Reporting more scams

Once again it's that time.

From: MISS CYTHIA SCOTT
58/60 Felix Biogny
Lome-Togo.BP/002348


Dear Friend,

Permit me to inform you of my desire of going into a relationship with you No thanks I have all the woman trouble I can handle right now, I got your contact from a foreign search in my earnest search for a reliable and God's fearing person whom I can entrust,not only that,but to have you as a good friend.When I got your email I was motivated to go down on my kness and prayed over it,later I was convinced by my instict to mail you.You should not be so trusting of the voices in your head. Sometimes they tell you to do bad things.

I am MISS Cythia SCOTT the first daughter of family of three chuldren of chief and MRS ANITA JOHNSON SCOTT, our father was a very wealthy cocoa merchant based in Lome, The economic capital of Togo before he was poisoned to death by his business associates on one of their outing to discuss on a business trip.Chuldren? Does that mean you are a halfbreed, mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries?

When our mother died on the 21st october 1984,My father took us so special because I and my two little brothers are motherless,Before the death of my father on 29th of march 2004 in a private hospital(CABINET MEDICAL PELAGIE) here in Lome, He secretly called me on his bed side and told me that he has a sum of us$6.500,000 left in a suspence account in a bank here in lome,That he used my name as the next of kin in deposit of the fund.

He also explain to me That I should seek for a foreign partner in a country of my choice where I will transfer this money and use it for investment purpose especial in the area of real estate management.

I have already since contacted this bank with regards to this deposit in my name and my intending plan to retransfer the money abroad for investment. The bank managment made me to understand that the transfer can be done oline upon my request.

Dear,I am honourablly seeking your assistance in the following ways

(.1)To help us to transfer this fund from the bank here to your account in your country

(2.)To serve as guardian of this fund since I am a girl of 22 years,

(3) To make arrangement for me and my little brother to come over to your country to further our education.

Moreover,I am willing to offer you a handsome percentage of the total said amount, but I don't have to run into conclusion without our agreement.I think you have to mail me stating your wish and idea .Furthermore,I will be sending to you my Pictures including every DOCUMENTS ascertained from the bank when the money was deposited by my Late Father.

You can indicate your option towards assisting me as I believe that this transaction would be concluded hear from you soonest.Please you are advice to reply this mail as soon as possible.


Thanks and God bless you.

Best Regards.

Cythia Scott.

Okay let us look at the classic signs. Bad english, mispellings, and where the hell is lome? Next!

From: Mr. Jame Collins. Hide
To:Cc: recipient list not shown: ;Bcc:Date:Sun, 21 Oct 2007 6:45 pm

Greetings in the name of Jesus. My name is Mr. Jame Collins, Male From
Republic Du Benin and Married with 1 Daughter. I am a disabled single parentDidn't you just write you were married, moron?
and on a low monthly income. I am in a Pathetic condition since the past four
years and have been feeding (sic) from hand to mouth.

My only Daughter of (4yrs Old) has a Heart (Kidney problem) that disturb her
health alot most time but due to the condition of my country our Government
did not care about poor people they care for there family only. So she has
been taking to the hospital for treatment and the doctor had give a limit time
for her to survive.

I am therefore using this medium to appeal to you for assistance to enable me
to pay the bill of the hospital I can do to sustain my family. Whatever you
give me, God will reward you in hundred folds.

You are saving souls and your reward will be great here on earth and in the
heaven.

Please help me I am as poor as a Church rat.

Please help As soon as I hear from you. Man is God to man.

May God bless you and your family.

Best Regards,

Mr. Jame Collins.

N.B. Please i can send you the recnet pics of her after i hear from you!!!!

Okay here we go, bad grammer, bad english, bad mispellings. Hey buddy if you are that poor, you would not have the money for a computer, internet access, or a freakin email account. Next!

