Nigerian Letter scams and how not to be defrauded by them

Canadians and people in other countries keep falling for the Nigerian letter scams. Fraud artists are finding it easier amid a battered economy to entrap the gullible with dubious offers once easily dismissed as scams, and are snaring a growing number of victims to the tune of millions of dollars a month. The scam operates as follows: the target receives an unsolicited fax, email, or letter often concerning Nigeria containing either a money laundering or other illegal proposal. The Nigerian Scam is, according to published reports, the third to fifth largest industry in Nigeria. Some scams originate from other West African nations including Ghana, Togo, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast etc. In most cases, these emails come from other nations such as European nations like the UK, the Netherlands, Spain, Russia and even Canada and the United States. The advantages that the scammers in Russia have is that Russia permits the Internet providers to mask the sender's source IP address, making the scammers completely untraceable even in the country of origin.

It has been estimated that there's over 100,000 people all over the world earning a living from scamming people around the world. The scammers are making their websites to look legitimate so that innocent dupes will fall for them. Scammers will also make up company names so that most of the business names appearing in our emails simply don’t exist at all.

The Competition Bureau of Canada is warning that recessions are ‘boom times for scammers’ and predicts desperate Canadians will fall into traps offering easy cash online, by phone and mail. The victims are increasingly falling prey to scams of all types.

Ploys such as the ‘lottery scams’ that had virtually disappeared because the public had gotten wise to the ruse are now making a comeback. Because of the current economic turndown, people are getting desperate and are now falling for even the most outlandish scams. Among those scams are the so-called Nigerian letter scams, which typically offer too-good-to-be true promises of untold millions from an African country or other country in exchange for some simple help generally with a few bank transactions.

The offer; which is usually passed along in broken English and riddled with grammatical errors sees most Internet users simply hitting delete. Still, an average of ten Canadians each month continue to fall for it and get soaked for hundreds of thousands of dollars. In the first six months of the year, there were more than 7,000 mass-marketing fraud victims, including 3,903 Canadians, with losses totaling almost $26.5 million. June, 2009 was a relatively slow month for victims of the letter scam in Canada, with only four people reporting losses of a total of almost $73,000. But in May, eleven Canadians fell for the letter scam and were taken for a total of almost $571,000; while a U.S. victim reported he lost $200,000 in a scam with Canadian links. Last year, more than 11,000 victims reported more than $9.6 million in losses. In 2008, about 57 per cent of the 14,201 victims of mass-marketing scams with Canadian connections were from other countries, while the percentage was about 67 per cent in 2007. Those numbers only scratch the surface, since authorities usually only hear from victims who have lost a lot of money. Many who get taken for $100 or less don't bother reporting they've been scammed.

The scammers are generally attempting to get one of three things from the victims. They are; enough particulars from the victim’s personal background so that false ID can be created in his or her name; (however that isn’t done as often as one would think. They usually ask for the information so that the scammer can appear as being legitimate nevertheless, the chance of false ID abuse can not be excluded, especially for passport data and bank account information), the victim is told that the money will be sent but first, the taxes have to be paid, (this is where the victims lose their money) and finally, their bank particulars so that money can be withdrawn from it by the scammers.

At some point, the victim is asked to pay up front an Advance Fee of some sort, be it an ‘Advance Fee’, ‘Transfer Tax’ or ‘Performance Bond’. If the victim pays the fee, there are often many ‘so-called complications’ which require still more advance payments until the victim either quits, runs out of money, or both.

Current fraud emails involving ‘Nigeria letter’ and fake lotteries trace back to an idea known as the ‘Spanish prisoner scam’, which goes back to before 1914 (World War I) and before it the ‘Letter from Jerusalem scam’ was documented by Vidocq after the French Revolution. Modern variants of the scam started circulating from Nigeria by fax and postal mail in the 1980s and netted quite a few, often quite wealthy victims worldwide during the 1990s. The scam crossed over into email in the late 1990s and now it is the main method of communication used by the scammers.

You would be surprised just how many people from all walks of life have become victims of this kind of scam. Some are businessmen or academics. In some cases people have even committed other crimes, such as stealing money from their employers, to cover the advance fee payments, hoping they would be able to repay the money from the promised fortune before anybody would notice.

They all have one of three things in common. The scammers want to get as much personal information about me so that they can create identification that is in my name and use it for their own purposes, they want my bank particulars so that they can illegally withdraw my money from it or they want me to come up with money for the ‘expenses’ such as taxes, lawyer’s or accountant’s fees which they claim is required to transfer those millions to me. The victims think a few hundred or a few thousand dollars is trivial when millions are at stake. Each demand for more money is claimed to be the very last obstacle before the big money is released. Sometimes, the victim is lured to Nigeria, where even worse things happen. I was told by a police officer friend of mine that a Canadian went to Nigeria to find out why the money wasn’t transferred and soon after his arrival, he was murdered.

