Nigerian Internet Scams

from JoeUser Forums
It's only been about 10 days since I've gotten the new computer and I've already received 14 e*mail scams. Are these gettting to everyone else too? Like the following:
"Dear Sir/Madam,
I am Dr A.O Martins,I represent a group of business men who
deal on raw materials and export into Europe/America.
We set out to searching for representatives who would help us
establish a medium of getting to our costumers in America/Europe as well
as
making payments through you to us.If you are interested in transacting
business with us we will be very glad.
Subject to your satisfaction you will be given the
opportunity to negotiate your mode of which we will pay for your services
as our representative in Europe/America.
Please if you are interested forward to us your phone/fax
number and your full contact addresses,This will also be forwared to the
customers.
Thanks,
CEO
Dr A.O Martins"
or
""YOUR ASSISTANCE IN THIS PROJECT"

KINDLY ACCEPT MY APOLOGY FOR MY MAIL TO YOU. I AM A TRUE GOD FEARING
PERSON,AND I WANT YOU TO UNDERSTAND ME AND HELP ME OUT IN THIS MY
CONDITION THAT I AM IN. I BELIVEVE YOU ARE A HIGHLY RESPECTED
PERSONATITY, CONSIDERING THE FACT THAT I SOURCED YOUR PROFILE FROM A
HUMAN RESOURCE PROFILE DATABASE ON YOUR COUNTRY IN THE INTERNET.

THOUGH, I DO NOT KNOW HOW YOU ARE GOING TO HELP ME IN THIS MATTER DUE
TO WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME HERE.

PLEASE, I WANT TO LET YOU KNOW THAT I HAVE A FATHER BUT HE IS NOT ALIFE
ANY MORE DUE TO HIS WICKED BUSINESS PARTNERS WHO POISONED HIM TO DEATH "
or:
"I am a director with the Federal Ministry of Finance and was instructed
by the Hon Minister of Finance to find out before the end of this month,WHY
your contract/ claim of your fund have not been credited to your account,after
instructions has been passed to all various Government quarters that all
over due contract/ claim payments should be released as a lot ofpetitions
by beneficiary's has been received by the Minister.

what this office want you to reconfirm, with your telephone and fax numbers,any
other information, WHY you have not received your payment up-till date?.

However I will give my assistance to make sure your file is in order for
payment as two people came for the claim of the fund and submitted account
saying that you are not well.

but you must give me a promissory note stating your willingness to give
me a reasonable amount of money from your contract payment immediately you
get the payment.

Yours faithfully
Mrs Grace Otu
( Federal Ministry of finance Nigeria)"
or:
"Dear friend,

I represent BROWNMIJ IMPORT AND EXPORT COMPANY PLC
based in Nigeria. My company markets and exports
Polymeric Polyol and other products for world trade.

We are searching for representatives who can help us
establish a medium of getting to our customers in
Europe and America as well as making payments through
you as our payment officer. It is upon this note that
we seek your assistance to stand as our representative
in your country.
Note that, as our representative, you will receive
10% of whatever amount you clear for the company and
the balance will be paid into an account we will avail
to you. Please, to facilitate the conclusion of this
transaction if accepted, do send me promptly by email
the following:

(1)Your full names,
(2)Contact address and,Phone/fax numbers.

Thank you for your time.Waiting for your
response([email protected])
Very Respectfully,

Mr. Steve Howard
MANAGING DIRECTOR/CEO
BROWNMIJ COMPANY PLC"

Does everyone get these annoying scams too?
20,918 views 26 replies
Reply #2 from JoeUser Forums Top
I usually get the former Iranian Prince one seeking investors....wonder if I missed a great opportunity?
The Political Machine 2024
Reply #3 from JoeUser Forums Top

Yes, I could be the recipient of 87 million dollars by now, if only I would fork over some as yet unspecified amount of money.

Founds this thread over on skinnables.org. Pretty funny - might come in handy too. http://www.skinnables.org/forum.php?post_id=1261

 

Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I've gotten lots of these over the years. There are numerous sites that post many of these letters. The way it works is that they keep asking for money to grease the palms of one official after the other or some border guard. But you can guess that you never get anything other than broke.
Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I've won the International lottery 5 times. I'm rich.

I turned them in to the Security Exchange Commission.
Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Sorry, not the Security Exchange, but the Federal Trade Commission Washington, DC 20580

You can also call the National Fraud Information Center 1-800-876-7060
Reply #8 from WinCustomize Forums Top
This is one of my favorites:

Subject: Nigerian Astronaut Wants To Come Home
Dr. Bakare Tunde
Astronautics Project Manager
National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA)
Plot 555
Misau Street
PMB 437
Garki, Abuja, FCT NIGERIA

Dear Mr. Sir,

REQUEST FOR ASSISTANCE-STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL

I am Dr. Bakare Tunde, the cousin of Nigerian Astronaut, Air Force Major Abacha Tunde. He was the first African in space when he made a secret flight to the Salyut 6 space station in 1979. He was on a later Soviet spaceflight, Soyuz T-16Z to the secret Soviet military space station Salyut 8T in 1989. He was stranded there in 1990 when the Soviet Union was dissolved. His other Soviet crew members returned to earth on the Soyuz T-16Z, but his place was taken up by return cargo. There have been occasional Progrez supply flights to keep him going since that time. He is in good humor, but wants to come home.

In the 14-years since he has been on the station, he has accumulated flight pay and interest amounting to almost $ 15,000,000 American Dollars. This is held in a trust at the Lagos National Savings and Trust Association. If we can obtain access to this money, we can place a down payment with the Russian Space Authorities for a Soyuz return flight to bring him back to Earth. I am told this will cost $ 3,000,000 American Dollars. In order to access the his trust fund we need your assistance.

