Why Won't These Scammers Just Leave Me Alone?

United States
June 25, 2008 6:59pm CST
I just don't know what to do about these crooks who email me everyday trying to rip me off. You may have received some of the emails yourself. Here is just one example of what I'm talking about. --------DEAR BENEFICIARY , I have been waiting for you since to send us the delivery fee so that i will be able to register your cheque so that it can be delivered to you and i did not receive the fee so i went ahead to deposite the funds with trust ($1,5m.usd)(one million five hundred thousand united state dollar) but i did not heard from you since that time. Then I went and deposited the cash with oceanic bank plc here in (Benin Republic) because it has been in my office for a very long time after the courier company said that it has entered dumorrage time so since them the fund was return to my office I want You to contact the oceanic wire transfer bank BENIN REPUBLIC to let them know when they will Transfer your fund immidiatly. All this are the information they may need to transfer your funds to your account within 24 hours. YOUR FULL NAME================ HOME ADDRESS================== YOUR PHONE NUMBER----------------------------------- YOUR INTERNATIONA L PASSPORT/DRIVING LISENCE ----------------------------- FULL BANKING INFORMATION.===== NAME OF COUNTRY=============== BANKING ACCOUNT WERE YOU WANT THE FUND TO BE TRANSFER TO====== YOUR BANK REGISTRATION CODE NO (EM15GXC0) YOUR PROFESSION------------------------------ The only money you have to send to them is there security keeping fee/will also serve as the wire transfer fee, which is $185.00 Us Dollars to enable them wire the money into your account immediately without any delay.This is their Contact Address, OCEANIC INTERNATIONAL TRUST BANK PLC BENIN REPUBLIC. DIRECTOR .DR JOHN CLINTON EMAIL;(oceanictrustbankplc@yahoo.fr) Try to contact them as soon as possible to avoid increasing the security keeping fee.I gave them your transfering information but you have to reconfirm it to them again to avoid any mistake on the transfering. Let the company know immediately you receive your fund into your account. THANK YOU BY BARRISTER ANTHONY MIKE . ---------- Why do these idiots think that I would fall for such a scam? I've tried everything to stop the emails. I've designated them as spam. I've changed email addresses, I've even responded to these emails, telling them that I have reported them to the FBI, CIA and NSA. But they still keep coming, almost 50 emails everyday. Here is just a sample of the ones I received within the last 5 hours. Mrs. Serina Gomez : UNCLAIMED LOTTO PRIZE PAYMENT NOTICE. Wed Jun 25, 2008 3k Harris Williams: CONTACT MANAGER..HON.MR TONY HUBERT FOR YOUR FUND. Wed Jun 25, 2008 8k mrsgrace003: Contact Oceanic bank Immediately Wed Jun 25, 2008 8k patrick_liuse14 Gaze Urgent Attn for your fund ok Wed Jun 25, 2008 6k ubajohn02 Gazeta.pl CONTACT THE SHALOM COURIER COMPANY Wed Jun 25, 2008 6k patrick_liuse13 Gazet Urgent Attn for your fund ok Wed Jun 25, 2008 6k This is beyond annoying. What can I do? Do you have any suggestions? Lloyd
8 people like this
20 responses
• United States
26 Jun 08
I get em also if i had all the money i supposedly inherited from these guys id be ritcher then bill Gates!
• United States
26 Jun 08
revdauphinee , I'm inheriting about 20 million dollars per week from these guys. Just imagine if it were only true. Lloyd
3 people like this
• United States
26 Jun 08
we can only wish! personaly I wish they would eave me alone!
1 person likes this
• United States
26 Jun 08
I get some of these emails but they nearly all go into my Spam folder. If an odd one slips into the regular email folder and I do not recognize the sender I send it straight to Spam without even opening it. I guess they gave up and stopped sharing my email address so eventually I stopped getting any more of these kind of emails.
