It is christmas. It is a great time to celebrate with the family and friends. However, the current economic crisis makes it a bit more difficult for Americans to give to their relatives and friends. Everyone is on a tight budget. Therefore, the following email could appear like a gift sent from heaven to a lot of people.
Well, it is not. It is one of the latest scam emails from Nigeria. Its purpose is to steal your money. There is nothing more to it. You should not be fooled by US$76,000,000.00 million and the no one to claim it gimmick. It is all a dishonest scheme.
Mr.Akintola George,
Headquarter,
Central Bank of Nigeria.
Abuja, Nigeria.
REPLY THROUGH MY PRIVATE BOX:Sir,
Compliment of the day and how is life general with you? Of course it is my humble wish to solicit and crave your indulgence to make this project request for a joint business transaction which I hope will not come to you as a surprise, hence I plead for your pardon.
I am Mr. Akintola George, the internal Auditor with Central Bank of Nigeria of Nig, I have an urgent and confidential business proposal for you.
On June 6, 2002, an Australian oil consultant/contractor with National Petroleum cooperation (NNPC) Mr. Peter Bush made a numbered time (fixed) deposit for twelve calender month valued at US$76,000.00(Seventy Six Million U.s Dollars) in my branch.On maturity, I sent a routine notification to his forwarded address but got no reply after months we send a reminder and finally we discovered from his contract employee (Nigeria national petroleum Corporation) that Mr. peter Bush died from an automobile accident.
On further investigation, it was clear that he died without making a will. All attempts by the Australian to trace his next of kin were fruitless. I therefore made further investigation and discovered that Mr. Peter Bush did not declare any next of kin or relations in all his official documents including his deposit document in my bank. The total sum US$76,000,000.00 is still in my bank as dormant acct. No one will ever come forward to claim it. According to Nigerian banking law, after five years, the money will revert to the ownership of the Nigerian Government. If the account owner is certified death and nobody comes forward to claim it.
This is the situation , and my proposal is that I am looking for a foreigner who will stand in as the beneficiary/next of kin. This is simple. All you have to do is to immediately send me the details of a bank account anywhere in the world for me to arrange the proper money transfer document. The money will then be transferred into the account for us to share in the ration of 65% for me 25% for you while the remaining 10% will be set aside for expenses incurred within here and there.
There is no risk involved(whatsoever), I am using my position and connection in the bank here to do all the documentation work for the transaction. We shall employ the services of an attorney to draft the will and obtain all necessary documents and letter of administration in your favor for the transfer.
This transaction is risk free guaranteed, Note that this deal is very confidential, if you are interested please reply immediately and be rest assured that this transaction could be most profitable for both of us. Please do not expose this deal if you are not interested because if you do, it will take me out of job.
I am awaiting your urgent reply.Best regards,
Mr.Akintola George.
Central Bank of Nigeria.
CONFIDENTIAL SATELLITE LINES:
TEL: +874 762 921580, FAX: +874 762 921581
PRIVATE PHONE: +234 70 33 55 99 00
The following are some protective tips that you could use in order to combat Scam/Spam E-mails like the above:
- Do not respond to unsolicited (SPAM) e-mail.
- Be skeptical of individuals representing themselves as officials soliciting via e-mail for donations.
- Do not click on links contained within an unsolicited e-mail.
- Be cautious of e-mail claiming to contain pictures in attached files, as the files may contain viruses. Only open attachments from known senders.
- Do not provide personal or financial information to anyone who solicits contributions: providing such information may compromise your identity and open you to identity theft.
- Do not respond to email with misspellings, bad grammar, or poor punctuation.
- Look closely to email links. Deceptive links in phishing emails look like they are to a valid site, but deliver you to a fraudulent one. Many times you can see if the link is legitimate by just moving your mouse over the link.
- Look closely how the email is addressed. Many phish emails use generic salutations and generic information (e.g. “Dear Customer” or “Dear Account Holder”) instead of your name.
- If the email asks you to go to a website and verify your personal information, do not provide it or go to that website. Banks, Credit Card companies and other institutions will never ask for your Social Security or personal information through an email or phone call. Unless you are the one who contact the company(You call the bank or Credit Card company), the company will never ask for the above informations.
If you receive an email like the above one, forward it immediately to Spam@uce.gov and/or Reportphishing@antiphishing.com and don’t click on the links under any circumstances. They could have malware and viruses. If you are a victim to the above scam, you can also file a complaint here at IC3.gov.
1 Comment
December 19, 2008 at 5:39 pm
I investigate these email scama all the time. Many times the money trail leads back to the USA. The scammers like to make it look like it originates in Nigeria to discourage he victim from tracing the emails back to the con man in order to get their money back.
Usually once we ID them they return the money.