Big rise in scams as cons get creep

Beware unforeseen lotto wins and letters from Nigerians and unwanted government grants scammers are on the march. OFT (Office of Fair Trading) had already received 50% increase in scam complaints on October, as compared to 2009. Latest figures reveal about 3408 reports of dishonest operators have been made to authorities since January, compared with 2174 total last year.

Lottery scams were the most complained about followed by notorious deposit and investment services. Get schemes and Nigerian letters received 471 and 411 complaints.

Fair Trading Minister Peter Lawlor said that the complaints were covered a broad variety of scams like fake lotteries , debit fraud, and sweepstakes scams, fax back scams, tax refund scams and fake inheritance scams. Most scams play on emotions and attract the interest of their targets with the promise of money before requesting payment to cover administration fees.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) revealed an alarming 500 per cent spear in scam phone calls since August. He additionally reported: Over past two months complaints about scam telephone calls to the ACCC and the ACMA have increased considerably from 200 per month to around 2000 across the two agencies.

People are also being caught by scammers offering to place phone numbers on the Do Not Call Register. ACCC Chairman Graeme Samuel chairman said the best way to stop scammers was to never disclose any personal or financial details. Report a scam to authorities at www.scamwatch.gov.au.

Nigerian scammers caught and sentenced to 12 years

Everyone has received an email scam from some pretend Nigerian prince or official with a deal too good to be true. In spite of growing public awareness, there are still some ill-fated individuals that fall for these scams. These kinds of scams can be frustrating for those that fall prey to it. A Nigerian man has been sentenced to 12 years after being arrested late last year after running an advance fee email scam operation.

Nigerian advance fee scams involve someone pretending to be a wealthy individual in need of urgently moving huge amounts of funds from one location to another. These individuals will ask you to help them by paying for the fees requisite to do this. This type of exactly what Okpako Mike Diamreyan did as he scammed 67 victims between 2004 and 2009 out of $1.3 million.

Diamreyan fake the various individuals such as Prince Nana Kamokai of Sierra Leone. He also told acquaintances that he wanted to make $1 million before going back to Nigeria and he reported to prosecutors, "I want to forget America and come back home. It seems that he won’t be going anywhere soon as he will be spending the next 12 years in jail.

Pakistani saves life of Mumbai businessman from Nigerian Scam

A Mumbai based businessman lost Rs.7 lakhs to a Nigerian fraud in an African nation, where he was called for a business deal but came away unharmed with the help of a Pakistani national.

The later guided him to an Indian community office and the local police who saved his life. Other traders had been killed by the same Nigerian gang, local cops told to P.Chandra Sekaran. He has now penned a script to make a documentary on the Nigerian scam.
P.Chandra Sekaran started an export business in 2007. He got an email from an organization, Shepherd Aid Network, a country neighboring Nigeria.

Sekaran went to Benin at the invitation of the organisation's director, John Ndaba, to complete legal formalities for the business. Sekaran was received at the airport by a Nigerian representative. He was asked to deposit Rs.7 lakh with the finance department of the company. Ndaba promised to take him on a tour of their rehabilitation centre, but his calls to Ndaba, the next two days, went unrequited.

The third day, he managed to contact the organization's office alone but was twisted away. He then started to query about the organisation but locals able understood only French.

His four hours of try ended when a man introduced himself as a Pakistani. Abdulla guided Sekaran to the community office in Beni, where he narrated his story to community officer Manglani Gobind who contacted the police. Sekaran then received a call from Ndaba, telling him to take back his money.

Gobind and Sekaran along with a team of policemen raided the organisation's office. The police then provided protection to Sekaran for three days till he returns back to India.

Sekaran reported: "I am lucky I survived. I approached the president and senior ministers to make a documentary on my script”.

Beware Nigerian Scam Emails

Nigerian scam mail archives

latest news:Taxman warns of new email scam

CUSTOMS officers have warned taxpayers to be wary of a new phone scam where callers telephone businesses pretending to be the taxman.

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) said it had received reports of fraudsters informing businesses – and members of the public – they were due a tax rebate, and then asking for their bank card details over the phone.

The scam email often begins with a sentence such as “We have reviewed your tax return and our calculations of your last year’s accounts show a tax refund of XXXX is due.”