2 people like this
• United States
26 Jun 08
I sure wish they would give up and stop sharing my email address. It's only getting worse. My problem is that some of my legitimate emails sometimes go into my spam folder, so I have to check it also. Something has to be done about this situation. I wonder why Yahoo can't solve this problem. Lloyd
2 people like this
• United States
26 Jun 08
That happens with me as well. Everytime I check my email I scan my Spam folder incase something legitimate is there then I empty it so that is does not keep building up.
1 person likes this
@bonbon664 (3466)
• Canada
26 Jun 08
Just delete them. If you open them in any way, or try to tell them to stop sending them to you, they will then know that your account is active, and keep sending you things.
2 people like this
• United States
26 Jun 08
I think that is why they keep sending me more and more. In the past I have opened a few of them. From now on, I will just start deleting them and see if that helps. Thanks for the advice. Lloyd
2 people like this
• United Arab Emirates
26 Jun 08
Hi, I do get such mails very often. I just mark it spam and then delete it. I know such mails cannot be avoided and it always comes from a new email id. So, there is no point in blocking it. Just delete it and forget. take care..
• United States
26 Jun 08
It looks like I am going to have to take your advice on this issue. However, giving in these scammers only empowers them. I'd like to knock the wind out of these loosers. Lloyd
1 person likes this
@phoenix25 (1541)
• United States
26 Jun 08
Yeah, I get those all the time. I knew to be wary of them because people in different countries, specifically Nigeria, would do things like that over the relay for the deaf and hard of hearing so I knew about a lot of the ways that they would try to scam people. The ringer is that they want to give you money and have you give them money back...basically write you a bad check and then have them give you all your money without you realizing what is happening. They always have some excuse too.
1 person likes this
• United States
27 Jun 08
This explains why so many of the scams originate in Nigeria. The 419 scam originated in the early 1980s as the oil-based Nigerian economy declined. Several unemployed university students first used this scam as a means of manipulating business visitors interested in shady deals in the Nigerian oil sector before targeting businessmen in the west, and later the wider population. Scammers in the early-to-mid 1990s targeted companies, sending scam messages via letter[4], fax, or Telex.[5] The spread of email and easy access to email-harvesting software made the cost of sending scam letters through the Internet inexpensive. I just wish they would put their energy to more productive ways of earning income. Lloyd
2 people like this
@phoenix25 (1541)
• United States
27 Jun 08
Yeah I know. They have rooms of people that stay on a computer all day long calling businesses and trying to use a stolen or invalid credit card number to buy merchandise in bulk. One guy laughed when they tried to buy 20 snowmobiles and have them sent to Africa. You would think that if these people could spend so much time on the phone trying to scam people, they could get a real job...
1 person likes this
26 Jun 08
Ask them to transfer the money over via western union, that should stop them! a friend tried that and the emails stopped to them anyway
2 people like this
• United States
27 Jun 08
I wish it was that easy. I'm afraid that if I make any contact with these scammers, they'll never leave me alone. Hopefully the Nigerian Government will see that this is giving their country a bad image and do something about it. Lloyd
1 person likes this
@rsa101 (37932)
• Philippines
26 Jun 08
I do received this emails before but now I think they just got tired as they don't get anything from me. I used to play along with them and they would usually ask for some small amount for them. But I never gave them anything just false hopes haha. I say I am interested but when the paying part is ask for me to do I suddenly stop and they would barged me with lots of emails then they would stop in time. Just played good time with them.
1 person likes this
• United States
26 Jun 08
I sure wish they would get tired of emailing me but it seems as if it's only getting worse. I'm not in the mood for playing games with these guys because I know that their main intention is to rip me off. Lloyd
2 people like this
@howard96h (11640)
• New York, New York
26 Jun 08
Hi Lloyd, I too receive many of them on a daily basis. In the past I would report them all and they just kept coming. I watched a "Dateline" segment and the reporter answered one of these scam emails and they actually traced and followed it all the way to it's origin. When they located the "internet cafe" and the actual person who sent it the police were there and told the reporter it is NOT a crime in that country so there was nothing they could do about it, no laws were broken. If you report the email it might be deleted but within minutes more will be generated and sent to us here in the U.S. I don't even bother anymore, usually they go into my spam folder and if a few makes it into my inbox then I just delete them. Your not going to ever stop these people unless they make it a crime in their country. One more thing, if you watch Judge Judy there still are people falling for these scams and this is NOT helping to end it.
