Who wants a donation--massbait?

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Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 7:30 am

The animal shelter I work for receives a very high volume of scams, and at this point, most are quite obvious even to those who don't deal with scams on a daily basis.

Sometimes, however, I run across one that I know has the potential to fool one of the other people who check email or one of the small rescue groups I work with. These are the ones I believe deserve special treatment.

This is one of those--I know it's a scam, but it's nowhere near as obvious. Checking around, it looks like the scammer got hold of an animal shelter/ rescue target list, and in today's financial climate when the rescue community as a whole is dealing with higher than ever animal intakes and reduced donations and adoptions, I wouldn't be surprised to see some fall for it. It just came today--I don't know if it will turn into straight advance fee or fake check.

So--to anyone who has a "special" animal charity needing funding (e.g. the "Save the Dust Bunnies" club), I would like to offer this opportunity to get your organization the funding it so richly deserves...

Of course it's gmail so no info to be gained from the headers.

-------- Original Message --------
From: - Tue Dec 22 08:36:18 2009
Return-Path: <[email protected]>
Reply-To: <[email protected]>
From: John Hamilton.<[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Subject: Donation Inquiry.
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 2009 12:10:59 -0800
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="Windows-1251"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Priority: 3
X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2600.0000
X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2600.0000
Return-Path: [email protected]

Hi,

I am looking to make a one time cash donation to support a non profit charity or rescue group.

I would love to know more about your work and why you think this donation would be beneficial to your work.

Regards,

John Hamilton.

Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 7:49 am

Once my (fake) charity website is up and running, my charity "Revron technologies" will most happy to take some of these lads off your hands.

They will be asking asking for money into the research for a cure for F.U.R.B (Funny Unusual Rectal Blockages). I'll keep you posted

Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 8:10 am

Thanks for the heads up.
A holiday project worthy of attention.
A practice piece for learning techie stuff, maybe even this Photoshop I've read about here.

Hmm.
I wonder if the SS camps admin. would consider setting up a Save the African Wildlife or similar?

Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 8:19 am

Dorothy, what makes you 100% certain that this is a scammer?

Yes, I too have seen enough lad emails that this looks suspicious to me also, but it doesn't really seem certain. Have you baited him to the Western Union stage already so you can be sure?

Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 10:29 am

^^
Not 100% proof , but John Hamilton has been dead for 40 years now. Dead men don't do donations.
Of course it could also be some person that happened to have been named exactly the same as the famous actor...
Then there is
http://www.dolforums.com.au/index.php?showtopic=184496
And lastly the email adress shows up on scamwarners...
http://www.scamwarners.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=2703

Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 4:01 pm

Thanks for posting that Auguste!

Jammy, I haven't been around much lately, but I don't post requests like these unless I am certain. This is one case where the scammer was actually kind enough to save me the trouble of intensive research to verify that it is a scam.

We have a few scammers who have tried to approach the shelter multiple times from various angles or formats using the same character names. The addresses may change, but I don't even have to read the emails to know they are scams just because of the names. This is one of them. (Of course the email reads like a scam too--I have been managing the shelter's emails for several years and would have flagged this either way as it is most definitely not a normal donation approach).

This scammer was brilliant enough use the same husband and wife names for both that standard puppy scam I posted in SW a few months ago, and this more recent donation scam (which I will post at SW after allowing some bait time). He also sent to the exact same addresses (multiple addresses from our website, same ones both times) that I check at my shelter, a couple of which are topic-specific and clearly not for donation discussions--obviously he is trying to get his money's worth out of the shelter/rescue mailing list he acquired.

But, since many groups don't have one person consistently monitoring email, or have someone reading email who doesn't keep track of scammers, this one, with its less obvious format, is more dangerous.

Posted: Tue Dec 29, 2009 6:29 am

If anyone has lost him, he is sending out the exact same format under a new address:
[email protected]

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 29 May 2010 Posts: 2

I received this email from John Hamilton.

It also might be someone who is interested in seeing how other non-profit animal organizations present themselves to potential donors. They may be trying to get your grant proposals and any other creative and proprietary documents you use to generate funds.

Beware of this kind of stuff because it might be someone wanting to harvest your valuable information for lots of different reasons.

Best always,
Glasschimes:)

Posted: Sat May 29, 2010 7:39 pm

Quote:

I don't know if it will turn into straight advance fee or fake check.

I'd lay odds on it.

I go by this premise. Anyone serious about giving a donation to a small local charity is going to firstly phone the charity up from the same city, not from Central Africa. They also most probably will have heard of you from someone you already know, and maybe have already got involved in what you do. You would most probably already have talked to them personally and know them by sight. Wandering philanthopists are quite rare.
Secondly if they were a serious dontaor, they would walk in and sign a check for you or hand over cash without this e-mail your details bullshit.

Quote:

It also might be someone who is interested in seeing how other non-profit animal organizations present themselves to potential donors. They may be trying to get your grant proposals and any other creative and proprietary documents you use to generate funds.

What by sending three line e-mails? Oh do come on. Meeow, I love cats.

Smile

Posted: Thu Jun 03, 2010 9:48 pm

Apologies for the minor necro but I just realized this thread had popped up again when checking to see if I had posted him (another email today). Still sending exact same format but email has dropped by 1 ... [email protected]

But for our newest poster (sorry can't see whole history on my palm and can't remember your name) if you read the original thread you will see the email addresses already established that this is a 419 scammer.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 28 Aug 2010 Posts: 1

our rather small and needy group nearly fell for this guy! don't imagine we'd be stupid enough to fall for giving him and money, but it would have been time wasted and of cause maybe he would have got money out of us somehow.
a google of the message word for word produced this forum.
Thanks guys, you've saved our asses!
Leeds animal rescue xxx

ps message came from -> "John Hamilton" <[email protected]>

pps only joined to say thanks, probably wont remember to ever log on again. x

Posted: Sat Aug 28, 2010 9:22 pm

Glad to hear that you found out this was a scam.

Locking this before someone else necro's it.

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