The thieves then attempt to take money from the account using the details provided. HMRC said victims risked having their bank accounts emptied and their personal details sold on to other organised criminal gangs.

The warning comes amid a recent surge in the number of tax scam “phishing” emails reported to HMRC. In the last three months, HMRC said it had shut down more than 180 websites that were responsible for sending out the fake tax rebate emails.

HMRC said the increase in the number of scam emails reported to it was partly due to people following its advice and forwarding the messages to the department’s online reporting facility.

Such is the scale of the problem that in September last year, a record 83,000 phishing attempts were reported to HMRC. The following month, an unprecedented 10,000 reports of phishing scams were made to HMRC on one day alone.

Chris Hopson, Director of Customer Contact at HMRC said: “We only ever contact customers who are due a tax refund in writing by post. We never use telephone calls, emails or external companies in these circumstances. We strongly urge anyone receiving such a phone call not to give any information to the caller, but report it to the police straightaway.
“If customers receive an email claiming to be from HMRC, we recommend they send it to us for investigation before deleting it permanently.”

HMRC said it thoroughly investigated phishing attacks and worked with other law enforcement agencies in the UK and overseas. In the last 18 months, scam networks have been shut down in a number of countries, including Austria, Mexico, the UK, South Korea, the USA, Thailand and Japan.

Interne Money Scams-Fake Drugs

You may think that internet scam is rare, but the truth is different. It affects the lives of many people whose only crime was to be slightly naïve. When some person got in scam, the first thing we tell them is to go straight to the police, but sought us out to talk about the real-life effects of internet crime on people's lives.

Around the world, people are losing their savings and homes to internet criminals. The most common attack is still phishing, believing that they're receiving emails from their bank or some other institution. When they try to log in via the provided link, all they see is an error message apologizing for heavy server load and asking them to try again later. But the truth is, their log-in details have been saved and the criminals now have access to their bank account.

To Beat The Internet scam:

One of the most common tricks and goals of scambaiter is advanced fee fraud. The general approach is to dangle the promise of huge gains and then ask for ever-increasing fees, expenses before they dole out a slice of the fictional cash pie.

Fake Drugs:

A large amount of spam concerns fake drugs, where scammers target those looking for a good time. Viagra, stimulants and smart drugs are freely available via internet pharmacies. In some instances, outfits have even offered cannabis and ecstasy.

The problem is that like some pharmacy will simply collect the credit card details. It isn't worth the risk.

Scam From: benjaminv03@gmail.com

A person had posted an add like wanted iBook G3 Clamshell for $100. The person has got a scam mail from benjaminv03@gmail.com.

Interview With "Black Money" Scam Victim

A 39 year old teacher lost about 140, 000 to a black money scam syndicate after sympathising with a widow. Noraini Ahmad tells her story to StarProbe Investigative team.

Charity Scam

Ohio authorities have issued a nationwide warranty for Bobby Thompson, the director of a suspect veteran’s charity organization. He used a stolen identity to execute an apparent fundraising scam.
Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray stated Thursday that the man who represented himself as Bobby Thompson used a false identity to rent a UPS box that served as a collection point for donations to the state's chapter of the U.S. Navy Veterans Association. Authorities have charged him with identity scam.
The real Bobby Thompson, whose identity (Social Security number and date of birth) was stolen, has absolutely no connection to the U.S. Navy Veterans Association.

The infer most recently lived in Tampa, Fla., but deserted his rented duplex in March after the St. Petersburg Times newspaper began inquiring him about the activities of the U.S. Navy Veterans Association.

The nonprofit association is under investigation in Virginia about whether millions of dollars raised by the group truly went to help Navy veterans. Regulators are unable to find its leaders, whose only known addresses are UPS mail drops.

According to Cordray's office, Ohioans have contributed nearly $1.9 million to the association.

Most of the elected officials who received contributions from Thompson moved quickly to donate the funds to charity. Bobby Thompson was the second-largest individual contributor to Cuccinelli's campaign.

Marriage Scam

Sussex vicar guilty of immigration marriage scam

A vicar has been found responsible of carrying out hundreds of scam marriages to bypass immigration law.

Alex Brown conducted 383 weddings, over four years at the Church of St Peter and St Paul in St Leonards, Sussex, 360 of them were fake.