1 person likes this
• United States
26 Jun 08
Hi Howard. I watched that Dateline segment also. Those people have no morals. Countries that allow that type of activity will never rise to the level of 1st World status. They are trying to get things in an immoral way. I hope that these countries change their ways. I know that people fall for these scams everyday. I can't believe that people are so desparate that they would go along with this obvious scam. Lloyd
3 people like this
@anniepa (27955)
• United States
26 Jun 08
Lloyd, that is MY money, they've been promising it to me for years so you can't have it! Just tell them to leave you alone and to please stop sending me e-mails too but to go ahead and put it into my Paypal account. If you tell them that and I find that payment notification in my Paypal account I'll send you $500,000 for your trouble, OK? Annie
1 person likes this
• United States
26 Jun 08
Thank you very much. I'm going to contact all of them and let them know they've made a mistake and to send the money to you. I look forward to my $500,000. Should I wait before ordering this new car I've been looking at? What do you think? Lloyd
2 people like this
@twallace (2675)
• United States
26 Jun 08
When I first got them I thought that I was really getting some thing. Only later to find out that it was a scam. Then for a while when I got them I started to email them back and let them know to take me off the list that I was on cause I knew that it was a scam. They all seem to have something to do with the country of Africa. For a while they stopped and every now and then I still get them. Some are that your a distant relative of someone that you have never heard of. Then there is the one about a family and they lost a love one and they want to donate the money to someone. Crazy!! When you get another one write back and let them know that you don't want them to keep sending you those emails and to take you off of the list that you have been on. That might help. Have a good one.
• United States
26 Jun 08
I'm glad you didn't fall for this scam. It does seem like most come from Africa. I've also received the ones about the distant relative and the one wanting to donating money to someone. You are right, it's Crazy. Lloyd
2 people like this
• India
26 Jun 08
i have been getting this from 6 months or so (that is when i started doing internet marketing and subscribed to some sites that i don't remember) and they never seem to give up you keep deleting them and they keep coming again!
1 person likes this
• United States
26 Jun 08
It's that way here too. They seemed to have become fond of the email address I use for my Ebay account. I wished they could realize how annoying these these emails are. Lloyd
2 people like this
• United States
30 Jun 08
They are all scams don't believe one of these. There is some website that you are able to turn in these "Nigerian scams"
• United States
1 Jul 08
I know they are are scams. It's just amazing that some people fall for them. I'm sure if these Nigerians would put there efforts towards a legal business they would be successful. But they choose the illegal way to earn money. Lloyd
1 person likes this
@jonesy123 (3948)
• United States
26 Jun 08
Lol, I have been getting those for years. There is really nothing much you can do. You can try and block the sender, but those email addresses are usually fake with a new one made up each mailing, lol. I hit delete. Sadly, there are enough people who still fall for this scam. Even though it has been mentioned in the news often enough now.
1 person likes this
• United States
26 Jun 08
I can't tell you how frustrating this is. I've tried everything. They are so persistant. I can't believe that people are so desparate that they fall for these scams. I just wish the internet providers would just ban these cons. Lloyd
2 people like this
26 Jun 08
I am trying to make money online from genuine places. I give my email at so many places. I guarentee you that I have given my mail ids at atleast 100places. I get a lot these scams. Gmail is very good. It never reaches my inbox. Some of my good emails also end in spam. My mails are not too important. I just delete the full spam. You lose good mails at spam. But, spam never reaches inbox.