One way that you can determine that an illegal attempt is being made to seek personal information from you or otherwise scam you out of your money, is to look for mistakes in the messages. When you read the email sent to you, you will see that the senders have the language skills of a fourth grader. Notice the unnecessary capitalization of words, improper grammar and complete lack of sentence structure they use in their messages. Their spelling, grammar and punctuation mistakes are peppered throughout their messages. I have underlined the mistakes in the messages and offered my comments on each of messages that were sent to me so far in 2009, beginning with the latest one.

As in most scams like the ones I am presenting to you, using even the slightest amount of caution will show you that the offers are a scam. For example, did you know these people? How did they get your email address? These two questions should automatically open up your eyes real wide to the fact that someone is attempting to scam you. The following are scams that were sent to me by email from January 6, to July 4, 2009. I will begin with the latest one I received.

Received in my email on July 4, 2009

This scam letter is supposed to make me believe that I am the recipient of a grant. You know you are dealing with an Internet email scam when the opening sentence says, “You were selected...” or similar words.

United Nations Trust Fund
Switzerland Department of Humanitarian Affairs
Palais des Nations CH-1211 Geneva 10
Switzerland

Congratulations Beneficiary,

your email has been selected by the United Nations(UN) for a cash grant award of Six Hundred And Fifty Thousand Five hundred GREAT BRITISH POUNDS, (650,500.00GBP) for this year 2009 award. Your email address was selected during our random email balloting for the cash grant and if you receive this notification, it means that you are a lucky beneficiary of our cash grant award. The united nations authorities has decided to give this award to 15 beneficiaries from all over the world to help facilitate and improve the standard of living to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf for developing States, in particular the least developed countries and small island developing States, and compliance with article 76 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. This grant is been aided by the United Nations development programme and the united nations trust funds for human security. Your cash grant pin number is (UNO-154/4456/011)

Contact our corresponding office (United Nations Trust Funds ) in Liverpool, United Kingdom and they will give details on how your funds would be remitted to you. Do contact our payment office immediately with the informations below. Your grant numbers fall within your Location file, you are requested to contact the event manager/Claims Department, send your winning identification numbers and fill the verification form below, to enable him verify your claims.

1.FULL NAMES OF DONATION BENEFICIARY:..................
2.RESIDENTIAL ADDRESS:........................
3.DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH:.........................
4.WINNING EMAIL:...........................
5.PHONE/FAX NUMBERS:............................
6.NAME AND ADDRESS OF NEXT OF KIN:..............
7.SEX:....................
8.OCCUPATION:...................
9.MARITAL STATUS:..................
10.COUNTRY:..................
11.NATIONALITY:..........

Do contact our payment office immediately with the informations below.
Payment Officer: Dr.Nathan Giroux
Tell: +4470359 93503
Email: claims undept101@live.com

Regards,
Mrs. Ruth Williams
UNITED NATIONS SECRETARY GENERAL

My comments

In this message, there are a great many mistakes. Far too many for an official message to have been sent by the United Nations. Some of the mistakes are glaring. I have underlined the mistakes and will explain why the mistakes are stupid mistakes.

The United Nations headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland has a department called, Department of Humanitarian Affairs However, it is not prefaced with the proper noun, Switzerland. In fact when you go to Google and type in Switzerland Department of Humanitarian Affairs, a message will come up telling you that the message is a scam.

You will note that there is a comma at the end of the word, Beneficiary. An educated person would put a colon after the word, not a comma.

You will note that the word, ‘your’ does not begin with a capital as it should when it is the first word in a sentence.

You will also note that the second and third times the words ‘United Nations’ is written, the words are not capitalized.

The following mistake is so obvious; it makes you wonder just how stupid the author of the message really is. He or she wrote;

“The united nations authorities has decided to give this award to 15 beneficiaries from all over the world to help facilitate and improve the standard of living to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf for developing States, in particular the least developed countries and small island developing States….”

Did the dummy not realize that I live in Canada, a country that has one of the world’s highest standards of living and a country that is definitely not one of the least developing countries or a small island developing State that the author of the message assumed that I was a citizen of?

Further, when the scammer said in part, “The united nations authorities has decided to give this award ….” The scammer used the word ‘has’ which is only used when the noun before it is singular. He should have used the word, ‘have’ because the word, ‘authorities’ is plural. Further, United Nations is capitalized.