Consequently, my colleagues and I are willing to transfer the total amount to your account or subsequent disbursement, since we as civil servants are prohibited by the Code of Conduct Bureau (Civil Service Laws) from opening and/ or operating foreign accounts in our names.

Needless to say, the trust reposed on you at this juncture is enormous. In return, we have agreed to offer you 20 percent of the transferred sum, while 10 percent shall be set aside for incidental expenses (internal and external) between the parties in the course of the transaction. You will be mandated to remit the balance 70 percent to other accounts in due course.

Kindly expedite action as we are behind schedule to enable us include downpayment in this financial quarter.

Please acknowledge the receipt of this message via my direct number 234 (0) 9-234-2220 only.

Yours Sincerely, Dr. Bakare Tunde
Astronautics Project Manager
[email protected]

http://www.nasrda.gov.ng/



These did originate from Nigeria. The gov't there was in on it. It's how they got some 'funding'.

Now it can come from anywhere.
Reply #9 from JoeUser Forums Top
Wow I'm glad I'm not alone. It's so annoying! The worst was the SwissAir tragedy where the guy's saying there's some Swiss cash hidden by one of the dead passengers or pilots. Sickening. Even I think that's too low. I like to send a reply saying I will do it if I can get 50% of the cash sent to me by mail first. I tell them I really want to do it but won't unless I can get some of the cash first. They never hit me back for some reason.
Reply #10 from WinCustomize Forums Top
These 419 scams are annoying - I get about 6 a day!! You can inform your local police fraud squad. Many departments are set up to track these and get them at the source. A flood of them increased after 911 and again after the tsunami in Asia with pleas for aid.
Reply #11 from WinCustomize Forums Top
A few times when bored I had fun with them and wrote back playing along with their little scam, and one time I told them no thanks because I had more money than I could ever spend...another time I told them I was in the same boat as they were and that some group called the irs was holding hostage in some dark cell somewhere. But most of the time I just delete them.
Reply #12 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Double post bug again...hmmmm.
Reply #13 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I'm sick to death of these spams, I get many of them every day...
Reply #14 from JoeUser Forums Top
i used to think much differently about the nigerian electronic communication industry until i attended this seminar: Link

i can highly recommend it to everyone altho please remember to keep this matter in the closest confidence.
Reply #15 from WinCustomize Forums Top
LMAO... this is funny... In post #1 when you go to the url, find the "hate mail" link and read some... It's kinda funny. I got a good laugh anywayz...

On topic, yeah, I'm gettin them like crazy. Seems like as soon as I set a filter they come from somewhere else!
Reply #16 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I've only gotten around three of them in the 15 years I've used the net.
Reply #17 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I never have gotten one of these. I hardly get spam at all. About 2 to 3 a week if that.
Reply #18 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Not only do I get them in email form, I get them in fax form at my office all the time.
Reply #19 from JoeUser Forums Top
My salutations to those who said they have never gotten one of these e*mail scams. I just got 2 more this morning. This is getting to be rather annoying. But can anyone stop it?
Reply #20 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I used to get them on my old account. Which now is dead and burried. I remember that at one point I replied quite angry to one of them telling my honest opinion about it. Not sure if it was a coincidence or not, but I think it stopped for a while.
Reply #21 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I have never got a spam message. Sounds strange? Well, it is often said and everybody forgets an important rule : be careful when giving your address. Even on my Yahoo account there isn't spam at all. And it is much less possible to get spam without giving your e-mail address to somebody unwanted. Also be careful about spyware and various viruses.
Spam protection is a story for itself. Yahoo sometimes puts Microsoft or Wincustomize newsletters to bulk (spam) folder. From the other side, somebody with a hotmail account was sending messages with viruses to the yahoo e-mail address of my class. And Yahoo left it in Inbox. Cause everybody from my class has access to the account somebody could have opened the attachment and...
Using several accounts is maybe the best way to get rid of numerous spam messages. If an account is "infected" you get a new one. And next time be more careful. Especially when there are worse things like phishing.
And the story about Nigerian astronaut. You need to have talent for writing these fairy-tales. And I regret those who believed it (if any). It is not easy being stupid.
Reply #22 from WinCustomize Forums Top

It is not easy being stupid
  

Oh, rubbish....it's simple.....I can do it no hands....

Reply #23 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I'm very careful with where I leave my email address. However, I'm deperatly trying to get my friend NOT to send me chainemails and sign me up for all these addressbook and find-your-friends thingies.
Reply #24 from WinCustomize Forums Top
It is not easy being stupid

Oh, rubbish....it's simple.....I can do it no hands....


What I ment to say was: Life is not easy to stupid people. Acting stupid is so simple.
I'm very careful with where I leave my email address. However, I'm deperatly trying to get my friend NOT to send me chainemails and sign me up for all these addressbook and find-your-friends thingies

Unfortunately, careless friends are the problem that you can't control.
1. They get a virus that picks your e-mail from their address book.
2. Find-your-friends etc.
An average PC user just can't realise that these e-mail collectors misuse the addresses.
Reply #25 from WinCustomize Forums Top
My e-mail provider (GMX in Germany) has a very good spam filter, it filters more than 90% of the spam. I have installed a rule so that the filtered spam goes into a special folder (on the server) where it will automatically be deleted after one day, and in that folder there are constantly about 70(!) e-mails. The rest that manages to get to my PC is filtered by Thunderbird's spam filter. With both filters I have not been receiving any spam mail for two weeks now. Amazing.