Unbelievable

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Posted: Thu May 06, 2010 9:54 pm

So I'm sitting at my computer at work today, just a random Wednesday, and I get this email. I'm a paralegal in RL and our firm has a website, and every now and then someone will email us asking for advice. In drops this gem:

Quote:

Hello! My name is xxxxx and I have a question about inheritance from the Netherlands. I have or am going to be aawarded a large amount of money from a distant relative but now I need to go to the Netherlands to sign for it and to put it in an account for myself and to transfer it here. I have no pass port and no money to fly over there. My question is if I send you a copy of the email I received would you be able to tell me if this is legal and if so what would you suggest?
Sincerely,
xxxxxxx

Needless to say, I got on the stick in a hurry. Fortunately, this person hadn't sent anything yet, but did receive all of the usual RSOT crap which she forwarded to me. Unfortunately she doesn't know how to obtain the email headers, which kinda bummed me out. Mad

Over the course of the afternoon she wound up sending me three different sets of 'documents'. Shocked

I got her all sorted out I think, but I still wish I could have played with the headers. Twisted Evil

I've got a copy of the original script. Should I post it somewhere here or over on Scamwarners?

Posted: Thu May 06, 2010 10:03 pm

Maybe both here and Scamwarners Very Happy

Definitely at Scamwarners though. If one person fell for it, so could others.
Glad you caught this one in time Smile

Posted: Thu May 06, 2010 11:22 pm

Nice catch, TheFae! Thumbs up

Posted: Thu May 06, 2010 11:26 pm

Nice save! Very Happy

Definitely post it at Scamwarners, and go ahead and put it in Surplus if you want people to bait him.

Not quite a Newb Joined: 14 Jul 2005 Posts: 41

Way to go! Very Happy

Posted: Fri May 07, 2010 12:07 am

Thanks everyone, I feel really good about being able to 'rescue' someone in RL. But I owe it to everyone here, because thanks to your patient training I knew just what to do and where to send her. Sad thing is that she'd totally fallen for it. She just went through a nasty divorce and had to sell their house to divvy up the proceeds, so she was really excited about getting the money to buy a new house of her own. Sad

I bolted out of the office without the script, but will definitely get it posted tomorrow. In the meantime I have a few email addresses if anybody wants to take a crack at baiting for headers. As near as I could tell, she'd been in the middle of two or three different lads:

[email protected]
[email protected]
(also James Olsen) [email protected]

I tried Googling some of the script but didn't come up with anything, but when I Googled the 'banker's' phone number, BINGO. (It wasn't a redirect number, by the way.) The identical script is posted on a site called 'scam of the day' or something to that effect.

She felt really foolish at first, but I assured her that hundreds, if not thousands, of people fall for things like this all the time, and that's what makes the scammers so successful to begin with. I suggested several times that she head over to Scamwarners to read about other folks' travails so she won't feel alone in her innocent mistake.

Oh, and one other thing. Since I don't know her and can't be sure she won't fall for the next one, I pointed out the RSOT. I told her if she ever got involved in something like this again, to look for the RSOT plastered all over everything -- a sure sign of a scam. Very Happy

And if she still wasn't sure, she knows how to get in touch with me. Cool

Now let us rejoice that through sheer happenstance, her email inquiry wound up in a baiter's box. Twisted Evil

EDITED to de-obfuscate the addys. To leet or not to leet, that's always my question. Laughing

Not quite a Newb Joined: 14 Jul 2005 Posts: 41

If you de-obfuscate the email addresses other potential and actual victims can find this thread with a Google search....that is always a good thing. Very Happy

Posted: Fri May 07, 2010 12:52 am

Nice work The Fae, she is very lucky to have contacted you, had she not contacted you, she may have been scammed as well as have a legal bill to pay.

BTW, there is a good piece on finding headers in the romance sticky for the popular email providers, for the more obscure ones, spamcop have a good run down of the various instructions, I dont have a link now but I can post it later if you are interested.

Posted: Fri May 07, 2010 12:53 am

Congratulations on the save TheFae!!!

Posted: Fri May 07, 2010 2:06 am

@Tsnerd, duly un-obfuscated. Very Happy

@Murry, yes, she would have been in a world of hurt for real. I'd love to have the linky to sniff out headers! How are the Spooners these days? I haven't dropped in for a visit in a while. Razz

@Connie, thanks for the Grats. It dropped in my lap, and as I've said, I wouldn't have known what to do without the excellent training I've received here. Some (myself included) say, "there are no coincidences", and this is a perfect example.