The scammer typed in the word, ‘informations’. The word ‘informations’ doesn’t exist because the word, ‘information’ can be used to imply one or many just as the word, ‘sheep’ does.

The words, ‘event manager’ should have been capitalized because that is the title of an official.

The dummy wrote; “…. send your winning identification numbers…..” but that doesn’t make sense since the dummy only gave me one grant pin number and not two or more grant pin numbers.

The dummy also used the word, ‘claims’ as if I was making more than one claim for the money when he previously used the singular word, ‘payment’.

It isn’t necessary to preface a sentence with the word, ‘Do’ when you are giving instructions for some one to contact an office.

The stupidest mistake was when the dummy wrote in the name, Mrs. Ruth Williams as being the United Nations Secretary General. First of all, so far, no woman has ever held that post and second of all, the post is currently held by Mr. Ban Ki-moon.

Where did the scammer get the information about the United Nations Trust Fund? The Fund was created in March of 1999 by the Government of Japan and the United Nations Secretariat. At the United Nations Millennium Summit in 2000, the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan called upon the world community to advance the twin goals of 'freedom from want’ and ‘freedom from fear. As a contribution to this effort, an independent Commission on Human Security was established. The United Nations Trust Fund for Human Security finances projects carried out by organizations in the UN system, and when appropriate, in partnership with non-UN entities, to advance the operational impact of the human security concept. Projects are distributed globally, with priority given to countries and regions where the insecurities of people are most critical and pervasive, such as the least developed countries and countries in conflict. Its function is to place priority on projects that address more than one element among the following situations and shall pay particular attention to the special needs and vulnerabilities of women and children. Its function includes assisting community-level efforts to establish mechanisms to protect people exposed to extreme poverty, sudden economic downturns and natural disasters.

The United Nations Trust Fund for Human Security in Security Council’s Resolution 1244 in June 2009 listed the 71 countries where the Fund would apply and Canada, the United States of America, the United Kingdom, and the other countries in Europe along with Australia, New Zealand and Japan which are all well developed countries are not listed in the Fund as recipients of the Fund’s money. Since my email address is listed in Canada where I live, it follows that no monies from that Fund would be sent to me and further, I would not be getting a personal message from the Secretary General of the United Nations telling me that I would be receiving $650,500.00 from the Fund.

The purpose of the Fund is to assist poor people in underdeveloped countries. What makes the scammer's message so ridiculous is that the monies would be sent to me because my email address was selected at random. The UN does not operate a lottery.

Received in my email on May 26, 2009

This scam letter is supposed to make me believe that I have won a lottery, one that I didn’t even enter. Everyone wants to win the lottery so this one is enticing to the unsuspecting fools who are too stupid to ignore the message. Legitimate lotteries don't use email to notify winners. Either the winners have to come forward on their own or they are notified by registered mail.

QUEEN'S LOTTERY
Ref: QNL/9420X2/68
Batch: 074/05/QNL369

WINNING NOTIFICATION!!!

We happily announce to you the draw (#80) of the QUEEN'S LOTTERY, 2009. Your e-mail address attached to ticket number: 56475600545 188 with Serial number 5368/02 drew the lucky numbers: 12-18-22-33-43-48-25, which subsequently won you the lottery in the 1st category. You have therefore been approved to claim a total sum of $1.5 million USD (One Million Five Hundred Thousand million United State Dollars) in cash credited to file KTU/9023118308/09.

All participants were selected randomly from World Wide Web sites through a computer draw system and extracted from over 100,000 unions, associations, and corporate bodies that are listed online. For security reasons, you are advised to keep your winning code confidential till your money is remitted to your designated bank account. This is part of our precautionary measure to avoid unwarranted abuse of this program.

Please be warned. Queen's Lottery is promoted and sponsored by a conglomerate of multinational companies in commonwealth countries as part of their social responsibility to the citizens in the communities where they have operational base.

To file for your claim, you are required to forward the following details to our
verification department.

Full names................
Residential address.......
Phone number................
Occupation..............
Sex.................
Age.............
Nationality................

Contact Person: Mr Richard White
Email: claims_dispatchunit1109@queens-lotto.co.cc

Yours sincerely
Harry White.
Online coordinator for QUEEN'S LOTTERY International Program.

Warning!!!

Fraudulent emails are circulating that appear to be using Queen's Lottery
addresses, but are not from The Queen's Lottery. PLEASE REPORT IMMEDIATELY TO CUSTOMER CARE/COMPLAINTS DEPT via this email:customercareunit@queens-lotto.co.cc

My comments

First of all, notice the word ‘million’ added after the words, ‘Five Hundred Thousand’. The additional word million is pointless.