Crown Prosecution Service said it was thought to be the largest fake marriage case it had brought to court. The jury at Lewes Crown Court convicted the 61-year-old of conspiring to facilitate illegal immigration.
Co-defendants Vladymyr Buchak, 33-year-old, have also been found guilty of the same offence, paid eastern Europeans up to £3,000 each to marry Africans, mainly from Nigeria.

The court heard Brown conducted the 360 fake ceremonies between July 2005 and July 2009. The defendants were caught after the UK Border Agency investigated the bogus marriages. Brown was arrested last June.

Jurors were shown photocopies of the marriage register which showed hundreds of people who had got married all seem to live in a small number of streets, with 90 couples registered as living in one road. In some cases, several brides and grooms claimed to live in the same house. The court heard most of those involved in the marriages had given false addresses. Brown insisted he only ever married couples he was sure were together for the right reasons and said he only made exceptions if the bride-to-be was about to give birth. Sentencing was adjourned until 6 September for pre-sentence reports to be carried out on Brown and Adelasoye.

Jury said specialist teams of immigration and police officers were working to tackle this form of organised criminality.

How To Avoid Scam

U.S. citizens lose billions of dollars yearly in international financial scams.This video helps you when you are being scammed.

Signs Of Scam:

• scammer and victim person meets online.
• Will send photo of attractive person.
• Suddenly needs financial help.
• Claims to be U.S citizen, but will use grammar and spelling indicative of a non-English speaker.

Now Its Time To Scam the Scammers

Scammers often get away with their crimes from law enforcement. But there are people who are helping victims fight back. Scammers are there to grab your money.
Here is an interesting video to catch the scammers in a smart way.

Protect Yourself From Scammers

If you receiving a mail like “congratulation you the lucky winner of 5million dollars”, what will be your feedback?

To protect yourself from scammers:

• Just look at these kind of mail carefully and don’t let greediness and the initial excitement associated with receiving note of huge amounts of winnings blind you.
• Before sending the information’s like home address, telephone number and getting contact with these kinds of scammers just read the scams.
• Keep one thing in mind, for getting an individual’s information, a legitimate organization will never contact you via email.

Beware Of Lottery Scam Mail

UK-LOTTO HEADQUARTERS:

Custom Service

580 N.Tenth Street,

CA 85914

Arena Complex 18 Route de Rufisque,

I.P.P Award Dept,

Johallesburg,

SouthAfrica,

Ref-UK/9420x2/68

Batch-074/05/zy369

We happily announce to you the draw of the UK-LOTTO Sweepstake Lottery International programs held on 26th July 2010 in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Your email address attached to

Ticket no: 66 6654444 77

Serial no 6654/04

Lucky no: 66-76-23-123

Which subsequently won you the lottery in the 2nd category.

You have therefore been approved to claim a total sum of US$3,600,000.00(3 million six hundred thousand US dollars)

This type of scam will usually come in the form of a conventional email message. It will inform you that you won millions of dollars and congratulate you repeatedly. The catch: before you can collect your “winnings”, you must pay the “processing” fee of several thousands of dollars.

Stop! The moment the bad guys cash your money order, you lose. Once you realize you have been suckered into paying $4000 to a con man, they are long gone with your money. Do not fall for this lottery scam.

scambaiter

SCAMBAITER

• Scambaiting in simple words, is wasting the precious time of a spammer pretending that you are interested in their schemes.
• It is a method of entertaining the baiter and pretending as if you are ready to perform some ludicrous tasks. Thus indirectly you are keeping the scammers from potential victims who may fall in trap with the scammers. 

SCAMBAITER'S GOAL

• One common goal of scam baiting has become the photographic trophy. 
• The scam mail senders, sometimes known as lads, are goaded or cajoled by the Mugus, or victims, into having a picture taken by them.

SCAMBAITER'S TASK:

• Send the scam mail senders to a Western Union office to collect the supposedly sent money and get them to book hotels for them.
• A few scam baiters have also succeeded in receiving cash from the fraudsters.

