in your country.

In conclusion, it's my concern to demand your ultimate honesty, co-operation and confidentiality to enable us conclude this transaction. I GUARANTEE that this process would be executed under a legitimate arrangement that would legally protect you from any breech of Law.

David T Duddias
Private Phone: +346207 1 2204
Email: [email protected] OR [email protected]

To view the originals of these, plus others, please follow the link to scamwatch.gov in the sources section below.

What To Do If You Receive One

Don't reply in any way to the email. The people sending these things are criminals and some have resorted to extortion, kidnapping and even murder in the past. They are very unsavoury types so don't become involved - just delete it.

If you have submitted money or information to one of these scams then immediately read one of the following for details on what to do.

Federal Trade Commission (US).
ScamWatch, (Australia).
ActionFraud (UK).
(links correct at time of writing)

If you are in another country then search on the internet for the appropriate authority to contact.

Just remember the old saying "If it seems too good to be true, then it probably is too good to be true".

Stay safe.