Second, he didn’t add the word,‘a’in the following sentence----“All participants were selected randomly from World Wide Web sites through (a) computer draw system…..”

Third, the United States is not written as the United ‘State’. The word, State is singular when in fact it would be plural.

Fourth, they have stated that the money will be sent to ‘your designated bank account’ which means that they are actually looking for the name of my bank, the address of my bank and my bank account number so that they can withdraw my money from it after I give them all the other information they are seeking in their message. If they were honest, they would send me a bank draft or certified cheque (check) instead of asking me for my bank information. Admittedly, they could then get my bank information but only after I received from them one million five hundred thousand dollars in US funds. But my bank information would be useless to them because I would then close that account and open another one.

Fifth. It is beyond me as to why the dummy typed in the following words, Please be warned just before the dummy begins to describe what his corporation is. Does this mean that he is warning me about his corporation?

Sixth. He typed in the words, FULL NAMES. The word NAMES should not be plural because the words are supposed to be FULL NAME since the full name of a person includes their first, second and last names.

Seventh. He didn’t put a period after the word, Mr.

Eight. You will note that I was to contact Richard White but the message was sent to me by Harry White.

The scammer would insist that I pay the taxes up front to the scammer. Legitimate lottery companies don't charge a fee, ask for the taxes up front or demand bank information in order for you to receive your winnings. Fake lotteries do, and then don't deliver any winnings.

The message was obviously sent by someone who obviously doesn’t proof read his messages before he sends them out.


Received in my email on May 6, 2009

This scam letter is supposed to make me believe that I have inherited a great deal of money. This is the typical unsolicited Good Samaritan offer that drops into your email inbox from somebody you don't know from overseas. In scams where the victim is a supposed heir to a dead foreigner, the paperwork and ID submitted for those bogus claims is sometimes used in conjunction with bank account information for falsifying wire transfer instructions to the victim's bank in order to transfer money out of the victim’s account.

Dear Friend,

I'm MR .DERRA DENZ, an accountant in a financial institution here in BURKINA FASO. I have decided to contact you for a fund transfer transaction worth the sum of US$10,500,000.00 into your reliable bank account as the sole NEXT-OF-KIN to the foreign deceased customer of our bank (an International Billionaire French Businessman) who was killed with his entire family by PLANE-CRASH in Central England in the year 2003. Since his death occured, no body have show up as his next of kin for the claim because the account is untraceable.

Upon the investigation I carried out from his records, I found out that his foreign business consultant who would have trace the account died earlier before the deceased. Therefore, this is a confidential and sealed deal.

For the success of this transaction, you should apply and act as the only existing NEXT-OF-KIN to the deceased which our bank will replace the deceased account information through proper documentation in position of your own account.

This transaction is risk-free, it will never harm your good reputation in your society because no one can trace the account, and on the instant of the transfer of the fund into your account, the chapter of this transaction will be closed entirely.

Note that in a business of this nature, the bank doesn't want to know your difference between the deceased country, religion or believe because our bank inheritance law is against that. So, it is a preference for us__achieve this success without any problem.

Please note down that once the fund get transferred into your account, you will take 39% of the total sum for the assistance and role you are going to play in this transaction,(11%) will be used to establish a charity organization in your country with your supervision while the remaining will be for me and my other loyal colleagues here.

I need your urgent response__ and include your private telephone/mobile numbers for easy communication. Please reply if you can be trusted in this deal.

Thanks,
DERRA DENZ

My comments

Again, I am bombarded with submissions of stupid and an uneducated scammer.

First, he referred to my bank account being reliable. How would he know what the standing of my bank account is? In Canada, it is against the law for anyone to look into another person’s bank account unless that person is an employee of the bank or unless the bank customer has given his or her written permission.

Second, he misspelled the word occurred by spelling it as occured.

Third, he said, “….no body has shown up….” He should have written; “…..nobody or no one has shown up…..”

Fourth, he said that the “…..account is untraceable.” If that is so, then why did he later say; “….our bank will replace the deceased account information through proper documentation in position of your own account.” If that were possible, then the account would not be untraceable.

Fifth, he said, “….you should apply and act as the only existing NEXT-OF-KIN to the deceased…..” Since I haven’t been given the full name of the so-called deceased person he claims was a French billionaire, how could I know whether or not I was related to him? Not only that, even though the supposed deceased person and his family were killed, if the offer was legitimate, and a real relative were to show up and claim the money, I could be personally be held liable not only for the 39% this dummy promised me but also for the 81% of the money the dummy kept for himself.

Sixth, am I to really believe that the dummy would trust a stranger to give him back 61% of the so-called estate that he claims is mine simply because he found the so-called untraceable funds?


