Nigerian Scam Letters

[Old_Hickory]

Anyone else been getting this crap sent to there e-mail accounts?I get about 3 or 4 a day. I have a yahoo email account. The wording is different in each one and the author is different,but it is basically the same garbage,all of them have come from(supposedly) Nigeria except for a couple. I bet I have gotten a hundred in the last 2 months.
Here is one of them as follows:

Attention,
I am Barrister (Dr.) Richard Gordon (ESQ) a solicitor,
I am the personal attorney to the immediate past
President of Liberia MR. CHARLES TAYLOR, who is
presently on political asylum in Nigeria.

I know this letter will come to you as a surprise as
we have not met before, but I have to contact you as I
have been instructed by my client MR. CHARLES TAYLOR
to find a trustee in this business.

I got your contact over the internet during my search
for an assistance in this business, This became
necessary as my client CHARLES TAYLOR do not want
anybody who is known to his family to be associated
with this business.

Note that this business is 100% risk free, However you
must confirm your ability to handle this business as
it involves a large sum of money. The fund FIFTY TWO
MILLION UNITED STATE DOLLARS (US$52million) was
shipped and deposited in a security company in Europe
by MR. CHARLES TAYLOR during the recent political
turmoil in his country Liberia.

Now that he is on political asylum in Nigeria, He
needs a trustworthy person like you to proceed on his
behalf to the place of the security company in order
to clear the funds for joint business Venture as he
does not have intention to bringing the funds back to
Africa. Afterwards I his attorney will come over to
your country and meet you on his behalf for final
agreement of the joint business venture.

Note that I will send to you the relevant documents
that will enable you take possession of this funds for
onward investment, All I need from you is as follows,

1, Your confirmation of your ability to handle this
business.

2, Your word that you will keep this business as
confidential as possible at all times until we
conclude this business.

3, Your telephone and fax numbers for communication.

4, Your full parmanent address.

5, My client have also promised to reward you with 25% of the total
sum($52M) as soon as
you complete the business.

As soon as I get the above information from you, I
will disclose to you the name and the country where
the security company is, I will also forward to you
the contact and the name of the director of the
security company, I will also send your name and
contact to the security company to enable them contact
you accordingly. As we make progress, I will send to
you A LETTER OF AUTHORITY AND AN AGREEMENT LETTER that
will enable you clear the funds on my client behalf.

I am waiting for your immediate response to enable us
proceed.Please contact me with this email address
rgordon_chambers@starspath.com or barrgordon@wapda.com

Yours Faithfully.
Barrister (Dr.) Richard Gordon (ESQ)

 

[thcri]

Yep,

I have gotten that one about ten times in the last week. I just delete it, don't even read the top line anymore.

murph

 

[Junkman]

I read a while back that the U.S. Government has warned the Government of Nigeria that if they didn't do something to rein in these crooks that they (Nigeria) might loose all U.S. aid money. Even this hasn't made a dent and the scam continues. The sad part is the number of people that have been caught up by the scam and have lost their life savings.

 

[Old_Hickory]

I like to mess with them some,I tell them I will get back with them as soon as I talk to the police etc. or instead of a wire transfer I would prefer cash,thats usually as far as it goes.

 

[OkeeDon]

I tell them I will have significant expenses setting up accounts, etc., to handle their business, so as a sign of good faith, they should deposit just 1/10 of 1% of the eventual reward (in this case, 25% of $52 Miliioin is $13 Million, so .1% is $13,000) into my PayPal account. I tell them if they don't have that much cash, then they are too small for me to deal with them.

The exchanges back and forth after that can get pretty funny. They're not used to people tellling them that they have to do something up front.

 

[Old_Hickory]

I wonder what would happen if you give them an account number of an actual account with zero balance in it ?

 

[Bird]

When this was a fairly new scam (to me at least) a couple of years ago, I forwarded them to our State Attorney General, but later just started deleting them. And I don't think I've gotten any in the last year.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Merry Christmas Bird,

I'm a deleter by nature. There have been so many variations of the same theme, free money, that I usually just delete when it comes up.

In my mind I always see a person on the pier nursing a hundred fishing poles. One of those poles might have the right bait. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

In this case I'm sure the spamscammer is nursing hundreds of thousands of poles.

Of course all they need is one good bite. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[Old_Hickory]

Thats interesting....

 

[Gary_in_Indiana]

Harv,

Your analogy of the fishing poles is a good one. With email there's virtually no cost involved in casting the lines and it must work to some level as we still see the scammers using this one.

There's been a rash of fake motorcycle listings (and at least one for a Kubota tractor) on Ebay recently that use a very low 'Buy it Now' price but a 'Restricted Bidder' listing so the victim has to email the "seller" to be put on a bidder list.

Of course, many victims only want to ace out others on this "deal" and say in their email they want to use the 'Buy it Now' option and the scammer then contacts them directly to arrange a deposit, etc, and there it goes. One listing can net dozens of "poles in the water" for the scammer to work.

"If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is."