Oh, Come On Now...!! Let me expose this fool here...

@marina321 (4556)
January 18, 2009 3:55am CST
These spammers, scammers and phishers are unbelievable! Out of the three emails I saw when I checked my inbox this morning and the others this week; this has to be by far the most far-fetched one I've read... [i]From: F.V.P Atiku Abubakar(atiku@mail.com) Sent: Saturday, 17 January, 2009 17:29:52 Subject: Attention, I am the former Vice President of Nigeria, (Mr Atiku Abubakar). I read business information about your country and And I know it will be safe and more profitable to invest there in your country. Am interested to invest some huge amount of money in your country I promise to sent you email As soon as you get this mail get back to me immediately. I will like to know more procedures if you are interested about this proposal. Please this is my personal contact details for more discussion. HomePage http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6292141.stm Email: atiku003@yahoo.com.hk Tel: +234-808-572-7994 Tel:+234-807-919-9047 Regards, F.V.P Atiku Abubakar [/i] I suppose the world's economic crisis means we'll be seeing a lot more of this foolishness! I seem to be getting several a day now! Have you been receiving more of these?
15 people like this
49 responses
celticeagle
@celticeagle (159008)
• Boise, Idaho
18 Jan 09
Aaaah, yes. Aren't they something?!It is unbelieveable that they keep on doing this. As if they think we are really that niave. It is amazing. I almost laugh if it weren't so pathetic!
2 people like this
Just an Ordinary Owl?
@owlwings (43915)
• Cambridge, England
18 Jan 09
The sad thing is that, the fact that they keep doing it means that they must get some 'hits' ... maybe one in 10,000 or a million but that is enough to make it worthwhile for them.
2 people like this
marina321
@marina321 (4556)
•
18 Jan 09
Yes, there are some naive people out there I suppose... The stories are really pathetic! I mean a 'former vice-president' would be able to move money about with ease (be it fraudulently or otherwise!) without need for this sort of thing so the story is so silly and this guy must be even more foolish to think others would fall for it...
1 person likes this
Just an Ordinary Owl?
@owlwings (43915)
• Cambridge, England
18 Jan 09
I regularly get things like this. I believe that yahoo.com.hk is a Yahoo Hong Kong address, which should give a clue as to where it really comes from! The phone number is, indeed, a Nigerian code but it is relatively easy to get any number to re-route to your personal phone. http://www.uknumber.co.uk/getnum.php?countryid=180 If you really feel you want to do something about it (apart from hit the Spam button straight away), you can report it to Spamcop (but you should read this first: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpamCop )
1 person likes this
Just an Ordinary Owl?
@owlwings (43915)
• Cambridge, England
18 Jan 09
Oh, the other thing is that 'his' 'Homepage' takes you to a BBC News webpage ... not exactly the kind of 'Homepage' that a multimillionaire businessman would be expected to have!
1 person likes this
marina321
@marina321 (4556)
•
18 Jan 09
Yes, the link is a BBC link, and think it is just there to kinda re-affirm his stupid story about him being the 'ex-vice president' and nothing more... I checked it out
Just an Ordinary Owl?
@owlwings (43915)
• Cambridge, England
20 Jan 09
The latest one is a message from 'Fedex of Lagos, Nigeria' saying that there is a parcel waiting to be despatched to me containing "J2.5 million dollars". There is a problem in that the sender failed to pay them the right amount for insurance, or something (it's not exactly clear) and that they have now 'lost' my address. They want me to send them J150 (in a currency which I can only assume is Jamaican dollars - Nigerian currency is Naira) and my shipping address. They seem to have lost my email address too, because the To: field is blank but it somehow got to me anyway! They further warn me that, if I delay in sending this, the package will be 'subject to demurrage' (meaning, I suppose, that they will be entitled to charge me more for holding the supposed package). Well, if Jamaican dollars are any use to anyone in Nigeria, I guess they can have them! (J$2.5m is worth about US$30,000).
1 person likes this
James72
@James72 (26790)
• Australia
18 Jan 09
I honestly don't know which is worse...... People going to the effort or trying to scam others like this; or people ACTUALLY falling for it! I use to receive emails like this quite regularly in the past and for the life of me have no idea how anyone could possibly think for one second that it's legitimate! Who the heck would look to move such large amounts of money through someone they had never met and over email??? Ridiculous.
1 person likes this
marina321
@marina321 (4556)
•
18 Jan 09
I suppose the latter has to be the worse of the two, the people who actually fall for this...
1 person likes this
sweetie1026
@sweetie1026 (1718)
• Philippines
18 Jan 09
Yes, a lot of them. Others, even use other tactics like she/he is dying and have a very huge amount of money he/she would like to be used for charity and needs my help to be able to do this. what the heck are they thinking? That we are a bunch of stupid people who would believe their lies? If they were true, then many of us have been made into millionaires by this time. As for me, i just delete them and not waste my time reading them.
1 person likes this
marina321
@marina321 (4556)
•
18 Jan 09
I tend to delete them too... I use the 'reading pane' box with my email so I can view contents before opening or deleting any email and sometimes something so stupid like this catches my eye! I think there are several going out these days due to the economic situation so we hope there's no one out there so desperate to fall for any of them!
Just an Ordinary Owl?
@owlwings (43915)
• Cambridge, England
20 Jan 09
You really ought not to even use the reading pane, Marina, unless you have 'show images' turned off or have your email set to 'Text only' (no HTML). Some emails use a 'tracking gif' which is a white 1 pixel image hosted on a server. You can't, of course, see a tiny white square but, once the email is viewed, your IP address (but not your email address) will be shown on that server's log. Some spammers' object in sending out mails is just to check how many of their list of thousands of addresses actually get opened. From this they can calculate how effective their marketing is.