Received in my email on March 7, 2009

This scam letter is supposed to make me believe that a dying woman wants to give me her inheritance. These con artists try to tie in a tragic event with a large lump sum payment if only you would help.

Brethren in the lord.

Greetings to you and your family! My name is Mrs. Ashley Johnson. I am 59 years old deaf aging widow suffering from a terminal disease Cancer for about 5 years now. I have just been informed by my doctor that I have a short time now to live on earth, ___I have no kids and my husband is dead and most of my trusted relatives are also dead.

During my quiet time with the lord, he has directed me to inform you of his desire to have you as his servant, I inherited the sum of US$8,800.__000 from my late husband and now that I have a short time to live on earth, I sought for an honest person that will distribute the funds amoung the charity homes, I got your contact through a deep search of likely relatives.

However, I have realized that if anything happens to me now, the bank will use that as an opportunity to confiscate the funds. Hence I have prayed and cried to the lord for divine direction and he gave me a vision of faith in my dreams then I woke up and opened my bible to Leviticus 5:15 : which says, "If any one commits a breach of faith and sins unwittingly in any of the holy things of the LORD or defy the lord's command, he shall bring, as his guilt offering to the LORD a ram without blemish out of the flock, valued by you in shekels of silver, according to the shekel of the sanctuary; it is a
guilt offering.

I beseeched the LORD to direct my steps and I am now imploring you to help me realize my dream and obey God's command, more privileged information will be communicated to you upon our receipt of your positive response.

I look forward to your prompt and committed response, you should have no course to entertain any fear at all hence the transaction is 100% risk free.

Regards

Mrs. Ashley Johnson.


My comments

This fool also made blunders in his message.

First. When referring to God as the Lord, the L is always capitalized. Twice, he used lower case.

Second. She used a comma instead of a period after her name in her first sentence.

Third. She wrote; “I am 59 years old deaf aging widow…” when in fact she should have written “I am 59 years old and I am a deaf, old widow…”

Fourth. She should have bracketed the word Cancer so that the sentence read; “….suffering from a terminal disease (cancer) for about 5 years now. The word ‘cancer’ doesn’t have to have its first letter capitalized unless it is the first word in a sentence.

Fifth. She should have put a period after the word ‘earth’ instead of a comma.

Sixth. A period should be after the word, servant, not a comma.

Seventh. “….sum of US$8,800.000… “There should be a comma after the first three zeros, not a period.

Eighth. “…..I sought for an honest person….” She should have used the word ‘sought’ in the following manner; “I sought an honest person….” or alternatively, written it this way; “….I searched for an honest person…”

Ninth. “…..distribute the funds amoung the charity homes….” The word should have been spelled ‘among’ and not ‘amoung’.

Tenth. A period should have been placed after the word ‘homes’ instead of a comma.

Eleventh. She wrote; “I got your contact through a deep search of likely relatives.” Instead of using the word ‘contact’ she should have sued the words, “your email address’

Twelfth. It is beyond me as to why used the word likely. It doesn’t make any sense at all.

Thirteenth. A period should follow the word ‘response’ and then the word ‘you’ could be capitalized since it is the beginning of a new sentence.

Fourteenth. She said in part, “….you should have no course to entertain any fear…” The word she should have chosen is ‘cause’.


The woman (if it was a woman) that wrote that message was terribly uneducated in the English language, especially with respect to spelling, grammar, punctuation and the use of words.


Received in my email on January 23, 2009

This scam letter is offering me a partnership in which I will get 40% of
twenty-one million English pounds.

Mr. Rashid Saif Al-Jarwan
General Manager
Dana Gas,
United Arab Emirates

Dear Friend,

I am brokering an Investment deal in your country.This deal will involve
the eventual investment of GBP21. (Twenty-One Million Pounds Sterling's)
in your country.I am Mr. Rashid Saif Al-Jarwan the General Manager and also one of the New Executive Director of Dana Gas in United Arab Emirates.So I am by
this letter offering you a partnership, so as to allow me have you as
representative and manager of invested funds in your country within the
time frame of the investment/partnership scheme.I am contacting you because I want you to deal with my attorney (Frank Robertson) base in United Kingdom and the payment bank and claim the money on my behalf.You shall also be required to assist me in investment in your country.I hope to trust you as a God-fearing person who will not sit on this money when you claim it,rather assist me properly,___ share in this percentage, 60% to me and 40% to you.I will need your positive response so that my attorney we give you viable information relating to this project. My Attorney is base in United Kingdom (Frank Robertson) because you have to deal with him directly because I have already told my company that the funds belong to a foreign business partner.What I need is for you to indicate your interest that you will assist us by receiving the money on my behalf. For this, you shall be considered to be direct owner to the funds.The project in brief, is that the funds with which we intend to carry out our proposed investments in your country, is presently in the custody of a bank in Europe. I do not want my Company to know about the money because they will believe I got the money from the sales of Oil $ Gas.I will need you to forward your details to my attorney that will instruct the payment bank for the release of the funds to your account. I intend to use my own share in acquiring some estates abroad.For this too you shall also be the overseas manager of all our properties and you will be paid based on a certain percentage agreed on by both parties.I guarantee you that this will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the law.Please get in touch with my attorney urgently by E-mail:frank1234@mail2consultant.com Please, provide me the following:

1. Full Name
2. Your Telephone Number and Fax Number
3. Your Contact Address.
4. Sex
5. Age
6. Country

Best Regards.

Mr. Rashid Saif Al-Jarwan

My comments

This is another hoaxer who hasn’t grasped the full use of the English language.

First. The word, ‘Sterling’ is not pluralized any more than the word ‘sheep’ is.

Second. He wrote, in part; “….also one of the New Executive Director of Dana Gas…” He should have pluralized the word ‘director’.

Third. He wrote; “I want you to deal with my attorney (Frank
Robertson) base in United Kingdom….” The word base should have been written as ‘based’

Fourth. The word, investment should have been pluralized.

Fifth. He wrote; “I hope to trust you as a God-fearing person who will not sit on this money when you claim it, rather assist me properly ___share in this percentage…” He left out four words. The sentence should have read; “I hope to trust you as a God-fearing person who will not sit on this money when you claim it ‘but instead’ assist me properly ‘by sharing’ in this percentage…”

Sixth. Having already referred to his lawyer’s name and where he is based, he didn’t then have to later repeat the same information.

Seventh. The dollar sign doesn’t have to go in between the words Oil and Gas. I think he punched $ instead of &. This clearly means that he didn’t proof read his message.

Eighth. He wrote in part; “…details to my attorney that will instruct…” The word ‘that’ is used when referring to an object or thing and not when referring to a human being. He should have used the word, ‘who’.

You will note that the information he is seeking from me (if given to him) could easily be used to create a new ID in my name. For example, if he knew my age, he could then match it with a face that belongs to someone my age and then print in a bogus date of birth on the passport or other official document.

In his message, he said, “I do not want my Company to know about the money because they will believe I got the money from the sales of Oil $ Gas." What he means is that he is going to rip off his fellow directors and he wants me to be part of the theft of the company’s money. That is not only a quick way to go to prison but a sure way to go bankrupt when the directors find out who I am and sue me for the money back along with the interest that has accumulated. This is of course premised on the fact that the company actually exists.

There are many scams sent my people who claim that they were in Iraq and that they have access to a great deal of money found in barrels on a farm near one of Saddam’s palaces.


Received in my email on January 16, 2009

Attention.

Business Proposal, please Contact me on my private email ede26@verizon.net My name is Sgt DAVID DOVER I am an American soldier with Swiss background, serving in the military with the army's 3rd infantry division based in Iraq/Baghdad. With a very desperate need for assistance, I have summed up courage to contact you. I found your contact particulars in an address journal. I am seeking your kind assistance to move the sum of $25 Million U.S. Dollars Twenty Five Million, United State Dollars to you, as far as I can be assured that my share will be safe in your care until I complete my service here, this is no stolen money, and there are no danger involved.
Source Of Money: Some money in various currencies was discovered in barrels at a farmhouse near one of Saddam's old palaces in Ticket-Iraq during a rescue operation, and it was agreed by staff Sgt Kenneth buff and I that some part of this money be shared among both of us before informing anybody about it since both of us saw the money first. No compensation can make up for the risk we have taken with our lives in this hell hole. Of which my share will be safe in your care until I complete my service here, this is no stolen money, and there are no danger involved. kindly indicate your interest in assisting me as well as Providing the following information to facilitate the smooth conclusion of the consignment fund delivery to your door step.

1) Your Full Name:
2) Your Address:
3) Your Age And Occupation:
4) Your Mobile Telephone Number:
5) Your Direct Email Address:
6) Your Fax Number:
7) The Name of the Closest Airport to your City of
Residence:
8) Your country and your present location:

One passionate appeal I will make to you is not to discuss this misinformation to facilitate the smooth conclusion of the consignment fund delivery to your door step. One passionate appeal I will make to you is not to discuss this matter with anybody, should you have reasons to reject this offer, please and please destroy this message as any leakage of this information will be too bad for us soldier? here in Iraq. I do not know how long we will remain here, and I have been shot, wounded and survived two suicide bomb attacks by the special grace of God, this and other reasons I will mention later has prompted me to reach out for help, I honestly want this matter to be resolved immediately, please contact me as soon as possible my only way of communication email.I also want you to tell me how much you will take from this money for the assistance you will give to me. I wait for your reply via my private email address as soon as possible ede26@verizon.net

God Bless You As You Help Out In This Transaction.