From: Markt Global Organization Hide
To:Cc:Bcc: :Sat, 20 Oct 2007 4:09 pm

WINNING NOTIFICATION FOR CATEGORY "A" WINNER ONLY

Dear Winner,
We are pleased to inform you of the final announcement of the result in
a Lottery International Programs. Your email address was selected by our
Electronic Random Selection System (ERSS) from an exclusive list of e-mail
addresses of individual and corporate bodies. No tickets were sold.
This email address is identified with Your Ref number: MARKT 80 ES9414,
Batch Number:444821545-NL/2007, Ticket Number: CP 3812 /2007-07 Didn't you just write no tickets were sold? How can I have a ticket number when none were handed out?in
Category "A" and you are a winner to the Prize amount of US$2,500,000.00.
(Two Million Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars) from the total payout
Cogratulation:

To file for Your Claims Please contact.
*************************************
Name: Mr Nout Plasterk
Tel : +31-61-685-3427
Email: claimsagent_nplasterk@yahoo.de
*************************************
You are advice to provide him with your following information as stated below:
Names:
Telephone/Fax number:
Nationality:
Age:
Occupation:

NOTE:1. All winnings must be claimed not later than 14 days,
2. Your funds are protected by hard cover insurance policy until it is
remitted to your account in your country.
Congratulations once more from our members of staff and thank you for being
part of our promotional program.

Yours Faithfully,
Martin Prak
Lottery Coordinator.

Why would a foreign lottery be in US dollars? Next!

From: net firm Hide To: dyoumans@nc.rr.comCc:Bcc:Date:Fri, 19 Oct 2007 10:37 pm

Attention: GOOD NEWS


How are you today? Hope all is well with you and
family? You may not
understand why this mail came to you.We have been
having a meeting for
the passe seven months which ended two days ago with
the secretary to
the UNITED NATION.

This email is to all the people that have been scammed
in any part of
the world, the UNITED NATION have agreed to compensate
them with the
sum of US$ 100,000. This includes every foriegn
contractors that may
have not received their contract sum, and people that
have had an
unfinished transaction or international businesses
that failed due to
Government probelms etc.

We found your name in our list and that is why we are
contacting you,
this has been agreed upon and have been signed.You are
advised to
contact Mr. Jim Ovia of ZENITH BANK NIGERIA PLC, as he
is our
representative in Nigeria, contact him immediately for
your Cheque/
International Bank Draft of USD$ 100,000.This funds
are in a Bank Draft
Hey look folks! Nigeria wants to right all the wrongs done to you. That's right go ahead and give them your information, they being honest this time! Is Nigeria even apart of the United Nations?
for security purpose. So he will send it to you and
you can clear it in

any bank of your choice.

Therefore, you should send him your full Name and
telephone
number/your correct mailing address where you want him
to send the
Draft to you. Conatact Mr. Jim Ovia immediately for
your Cheque:

Person to Contact Mr. Jim Ovia
Email: jimovia1954@yahoo.com
Phone: 234 1 7439877

Thanks and God bless you and your family.Hoping to
hear from you as
soon as you cash your Bank Draft.

Making the world abetter place.

Regards,

Mr. Kofi Annan
Former Secretary (UNITED NATIONS)former secretary because his an ass clown!

Words cannot express how touching this email is. Oh wait there is one word SCAM!

What to do if you think you have been scammed

I've been sorting through my emails and I found another email I feel needs to be addressed. Someone read my blog post about K&M Wholesales LTD, they had already given them their information after seeing my post and wanted advice on what to do. I've been blogging so much about scams I totally forgot I should also be posting what to do if someone has become a victim of a scam.

If you think you have been a victim of a scam here is some advice that may help you.

1. Take a look at the information you gave. How personal was it? Name, Address, Phone number, Date of Birth, email address?

People can find out a variety of things about you just by running an Internet searches on such information. You should run a search on your information and see what comes up. If you find something you don't want seen on the web you might be able to ask the website owner to remove the content.

It is possible to maybe get more information on you, I.E. your Social Security Number. If you think your social security number maybe compromised call the Social Security Office.

Social Security has a toll-free number that operates from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Friday: 1-800-772-1213. If you have a touch-tone phone, recorded information and services are available 24 hours a day, including weekends and holidays. People who are deaf or hard of hearing may call our toll-free TTY number, 1-800-325-0778, between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. on Monday through Friday.

You can have your number flagged for up to 7 years. This requires companies who want to run a credit check on you to take additional steps to verify it's really you. The additional steps can range from a phone call to your house or a verification letter to your most recent address, not necessarily the address written on the application they received but the most recent one that is on your credit report.

This brings me to another suggestion. Get a credit report. Check for suspicious activity such as additional address's, credit card companies whom you didn't apply to running credit checks, marital status change, various spellings of your name. If there are any report it to the credit report company.

2. Gave out bank account or credit card information?

Call the bank or credit card company immediately. Do a balance check and an activity check. Notify them your account has been compromised, don't maybe or you think, tell them it has been. They can assist you on what to do. In extreme cases your may need to close those accounts to prevent the fraud. Yes, it is a pain but would you rather have the fraud stopped or have it ruin you?

