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Hello I'm New here! Joined: 06 Mar 2009 Posts: 1

Hi,

I saw my first '419' mail about 10 years ago when I set up a free lycos email account.

It went something along the lines of someone having a deceased relative who owned a diamond trading company, and about dictators trying to take over the company and ownership of the funds and the person needed to get the money out of the country fast. The usual 'I'm poor because I can't get my hands on the money or they will kill me", "They have kidnapped my sister" etc etc lines came out.

At first I was confused, and had assumed they had the wrong person and ignored the mail but filed it away for future reference.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, there was a little voice that kept telling me 'what if, what if".

I put that part of my mind to bed and ignored any future mails, a while later it seemed it was becoming more widespread and common. For a while I sent messages back, telling them that I knew it was a scam and to get lost, and after that I took to sending ridiculous replies back to them, not expecting any reply, to my amazement, they often did reply, I assume grabbing hold of any line they could and the fact that someone did actually respond and was entering into a dialogue with them.

I was chatting to someone at work the other day about these scams and others like it, the old 'I'll send you a cheque for too much, you send me the difference back' scam (whatever it is called). And went onto my lycos account to forward some mails to them for their entertainment, unfortunately, lycos has closed down it's free services and with it all of my old mail is lost.

One of the people I was speaking to pointed out this website to me, and I was amazed at the level you guys have take this to, actually reversing it and scamming the scammer! It rather makes my efforts look very small indeed.

Anyway, I think that the scammers have everything they get coming to them for trying to rip off innocent people, and it's impressive - the sheer amount of time the host has spent on this and other people alike.

Hopefully when these people are stung a few times, and people become more wise and fight back they will realize what a potential mind field this scam is for them, and think twice about trying it. Although the potential still after all of these years for untapped email addresses will remain huge, and if you plant enough seeds, one of them will have a chance of growing.

Anyway, below is one mail I happen to of found in my archive on my work email, not a brilliant place to send it from, but I work in IT for an internet and communications security company (working to rid people of spam, malware, spoofs / virus and other nasty stuff), so I wasn't too bothered about sending joking or stupid emails from it, it was nothing serious. These aren't really the same scam you guys are talking about here, but I do get sick of the amount of mails like this I get when trying to sell something (read from bottom up):

________________________________________
From: St**** ******
Sent: 24 May 2007 11:35
To: 'engr felix roland'
Subject: RE: INTRESTED IN BUYING YOUR 1993 BMW 5 SERIES Sport 4dr Saloon

HELLO ROLAND SIR,

I VERY MUCH AM LIKING YOUR OFFER, PLEASE TO ME AND TO YOU.

MY TELEPHONE NUMBER IS OUT OF ORDER AT I PRESENT.

I AM SORRY TO YOU TO SAY THEREFORE THAT I DO NOT ACCEPT CHEQUE AS I DO NOT BANK OR HAVE AN ACCOUNT FOR A BANK AS I HAVE NOT BEEN IN COUNTRYU LONG. SOMEONE PLACED THE ADVERT ON ME BEHALF. I WILL DEAL IN GOLD BULLION HOWEVER? OR ACCEPT THE PRECISE WEIGHT OF THE CAR IN RUM AS I AM BIG ON DRINKING? IF YOU CAN CONVERT YOUR MONEY TO THIS MEANS IT WILL BE DEALT.

IF YOU CAN MAKE MY DEMAND AND SEE IT GOOD I WILL BE MORE THAN HAPPY FOR YOUR CLIENT TO RESPECT THE CAR. PLEASE GIVE ME YOUR EXACT ADDRESS AND TELEPHONE NUMBER SO I CAN COMMUNICAE FURTHER, I ALSO PRICE / DESCRIPT OF YOUR FAVORITE MEAL AND YOUR CLIENT, AS I WOULD LIKE TO TAKE YOU OUT TO DINNER WHEN WE MEET. I WINE AND DINE MY CLIENT WELL.

I ALSO LIKE TO DRAW YOUR ATTENTIVE TO THE CAR, I DID NOT PUT IN THE ADVERT THAT THE CAR HAS NO ENGINE, UNFORTUNATLY WHEN IT WAS MOTD, THEY HIT THE RAMP AND THE WHOLE ENGINE AND LOOM CAME OUT IN PERFECT CONDITION, IT IS MOST STRANGE. HOWEVER IT IS STILL IN PERFECT ORDER, BUT THE CAR AND ENGINE WILL NEED TO BE COLLECTED ON A TRAILOR.

FOR THE INCONVINIENCE I WILL REDUCE PRICE BY 50.00 OR A SMALL CHUNK OF BULLION.

