BS: Nigerian scammers arrested

Subject: BS: Nigerian scammers arrested
From: ard mhacha
Date: 04 Oct 07 - 05:16 AM

It is true "there is one born every minute", an estimated £8 million in Cheques has been seized in an operation involving e-mail scammers.
One source on BBC News estimates almost 3 billion pounds has been taken of those poor gullible Brits by the Nigerian con merchants.
PC users have been warned time and again about the Nigerian scammers, when will they ever learn?.

Subject: RE: BS: Nigerian scammers arrested
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 04 Oct 07 - 08:28 AM

" when will they ever learn?."

we used to say that every time Thatcher was elected

Subject: RE: BS: Nigerian scammers arrested
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 04 Oct 07 - 08:42 AM

"One source on BBC News estimates almost 3 billion pounds has been taken of those poor gullible Brits by the Nigerian con merchants."

Come on Ard, cut the racist bollocks, you're a better man than that - it was world-wide mate, not only us poor gullible Brits. Maybe even one or two of the Irish, a nation well known for their universally-superior intellect and willingness to support causes, fell for it, who knows?

Subject: RE: BS: Nigerian scammers arrested
From: Mickey191
Date: 04 Oct 07 - 08:54 AM

Just this week a new campaign on U.S. TV depicts a very seedy looking guy approaching a gentlemen in a diner. The whole spiel "I have millions that I want to share with you" -- the innocent says calmly:"Get Lost." The voice over warns that if offered this kind of deal on the internet-FLEE!

I hope people listen.


I got an email purporting to be from Chase Manhattan Bank telling that someone overseas has accessed my acc't. They want to help me, their "Valued Customer," protect my money. The follow-up is THE most legit looking form I've seen. This asks for every bit of private info. imaginable. The page is even encrypted. I could really understand someone falling for this.

One problem: I've Never been a Chase Customer. BEWARE of this one!

Subject: RE: BS: Nigerian scammers arrested
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 04 Oct 07 - 09:28 AM

I got one from a site claiming to be HM Tax Office, claiming I was due a tax refund. It was so good that the links on the page actually took you to pages of the REAL government webstite!

But the web address was slightly suspect, and the form for you to enter your details was an American one, with a space for a US zip code instead of a postcode.

I could see people being taken in by it...

Subject: RE: BS: Nigerian scammers arrested
From: Bee
Date: 04 Oct 07 - 10:24 AM

Every financial institution has a phone number. If you are suspicious of or worried by an email mentioning the name of yours, phone the bank. They will reassure you, take the particulars, and may even pass the info on to the police.

Subject: RE: BS: Nigerian scammers arrested
From: Rapparee
Date: 04 Oct 07 - 10:40 AM

Heck, I've done ARIN whois lookups on a couple of the banks or whatever. One was in an industrial park outside Cairo, Egypt and the other was in Mexico City (Mexico DF).

You can spoof a URL and put up a page or even pages that look like the bank's real webpage.

If you have a problem your bank, tax office, credit union or others will NOT notify you by email. The tax folks have free postage and, if you're important enough, they'll send two or three people who will give you a FREE RIDE in a genuine government vehicle to a REAL government building!

As for the lotteries -- I've been notified that I've won millions of Euros, Pounds, Dollars.... Even the Irish Sweepstakes (which as far as I know don't happen any more)! I told the city's Chief Financial Officer about a nice banker in Africa who had all this money to share, but the CFO didn't care enough about helping out the city to contact him, and gee, I thought the city could use a few extra millions.

Just delete 'em. Remember, if it sounds too good to be true, it is.

Subject: RE: BS: Nigerian scammers arrested
From: EBarnacle
Date: 04 Oct 07 - 10:59 AM

I'm sorry they were arrested. Every time I get one of those fraudulent e-mails, it reinforces my belief in the force of human cupidity and in entrepreneurship. Barnum was right--There IS a sucker born every minute. If they were not greedy, they would not be taken in.

By the way, I report every one of them to the appropriate authorities. I recently received one which looked legit and, when I asked for a phone number and an American bank reference in New York, they got very upset with me, accusing me of a lack of trust.

Subject: RE: BS: Nigerian scammers arrested
From: GUEST,Mr. Norrell
Date: 04 Oct 07 - 11:24 AM

:they got very upset with me, accusing me of a lack of trust:

I wonder why...? :-D

Subject: RE: BS: Nigerian scammers arrested
From: Mr Red
Date: 04 Oct 07 - 01:35 PM

the only problem with responding to these is that some if not all are coded and give away the fact that your e-mail address is genuine.
Opening an e-mail with picture while online is the easiest way to tell them. The combination of pics defines you or the group that batch were sent to. Some web bot notes were the contact came from and probably puts a "yes more e-mails please" flag against that address. I never open e-mails on line and set my e-mail app to not display if I look at the folder. The bank account ones stopped 6 months ago.