1 person likes this
• United States
26 Jun 08
The fact that some legitimate emails goes into your spam folder creates a huge problem for me. That is why I have to check both the inbox and spam folders on a daily basis. I just wish there was something we could do about this. Lloyd
2 people like this
@cwilson26 (2735)
• United States
27 Jun 08
I get a lot of these but most of mine come from Nigeria. Now guess who else contacted me about these scammers? The FBI. They are trying to say that they are investigating me because there is a bank account out there somewhere with my name on it and that I am helping these people launder money into the USA. Bull! I replied back saying that I have nothing to do with these people and that I delete every email I get from them. They replied back again saying I had 48 hours to prove myself. How the heck am I supposed to prove myself when I delete every email I get from these people. I don't even know if it is really the FBI but they are threatening to prosecute me. This is ridiculous. If I get one more email from the so-called FBI I am going to get in touch with the real FBI and tell them what is going on. I am not going to get in trouble because these people keep preying on us here in the USA.
• United States
30 Jun 08
I also got that email from the so-called FBI. These creeps will do anything to try to access your bank account. I don't know what contacting the "real" FBI will do. I'm sure their hands are full with these types of cases. I'm not going to open anymore of these emails and hope that they will eventually go away. Lloyd
1 person likes this
@Aussies2007 (5336)
• Australia
28 Jun 08
The only thing you can do... is to get a new email address. And next time... do not give your email to anyone on the internet. If you need to give your email... use a secondary email like Yahoo. You can block spam with filters... but you cannot stop spammers spamming you.
• United States
30 Jun 08
I've changed email addresses many times. I really don't want to change the email address that these spammers use the most because it contains the email addresses of so many of my most important contacts. The problem with spam filters is that they sometimes block legitimate emails. Hopefully these guys will just go away. Lloyd
1 person likes this
@lorelai (1558)
• Italy
26 Jun 08
I know these mails and I hate them. I have several e-mails and when one starts getting too many spam emails I just stop using it and I create a new one. I also have 2 emails that I give only to my friends or that I use for business purposes only. So no one knows the address and I never get any spams on them. I also hate those emails about enlarging you p**nis or stuff like that and it is impossible to cancel them. When I get a message from someone I don't know I just delete it. So first I delete several messages and just then I start reading my mails. It takes time but it is impossible to get rid of spam.
• United States
26 Jun 08
I hate these emails also. I've changed my email accounts numerous times and I'm getting tired of doing that. As far as the p**nis emails go, I forgot to even mention those. I can't believe that anyone would by something like that from someone they don't even know. Hopefully, one day we will see this spam scam come to a close. Lloyd.
1 person likes this
@Hatley (163781)
• Garden Grove, California
26 Jun 08
hi we are all in the same boat and spam blockers can handle a lot of them, a lotg still get through so all we can do is delete, delete, and delete. Dont even read all the crap just delete when you realize it is a scam. we all get a ton of these each day.
• United States
27 Jun 08
I understand what you are saying. I wish someone could come up with a way to stop these people. I'm tired of deleting these emails every time I check my email. The sad fact is that so many people fall for these scams. Lloyd
1 person likes this
@mommyboo (13174)
• United States
29 Jun 08
Whenever I get one of these, I have them added to the junk senders list. I also have my spam filter set to catch things from email addresses it doesn't recognize. I have a pretty regular list of contacts i receive regular emails from. I have anything bulk or notifications sent to my junk mail folder anyway so it's not like I look at most of them.
• United States
30 Jun 08
I also have a spam filter, but it sometimes block legitimate emails. Hopefully these creeps will see that their illegal efforts aren't working and will give up. Thanks for replying. Lloyd
1 person likes this
• China
26 Jun 08
I receive this sort of emial for years. especially during the time when I work for a foreign trade company. each of the emial has different content with the same purpose of setting a trap.what you have to do is to create a private emial and keep it known by your friends.I believe there are some people stupid enough to fall for that.otherwise they will not so persistent unless they caught some people.
• United States
26 Jun 08
I understand what you are saying, but I'm tired of changing my email address. You are so right that the few people who fall for these scams, encourages the scammers to continue their behavior. I wish people wouldn't be so stupid. Lloyd
1 person likes this