Overview about scam

About scam

View more presentations from Caroline Rose.

victims of an online scam

Be alert of online scammers.Although its not possible to recover your money.You can prevent the repetition of that kind of fraud.

lottery scam letter

From: NOKIA LOTTERY AWARD PROMO:
Mail id:nokia_lotteryaward@nokia.com
Subject: CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE WON FROM THE NOKIA LOTTERY AWARD PROMO:
To: nokia_nokiaagency@live.com
Date: Thursday, 22 April, 2010, 11:51 AM
Ref: UK/9420X2/68
Batch: 074/05/ZY369

Message:
Congratulations!
We are pleased to inform you that one of the best things that can happen to any Internet user is to be rewarded for spending money and time on the Internet. You may not have known that over one hundred billion people daily surf the Internet on regular basis for one reason or other. These Internet users including yourself, pay access fees to various Internet Service Providers (ISP) all over the world who in turn remit surplus funds to the numerous World Wide Internet Technology Companies (WWITC) for the development and advancement of Global Information Technology. So much money is generated from people like you all over the World for using the Information Superhighway (the Internet) without your being aware the enormous sum that go to the stake holders (WWITC). Without your patronage, this would not have been possible. After we conducted a research on the issue, we concluded that Internet users should be compensated.

As a result, we embarked on a worldwide lottery promotion with a sophisticated automated database to randomly select E-mail accounts that frequently surf the Internet. Consequent upon this, your E-mail address was picked for Category "A" Winners.

You have won 1,350,000.00 Great British Pounds from the Nokia Lottery Award Promo.

The Promo was conducted and sponsor by Nokia Inc.

All participants were selected from World Wide Website through Microsoft computer ballot system drawn from 21,000 names and emails adresses extracted from all over the World Wide Web: Africa, America, Asia, Europe, South America and Australia, as part of the Nokia Free Lottery Award Promotion Program.

This is the first of it kind, and it is mainly to encourage the use of cell phones and internet connectivity Worldwide.

You have been approved a certified draft Cheque of 1,350GBP credited to file KTU/9023118308/03.

Your e-mail address attached to ticket number:56475600545 188 with Serial number 5368/02 drew the lucky numbers:10, 26, 34, 35, 37, 40, (bonus no.01) which subsequently won you the award in the 1st category.

You are thereby advise to contact our agent to immediately commence and facilitate the release of your won prize to you.

For security reasons, you are advised to keep your winning information confidential till your claim is processed and your money remitted to you. This is part of our precautionary measure to avoid double claiming and unwarranted abuse of this program. Please be warned!!!

To claim your prize, and more information Contact our Region office:

Flat 38 Crawford point, wouldham road,
Canning Town, London
E16,1EG,
United Kingdom
Mr. Hector Mac'Nelson
Tel: +44 702 4066 749
Email: nokia_nokiaagency@live.com

Yours truly,
Dr. Desmond Dickson

Note: You are to contact your claim's agent Mr.Hector Mac' Nelson at nokia_nokiaagency@live.com
<---------------------------------->

From: Satish J
Mail id:satishj765@yahoo.in
Subject: Re: CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE WON FROM THE NOKIA LOTTERY AWARD PROMO:
To: nokia_nokiaagency@live.com
Date: Thursday, 22 April, 2010, 1:06 PM
Hi Mr.Hector,
Its great to hear that I have won such a huge amount from Nokia lottery Promo but I have never heard about this promo before. How can get this money? Please help me. I am waiting for your email.

Regards,
Satish
<---------------------------------->

Hello Mr.Hector,
It has been more than 4 days but I haven't got any reply from you yet. Please help me in getting this money. I am waiting for your reply eagerly. Please acknowledge this email.
Thank you,

Regards,
Satish
<---------------------------------->

From: "NOKIA LOTTERY PROMOTION OFFICE!"
Mail id:nokia_nokiaagency@live.com
To: satishj765@yahoo.in

Congratulations!
This Office is in confirmation of the email proving you as one of the winners of the Nokia Lottery Award Promo. Your email has won £1,350,000.00 GBP, Nokia Blackberry and a Dell laptop in the ongoing NOKIA MOBILE / EMAIL PROMO conducted in London, United Kingdom, the host country.

Send us this information below to nokia_nokiaagency@live.com

INDICATE PREFERRED MODE IN WHICH YOU WISH TO RECEIVE YOUR WON PRIZE:
(A) By DIPLOMAT DELIVERY, or
(B) By BANK DRAFT TRANSFER.
Congratulations on behalf of the members and staff of NOKIA , we wish you the best of luck as you fellow the due process and spend your good fortune.