1 person likes this
moonbeam94
@moonbeam94 (387)
• Australia
18 Jan 09
Oh yes we get heaps of those ,we printed them out and took them to the police station but was told that unless we had handed over money there was nothing they could do. I guess they couldn't be bothered with the paperwork ,now when I get one I just delete it. cheers
1 person likes this
marina321
@marina321 (4556)
•
18 Jan 09
I suppose the police would not be able to do anything or the email companies would have put a stop to this a long time ago
AbbeyB
@AbbeyB (670)
• Spain
18 Jan 09
Do people still fall for these? I think they are so bad surely no one believes them do they?
1 person likes this
marina321
@marina321 (4556)
•
18 Jan 09
I think they are soo bad too, but some are living in such desperate times I suppose and could be hood-winked by all that rubbish!
suruchi86
@suruchi86 (1873)
• India
21 Jan 09
Yes, I've received this kind of emails many times and I know they are plane fraud. So I don't open them and send into the trashbin.
sid556
@sid556 (30960)
• United States
21 Jan 09
not sure as I tend to delete all that I don't recognize. It would be kind of fun to play with someone like this however. Maybe I out to pay closer attention. It has potental for great entertainment value.
onlydia
@onlydia (2808)
• United States
22 Jan 09
The Question here is who hasn't gotten one or four. Mine go right in to my spam folder. If not I send them on to the right place to report them. What good it does. You ahve a good day. Your friend onlydia
20021114476
@20021114476 (691)
• Philippines
22 Jan 09
I remember that my sister received a letter from the one pretending to be HSBC bank saying that she won in their lottery and that to claim the prize, she ought to send them several informations(including acct numbers from her savings account).
nzalheart
@nzalheart (2338)
• India
21 Jan 09
Ha ha! such a foolish scammers. I have tons and tons of these mails in my junkbox as well as inbox. I would have been richer than Billgates if these mails were just real ha ha.
ste333
@ste333 (45)
• Germany
21 Jan 09
The problem of scamming, scamming and fishing is everywhere, even in my country. Therefore, I use the built-in filter in my Thunderbird. I create rules to filter out unwanted mails almost once a week. And it helps. The spam is getting fewer and fewer and I don't have to invest such an amount of time for deleting this trash.
dianni
@dianni (195)
• Indonesia
21 Jan 09
this is make me worry you know because some people for new people that really really new use computer and internet can be fool this email that is really danger because Internet can get mark as danger market but of course for us that know how and which that the place and written that lie or not honest is very safety market... and safety information... but for few people that no have hart try foll some people that has little known
pixiepink
@pixiepink (54)
• United States
24 Jan 09
Oh my! Would you believe I get so much of those Nigerian or African scam e-mails like 10 to 30 of them everyday? My yahoo mail is infested by those fools. I never get them from my hotmail or gmail accounts. It can bring out a big laugh too if you try to read some of them. Like you inherited millions of dollars or that you got money from Western Union! Sad thing is even if you spam them, they just keep coming in to your e-mail. They will increase in number by the day. If you need a good laugh, go ahead and read them but never reply or give in to their instructions.
Webel1glenn
@Webel1glenn (32)
• Philippines
20 Jan 09
Yes of course, some claimed to be a relative of a royal family or a banker others even informed me that I won in a lottery which I did not enter. Anyway the point is to steer us into believing that the email is legit. Have responded this once and requested me to transfer 400 dollars for taxes. Well it did not materialize anyway, thus beware. Swindlers are borne every second in the web.
danrunsfast614
@danrunsfast614 (1396)
• United States
20 Jan 09
Haha I have gotten those before. I cannot believe some people truly fall for that.
GemmaR
@GemmaR (8517)
•
20 Jan 09
Oh what a loser! Who on Earth is sad enough to sit down at a computer screen and actually write that?! And who is silly enough to reply to it?! I report those emails to the police anyway, and I know for a fact that I have helped to 'catch' a couple of scammers because of me reporting them, so I am happy because I know that means they can't do it to anyone else!
bestboy19
@bestboy19 (5478)
• United States
20 Jan 09
I have gotten a couple, but that was back in the summer. I just delete them.
paula27661
@paula27661 (15811)
• Australia
20 Jan 09
I receive heaps. Fortunately I have two email addresses and my personal one has not been affected. I regularly receive one from a person who claims to be an elderly widow who has no family and is sick and dying. She goes by a different name every time but in each email she promises to leave me a huge, and I mean huge amount of money and all I have to do is contact her lawyer (here another person's details are listed). I presume my bank details would eventually be requested if I answered the email. I have also had some claiming I won first prize in a Spanish lottery (I live in Australia) and again my details are required. There are some offering jobs too and these are really sad because they are out to defraud some poor person looking for a job. It is a shame it is happening and the best thing to do is make people aware of these scams.
sarafina50
@sarafina50 (39)
• United States
20 Jan 09
I used to get approximately 12-14 of these a day, just wait until you get the wonderful e-mail stating they know you are conducting business with this person or persons and you are under investigation, I had to do a lot of research on this subject and (at my previous job) learned that you can forward these types of messages to the EFCC in Nigeria and also the FBI here in the US, my advise to you is do not ever respond to these scammers just forward the messages to the proper authorities and block their e-mails. Good luck to you. sarafina50