3. You sent out a western union check or money transfer to a total stranger.

Hmmmm...the best thing you can do is contact western union hopefully the scammer was not able to claim the money yet. You might also want to look at the western union site regarding scams. They have a whole list of countries which generate the most scams. However, once the money is gone I don't think much can be done to retrieve it, be thankful the scammer didn't get more or get access to your bank account.

4. You started or are about to start cashing checks for a company you think might be scammers.

If you are already cashing checks stop, notify your bank, chances are you will need to close the account after all transactions have cleared....or not. I can't stress enough to never, never deposit a check into your account from an unknown source. This only spells trouble.

If you are have a check in hand from a potentially bogus source, take the check into your bank have them make a phone call to the bank it's drawn off of . Even if the check is a cashiers check from another bank or a money order. You may find out those checks are stolen simple because the teller called in the sequence numbers and they matched a batch of stolen checks, the numbers didn't match that banks sequence at all, or the check is from a closed account.

Unfortunately there really isn't any type of protection from this scam because it has to do with your personal bank account which you sign an agreement with the bank stating you will keep it in good standing. I have yet to see a bank offer protection against this type of fraud and I doubt that will happen, mainly because if they did, they would go bankrupt bailing out every person who gets caught up in this.

Most banks have a policy for you to put your account information on the back of the check. Then the teller stamps the banks routing number on the back of the check. Guess what the scammers just got a hold of. Your banks routing number and your account number. All they have to do is send one valid check to you, that check comes back to them with your information on the back. Normally though these companies just send bogus checks and have you try to send them the money as soon as possible before the bank can come back and say the check isn't good. By then you are out the money, plus you have bank fees for everything that has bounced. See it can take a lot longer than 10 days for an out of state or out of country check to clear, however as a courtesy the bank will allow the money from the check to available sooner. This is the type of system the scammers are banking on, they hope you can pressure your bank to clear the funds quicker, so they can skip out with you holding the bag.


5. You got an email, job offer, or Internet offer and it looks legit.

Run a Google search on the company name, email address, and/or person's name on
the email. See what comes up. Sometimes scam artist will use real companies, if you come up with a company web site call the number provided on the site and ask them. This doesn't mean they are legit however if the scammer is hiding behind a real company chances are they've already been called and will let you know it's not them.

Still not sure, ask for more information. Don't be afraid to ask them questions, if they come back with vague answers or the tone of email seems to be aggressive I.E. Don't ask us questions we are the ones offering you this dream opportunity. Also, if they insist on you using a certain bank and no other that is a red flag. Some banks have shorter check clearing times and the scammer counts on that.

Some Points to Ponder, things to ask yourself when looking at scam mails

1. If someone is claiming to be a representative from a big international company chances are they don't need your personal checking account to process checks. A company of that size will have an accounts payable department set up to receive payments of all types.

2. A total stranger from another country is not going to trust another total stranger from a different country with a large sum of money. Would you?

3. What about that rich distant relative that died in another country? Chances are you weren't in their will anyways and you were never mentioned by them to anyone. How many people do you know talk to total strangers abroad about ALL the people they are related to and give out their distant relatives email address?

4. Missionary needs your help to send money home for charity but needs you to pay some Nigerian court to get the money out of escrow. With all the scams coming out of this country I'm surprised they bother with a court system. Also, it's the government officials of that country with the money not some poor missionary.

5. Some rich lady in a distance country is dying of cancer and doesn't have any relatives to leave her money to, however her "evil" in laws are waiting for her to die, she found your email address on the web and it looked honest. If your email address is hot269, boomboombigdaddy, way2young4u, satansminion, littledevil, stolenid or something like it does it sound honest to you? If the in laws are that evil she has the money to get rid of them. Also, if a poor Mexican can cross the border to work, then surely a lady of money can get herself out of the country she claims to be from.

6. You've won the English Lottery! Are you english? Have you ever been to England? Do you live in England? Does the money in your pocket have the Queens face on it? If you've answered No to at least questions chances are the only thing you've won is a chance to get screwed and not in the way you'd prefer.

7. The Internal Revenue service owes you a refund click on this link to receive it! The IRS only notifies you via snail mail, if you owe money. If they owe you more of a refund they notify you at the time you receive your real refund along with a long winded explanation about why you're a screw up and be thankful their accountants spent the tax payers money finding your mistake.