PLEASED TO MAKE YOUR AQATICS

RETARDS,

MR SVEN DREW

________________________________________
From: engr felix roland [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: 24 May 2007 07:06
To: St**** ********
Subject: INTRESTED IN BUYING YOUR 1993 BMW 5 SERIES 525i Sport 4dr Saloon

HELLO SELLER,

I SAW THE ADVERT OF YOUR CAR ON AUTOTRADER.CO.UK WHICH IS FOR SALE.I AM OKAY WITH THE CONDITIONS OF THE CAR AND I AM READY TO BUY FROM YOU. I AM BASED IN DUBLIN IRELAND,BUT AT THE MOMENT AM ENGAGED IN ALOT OF THINGS TO COME FOR THE VIEWING OF THE CAR. AM OKAY WITH YOUR PRICE OF £4,995 AND AM READY TO GIVE YOU EXTRA'S OF £205 EXTRA FOR SECURING OF THE CAR SO IT WOULD NOT BE SOLD TO ANOTHER BUYER,AND FOR YOU TO KNOW
HOW COMMITE! D I AM IN BUYING FROM YOU.SO THE TOTAL MONEY YOU WILL BE GETTING FOR THIS PURCHASE I! S £5,200.

I WILL LIKE YOU TO KNOW THAT I CAN\'T COME FOR THE VIEWING OF THE CAR AS EARLIER STATED CAUSE I\'M VERY BUSY AT WORK RIGHT NOW, BUT WITH WHAT I SAW ON THE ADVERT I AM SATISFIED.I WILL LIKE YOU TO SEND ME SOME PICTURES OF THE PRESENT LOOK OF THE CAR.I LOVE THIS PARTICULAR MODEL.I WILL BE VERY HAPPY IF THE CAR IS MINE.

I WILL ALSO WANT YOU TO KNOW I WILL BE PAYING YOU WITH A BANKER\'S DRAFT, THE AMOUNT ON THIS DRAFT WILL BE MORE THAN THE PRICE OF YOUR CAR[OVERPAYMENT].
THE EXCESS FUND ON THE DRAFT WILL BE FOR MY AGENT FOR PICKUP OF THE CAR AND SOME OF MY OTHER ITEMS I ALREADY BHOUGHT INSIDE AND OUTSIDE UK.
ONCE YOU HAVE FUNDS CLEARED IN TO YOUR ACCOUNT YOU WILL DEDUCT YOUR TOTAL MONEY PLUS THE EXTRA\'S FROM THE FUNDS AND WIRE THE EXCESS TO MY AGENT FOR PICKUP, SO THAT THEY CAN PROCEED WITH THE NECESSARY PAPERWORK AND ARRANGE WITH YOU A CONVINIENT DATE AND TIME FOR PICKUP.

IF THIS IS OKAY BY YOU,YOU WILL HAVE TO GET BACK TO ME WITH SOME NECESSARY INFORMATION WHICH WILL BE NEEDED FOR THIS TRANSACTION TO PROCEED.

THE INFORMATION IS AS FOLLOW;
YOUR FULL NAME....
YOUR FULL ADDRESS WITH POSTC! ODE......
YOUR TELEPHONE NUMBERS BOTH OFFICE AND MOBILE/HOME NUMBERS...

N:B
THE NAME YOU GIVE WILL BE THE NAME YOU WILL SEE ON THE CHEQUE
AND IT WILL BE SENT TO THE ADDRESS YOU MAIL TO ME.YOUR PHONE NUMBERIS FOR TIME TO TIME CONTACT.

ALSO IF ANY BUYER CONTACT YOU ABOUT THIS PARTICULAR CAR,PLEASE TELL THEM ITS\'S ALREADY BEEN SOLD CAUSE AM READY TO MAKE PAYMENT AS SOON AS I GET THOES DETAILS NEEDED FROM YOU.

I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO A HAPPY TRANSACTION.

HOPING TO READ FROM YOU SOON.

REGARDS,

ENGR ROLAND

________________________________________
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______________________________________________________________________
This email has been scanned by the MessageLabs Email Security System.
For more information please visit http://www.messagelabs.com/email
______________________________________________________________________

This type of Scam is probably well detailed in your forums anyway, but I think in some way this one is more believable than the 419 scams on here. You get a draft, deposit it, send a small fee in comparison to the sale and then later it bounces, but to the unsuspecting, this could be an easy trick to play and not too far fetched to be tempted with.

Well anyway, play it safe people, speak soon.

R

Baiting Guru Joined: 03 Mar 2006 Posts: 7103 Location: Yes

@Raden -- welcome to Eater.

For run-of-the-mill scam letters, please post in our Surplus Forum.

I've moved your second post over there.

Thanks.