Yours faithfully,
Mr. Hector Mac'Nelson
Claim's agent
<---------------------------------->

Hi Mr.Nelson,
I have send my details below. Please send the prize money by draft so that it will be easier for me to get it. How long will it take to get this prize money? Please acknowledge this email.

Regards,
Satish.J
<---------------------------------->

From: NOKIA LOTTERY AWARD PROMO:

Mail id:nokia_lotteryaward@nokia.com

Subject: CONTACT OUR PAYING BANK FOR THE TRANSFER OF YOUR PRICE:

To: satishj765@yahoo.in

Date: Tuesday, 27 April, 2010, 2:34 PM

Dear Winner,
This office is in receipt of your mail dated 27th of April 2010. And understood that you want to receive your Prize via bank draft Wire transfer.
Congratulations once again, you have been approved of a whopping sum of 1,350.000.00GBP Certified Draft cheque, along with a Dell Laptop and Blackberry phone.
All the information regarding the release of your won prize has been forwarded to the bank.
Your certified draft Cheque and all your winning items have also been forwarded to the Bank.
You are thereby advise to forward your winning information and also your passport either your international passport or driving license to the Bank for effective transfer of your won prize.
You are to contact our paying bank for the transfer of your Draft Cheque.

CONTACT:
ACCESS BANK PLC. LONDON
1, Cornhill,
EC3V 3ND
London
United Kingdom.

Mr. Steve Brown
Manager,
Customer Care Unit.
E-mail: info@accessbnkplc.tk
customercare@accessbnkplc.tk
Endeavor to keep me posted about all your dealings with the paying bank for advice and directives.

Yours faithfully,
Mr. Hector Mac'Nelson
Claims Agent.
<---------------------------------->

Hi Mr.Nelson,
Thank you for your reply. Sure, I will definitely contact Access Bank and provide my details. Before that, May I have the photocopy of my draft and your photograph for reference? Once I get these details, I will contact Mr.Brown and provide my driving license information. I am waiting for your email. Please reply soon.
Thank you,

Regards,
Satish.J
<---------------------------------->

Dear Winner,
This is to acknowledge the receipt of your mail dated 28th April 2010. Base on your request and as your claim's agent, i have scanned your draft cheque endorsed yesterday after the clarification and verification of filled form.
Your draft cheque has been attached in this mail for your confirmation.
Contact the bank immediately for collection of your won money from Nokia Inc.

Regards,
Mr. Hector Mac'Nelson
Claims Agent.
<---------------------------------->

Hi Mr.Nelson,
Thank you very much for your prompt reply and sending the photocopy of my draft. If you don't mind, Can you send me a photograph of yours holding the draft on your hands? I can keep this as a reference before providing my driving license details.
Once I get this photograph, I will contact Access Bank for further dealings.
Thank you,

Regards,
Satish J
<---------------------------------->

Dear Winner,
I am in receipt of your mail dated 29th April 2010.
Your certified draft cheque is at the bank and not with me. Yesterday i manage to tell them to forward the scan copy to me so i can send it to you as you demanded.
You can contact the bank for any other verification. I cannot go to the bank and ask them to give me your draft to snap picture with it. That sound too absurd and unprofessional. Contact the bank regarding your cheque for it has been endorsed by your name as the beneficiary.
I do not understand why you are giving me the task of taking a shot with your draft cheque. However i advise you that it will be better you contact the bank for all query.

Regards,
Mr. Hector Mac'Nelson
Claim's agent

Phone scam

Telephone scam is the one of the most widely scam in the world. They target each and everyone to try to deceive people out of money. They may call a person and entail that they work for a company or they place ads to convince a people to call them.

Lottery scam

In this type you will receive a mail stating that you have won so and so amount in a lucky draw contest or in lottery prize from ABC Company. Further to this they will insist you to claim the amount by providing your account details to them and they will also ask you to pay the amount to release the funds. One point to remember before believing them is no lottery company or luck draws will work in this way.

features of scam:The other popular online scams are online auctions, surveys, employment opportunities, investments and asking you to go for dating.