Subject: RE: BS: Nigerian scammers arrested
From: ard mhacha
Date: 04 Oct 07 - 01:44 PM

Backwoodsman indeed, relax matey when they find the same gullible fools in Ireland it is your privelige to respond in kind, but in the meantime,those take in, are greedy gullible fools

Subject: RE: BS: Nigerian scammers arrested
From: Big Mick
Date: 04 Oct 07 - 01:52 PM

It doesn't do much for my faith in the inate wisdom of folks when they get taken in by this stuff. I must say that since the very first time, a number of years ago, that I saw one of these letters it was clear it was a scam. Most of the stuff that is used in phishing scams, and money scams, seems so transparent to me that I can't imagine many are fooled. But obviously hope springs eternal and folks try to imagine that something to good to be true, actually is.

Mick

Subject: RE: BS: Nigerian scammers arrested
From: Bee
Date: 04 Oct 07 - 02:12 PM

My provider has gotten pretty good at keeping most of the spam out of my email. I often have days with no spam at all, and rarely more than two or three. I never open anything that remotely resembles spam, just delete it.

While the urge to strike back can be strong, it is almost pointless to reply to any of these things, even if they have an 'unsubscribe' feature. All you do is let their machine know that your machine is willing and able to talk back.

Subject: RE: BS: Nigerian scammers arrested
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 04 Oct 07 - 08:39 PM

I rarely get spam (good onya ISP & Firefox) but I do treat some legit? emails harshly. Grame sent an email without subject - so I trashed it, but fortunately had a look before deleting - it was the monthly newsletter of a club & is normally sent by the president. So I asked him to use a subject next time.

I manage a list from a club website & often get spam there. But what is worse, the club's address has been used by spammers & I often get autoreplies from nice polite mailprograms apologising that they can't find the address I sent my message to! Similarly polite autoreplies also tell me I sent a virus! My webmaster tells me that we won't get blacklisted (I hope not!!) We have been thinking of transferring this list to a friend's server as the mail program we use is a pain in the B.

sandra

Subject: RE: BS: Nigerian scammers arrested
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 05 Oct 07 - 12:20 AM

One of the few good things that - after some persuading - Little Fascist Johnny has done is to set up a Spam Complaint Site.

http://submit.spam.acma.gov.au/acma_submit.cgi

This place sends info to the Aussie Federal Police, and Interpol, for such scams as Bank Phishing, etc

Intended for Aussies only, really, but use it please if you can. I send all the stuff labelled 'cH1Ld p0Rn' and such like.... these days you don't know if it IS the cops sending to you such stuff to entrap you, anyway... :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Nigerian scammers arrested
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 05 Oct 07 - 06:00 AM

Gullible fools indeed Ard, whatever their nationality. My point was that it's not JUST daft Brits who fell for it - it's a worldwide scam, so I reckon to single Brits out was unfair. And you do have a certain reputation for Brit-bashing, owd lad, so you shouldn't be surprised that us Brits who didn't fall for it are a bit miffed at your inference that we're all prats! There are prats in every country, not just the UK.

Anyhoo, peace mate, and all the best.
S:0)

Subject: RE: BS: Nigerian scammers arrested
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 05 Oct 07 - 10:25 AM

And I don't imagine most of the scammers involved are in fact Nigerian.

Subject: RE: BS: Nigerian scammers arrested
From: ard mhacha
Date: 05 Oct 07 - 11:56 AM

Prats is an English expression so that would rule out the Irish. The Cheques were recovered in England.

Subject: RE: BS: Nigerian scammers arrested
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 05 Oct 07 - 01:19 PM

:-) :-)
Read again fella - the BBC said it was a worldwide scam. I like to believe Ireland is of this world, even though a small number of its inhabitants seem to be of the Planet Zog! :-)
No matter, people who fall for this sort of scam are gullible fools, we agree on that. But they aren't all Brits, just some.
ATB
S:0)

Subject: RE: BS: Nigerian scammers arrested
From: ard mhacha
Date: 05 Oct 07 - 03:49 PM

Last time I looked London was in England, seemed the vast majority who were conned came from England.

Subject: RE: BS: Nigerian scammers arrested
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 06 Oct 07 - 01:30 AM

Whatever, just as long as it makes you feel better.
All the best,
S:0)