I have all of her RL info on my work comp, and if a Mod would want to have it, let me know. I'm not convinced that she will turn down the next one that comes along. Sheesh, she wanted to know where to buy Euros for gosh's sake (and one of her legal questions to me was whether it was legit to pay a 'dutch lawyer' 9,300 Euros to 'stand for me in court').

Next round's on me. beers!

Posted: Fri May 07, 2010 2:10 am

Sweet!

Master Baiter Joined: 26 Aug 2008 Posts: 139

Hahah, awesome story. Great save you made there, I can only imagine what might've happened if she didn't contact you.

Posted: Fri May 07, 2010 2:29 am

^^what, no cake and ice cream?! Smile

edited to nudge Corona for snacks Laughing

Posted: Fri May 07, 2010 3:53 am

Nicely done the Fae, Very Happy

Posted: Fri May 07, 2010 6:27 am

Great work TheFae! jump_4_joy

Not only did you save a victim, you allso prevented a lad from getting the money! If you have any trouble, or want some advice regarding the victim, then please ask one of the support team members on Scamwarners. It sounds like the victim really believed it and might fall for other scams too. It could be that the lad will now send the victim a compensation scam email. You could prepare the victim for that.

Posted: Fri May 07, 2010 6:38 am

@The Fae,

Here is the header information I was refering to; http://spamcop.net/fom-serve/cache/19.html, it doesn't cover all email providers but most are covered, if you ever have trouble finding instructions for the one you (or the person you happen to be helping) want, try googling "find header >email provider<' and most of the time what you want will be in the first few hits, if not, just ask Wink

The Spooners have taken a break but they will be back with some brand new fun after they are refreshed Wink

Posted: Fri May 07, 2010 7:07 am

@ TheFae, that was a 1 in a million save. what luck. Congrats.

After reading this entire thread, my only hope is that the Near-Miss person
(don't want to use the word victim) will tell all possible friends and family.

The scammers are evidently "fairly" good at what they do because people in this day and age still want to believe their lies.

Posted: Fri May 07, 2010 7:20 am

Slightly off topic, but some victims or near victims will fall for what seems obvious to many, in this thread http://www.scamwarners.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=8726 you will see somebody who almost fell for a scam where the scammer has re used an ID that was sent by a baiter to a scammer.

Just another reminder that even the most obvious fakes can and do get used successfully by the lads.

Posted: Fri May 07, 2010 7:20 am

Brainiac wrote:

The scammers are evidently "fairly" good at what they do

Shocking, but true. An understatement, in fact.

There's little more disheartening in the world of baiting than when you come across a vic that's lost over $100 000 to these scams. We can call them mugus all we want, but they're rolling in the dough big time.

Posted: Fri May 07, 2010 12:31 pm

excellent save TheFae Thumbs up

Posted: Fri May 07, 2010 8:44 pm

Brainiac wrote:

The scammers are evidently "fairly" good at what they do because people in this day and age still want to believe their lies.

Oh how true this is. My brother got a letter on his fax machine the other day promising him his lost millions from a long lost relative.

Now what gets me is that all my family know that I play around with these lads and enjoy the stories I tell of the baits I do and ones I have read.

So my brother seems to believe this fax and shows my Mum, who knew immediately what it was and told him so. But he kept saying... "but what if it is real" Even after me telling him all the stories, he still believed. I was a little dumbfounded. He is a bright 30 year old and I think he just wanted to believe. Anyways Mum scanned the fax to me and I googled it up and send all my findngs back to him. It was a common regular scam but it had him believing.

It just got me thinking, how many people out there do not have a switched on support network that can pick these scams. Plus how many people want to believe, even though they are smart enough to know that it is just too good to be true.... Scary really!!

Posted: Fri May 07, 2010 8:54 pm

^Yes it's scary. Intelligent people who believe in a scam, and are told that it is a scam and they better stop writing to the scammer, go by there own judgment and decide for themselfs. Their decisions aren't always the right ones.

Posted: Fri May 07, 2010 9:04 pm

As promised, I've posted the bits and pieces I received from the lady here:

http://forum.419eater.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1538357#1538357

And I agree it is really sad, but desperate people will take desperate measures. She already felt that she'd lost her house ("he sold it out from under me"), and this could have really done her in. Sad

But by divine intervention or stupid luck or whatever, she's safe from the bad guy and I'm sportin' fries! Laughing

(Thanks mods!!) beers!

Posted: Fri May 07, 2010 11:04 pm

Quote:

(Thanks mods!!)

Dont thank them, it was your actions that stopped her from being scammed Wink

Thanks for posting it up at Scamwarners too, you never know how many people you might save by having it there

Posted: Sat May 08, 2010 2:42 am