Sgt. David Doover.

My comments

This scammer is just as stupid as the others are. Here are the reasons.

One. The word, ‘Proposal’ should have ended with a period, not a comma.

Two. His name ‘DOVER” should have ended with a period. He didn’t put any punctuation after his name.

Three. Since the words, “…..3rd infantry division…” is a proper noun, the first letter of each word following 3ed should have been capitalized.

Four. There is no such thing as an address journal. He should have written, ‘address book’. In any case, I don’t know any American soldiers or any civilians living in Iraq so it follows that no such address book exists with my name in it that was previously in the possession of anyone in Iraq.

Five. When you write an amount of money that is in American funds, you don’t type U.S. Dollars after it. He should have written the amount as, $25 Million US.

Six. When you write a numerical figure that has two words, such a twenty-five dollars, you type a hyphen in between the two words. He didn’t do this.

Seven. He typed “…..United State….” when he should have typed United States.

Eight. He typed, “…..as far as I can be assured….” When he should have typed, “….as ‘soon’ as I can be assured…..”

Nine. He should have typed a period after the word ‘here’.

Ten. He typed, “this is no stolen money….” He should have typed, “This is ‘not’ stolen money…”

Eleven. He typed, “…..money in various currencies was discovered in barrels at a farmhouse near one of Saddam's old palaces….” and then claims that he and his partner are not stealing the money. The money in fact (if it exists) belongs to the Iraqi people so in reality, if he and his partner found the money and tried to slip it out of Iraq undetected, he is stealing it and he wants me to be a part of the theft.

Twelve. He typed in an Iraqi city as Ticket-Iraq. No such city in that country exists. There is however a city called Tikrit in Iraq. It was in that city that Saddam had a palace.

Thirteen. When typing in a rank that is followed by a name, such as staff sgt., it should be written as thus, Staff Sgt., and not as staff sgt.

Fourteen. What was a truly stupid mistake was when the scammer didn’t capitalize the first letter of his so-called partner’s name.

Fifteen. The scammer unnecessarily repeated the following badly written sentence. “…..until I complete my service here, this is no stolen money, and there are no danger involved.” Grammatically, it was a disaster. He should have written it as follows; “…..until I complete my service here. This is ‘not’ stolen money and there ‘is’ no danger involved.”

Sixteen. He should have capitalized the first letter of kindly since it begins a sentence and he should not have capitalized the word Purpose since it is in the middle of a sentence.

Seventeen. He really made a blunder when he wrote in part; “…..is not to discuss this misinformation….” He meant to say, ‘information’ but by typing in the word, ‘misinformation’ he was subliminally telling his readers that his message is based on misinformation. Of course, the scammer was too stupid to catch his glaring error.

Eighteen. He typed in; “…..any leakage of this information will be too bad for us soldier? here in Iraq.” I don’t know why the question mark is after the word soldier but since he used the word, ‘us’ the word ‘soldier ‘should be pluralized and not singular.

Nineteen. The following sentences were all wrong. “…..I have been shot, wounded and survived two suicide bomb attacks by the special grace of God, this and other reasons I will mention later has prompted me to reach out for help, I honestly want this matter to be resolved immediately, please contact me as soon as possible my only way of communication email.”

The sentences should have been written in the following manner. “…..I have been shot, wounded and survived two suicide bomb attacks ‘and’ by the special grace of God, ‘and for’ this and other reasons I will mention later, has prompted me to reach out for help. I honestly want this matter to be resolved immediately. Please contact me as soon as possible ‘by way of communicating’ with me ‘by’ email.”

You may recall that I said that you should always check these messages out with Google first. When I checked this particular message out with Google, I discovered that similar postings had been sent to people around the word. Here are the so-called names of two of the scammers.

The first sender’s name is SGT ARTHUR HUGO and his so-called email address is peter@peterson.com. His message is almost identical to the one I received except in his message, all the letters in the message are capitalized. It was sent out on the 15th of May, 2009. In his message, he is saying that he found $28 million dollars. In his message, he said that he and members of his crew would share the money before they would give it to others. The second one was sent by a person called HEATHER ROSS who states that she is with the American Red Cross working with the troops in Iraq. In her message, she only found $4.8 million dollars and naturally, she wants to share it with the suckers. In her message, she actually got it out of Iraq and the money is in a package in England waiting to be sent to the sucker who falls for the scam.


Received in my email on January 16, 2009

A great many scamming messages sent via the Internet purport to be written by employees of corporations.

Good Day

This is a Letter from Gulf Oil & Gas Company, our coporate = website:www.gulfoilandgas.com

We know that you may be surprise on how we got your email address, your
email was picked at random by our Gmek System use to randomly select
the right candidate for this position. We want to make you our Payment
Agent there in your location and your reward is 5%. Please contact us for
more information. I hereby assure you that you will not regret working with
us in this venture, as nobody is going to ask you for any money up front. I
wish to let you know that the key factor in this partnership is trust, you
will be given the opportunity to negotiate your mode of which we will pay
for your services. As our payment officer in your country,

(1)Your Full Names:.......................
(2)Contact Address:.......................
(3)Phone/fax numbers:.....................
(4)Occupation:............................

Thanks for your understanding, i am expecting your reply as soon
as possible.

Thanks you for your time.

Yours Faithfully

Mrs. Rose Frank.

My comments

First. The word, Letter should not be capitalized since it is in the middle of a sentence.

Second. The word corporate is not spelled coporate.

Third. A period should have been placed after the word, ‘trust’. That means of course then that a capital ‘Y’ will be the first letter of the word, ‘You’.

Fourth. She wrote at the end of the message; “As our payment officer in your country,_______” It is a incomplete sentence. When I looked in Google, the same scammer wrote a similar message and that last sentence in that one was also incomplete.

Fifth. She didn’t say what country her firm is located in but in her message in Google, she listed the country as Hong Kong.

The scammers in this kind of scam are looking for dupes who might be looking for a good job. Once they have the dupe hooked, the scammers tell them that they are required to pay them money in advance, usually under the guise of work visas, air travel expenses, and out-of-pocket expenses. Further, the scammer will extract personal information such as the victim’s full name, bank account details, credit card details, Social Security, driver's license, birth date, home address, or any other personal data under the guise of wishing to establish that the victim is a reliable and trustworthy person. I don’t have to tell you what the scammer will do with that kind of information once he or she has it.


Final Summary

Despite these horrendous mistakes that are found in the scammer’s messages, there are a great many fools in this world who should know better but because of their desperation and greed, they….well let me quote a proverb. “A fool and his money are soon parted.” There really is truth on that old adage; “If it is too good to be true, then it isn’t true.” What is rather sadly ironic is that despite their horrendous mistakes in their messages, these scammers are still fishing the oceans of mankind in hopes of snagging the gullible tricking them into believing what is in their messages. I can only assume that those persons who read my essays in my Blog are extremely educated and would never fall for such silly scams. I am right, am I not?

Whenever you get a message that is making you an offer, the first thing you should do is go to Google and see what has been written about the scam. Then look at the spelling, grammar and punctuation mistakes. And finally, ask yourself, is this too good to be true?

How do they get our email addresses? They do it exactly the same way all spammers get our email addresses. Spammers ‘harvest’ email addresses mentioned on web sites. Others run ‘dictionary attacks’— programs which query mail servers if they have an address AAA100, AAA101, AAA102, etc. That's why you get tons of unsolicited commercial email even if you've kept your email address a secret. And spammers sell each other CD's with millions of addresses. Remember that practically all spam email is fraudulent anyway, so there is no reason why sellers of penis enlargement pills and vinyl siding wouldn't sell lists of email addresses to Nigerian letter scammers.

Why are the scamming messages we get in our emails called ‘Nigerian letters’? Regardless of the country or countries mentioned in the messages, the fraudsters were originally from certain families or gangs based in Lagos, Nigeria, however, such scams have been initiated in Montreal and a great many of them are now coming from Russia where it is impossible to trace the scammers through their IP numbers.

1. NEVER pay anything up front for any reason.
2. NEVER extend credit for any reason.
3. NEVER do anything until their cheque (check) clears.
4. NEVER expect any help from the government of the scammer.
5. NEVER rely on your own government to bail you out.

Now that I have passed all this useful information to you, can I interest you in a bridge? It crosses a large river and although there is currently no toll fees being paid by the thousands of users who cross it daily, this doesn’t mean that it can’t be a toll bridge. It crosses the river between Manhattan and Brooklyn. I will need from you, a mere deposit of $5000 US and the remaining balance of two million dollars US can be paid over a period of forty years which you can collect from the billions you will get from the toll-paying customers.

Hello….Hello….Are you still with me? Hello…