The FBI - FATF cam

Here is another example of a scam that try's to steal from you through fear. It claims to be from the FBI, and claims that if you don't get back in touch with them, you will be arrested for money laundering.
The main giveaway that this is a scam is the e-mail address that they give you to reply to. It is obviously not official. Even if the address did look official this still looks suspect. However, since it is claiming criminal activities, and these days it is better to be safe then sorry, I did one thing to verify that this e-mail is fake. I called the FBI. It is easy to find their real number. Look on their webpage. Don't follow links in the e-mail, or open attachments. just search for the real FBI office closest to you (use Google, or any other search engine) and give them a call.

Scam e-mail below:

Federal bureau of investigation
Field Intelligence Unit
J. Edgar Hoover building
935 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, USA.

Urgent Attention: Beneficiary

I am special agent Mark A. Morgan from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Field Intelligence Unit, we have just intercepted and confiscated two (2) trunk boxes at John F Kennedy airport in New York, and are on the verge of moving it to our bureau headquarter.

We crosschecked the content of the boxes and found it to contain a total sum of $4.1 million and also backup documents which bears your name as the receiver of the money contained in the boxes, investigations carried out on the diplomat which accompanied the boxes into the united states has it that he was to deliver this funds to your residence as payment which was due you from unpaid contract, inheritance, lotto, loan, etc.

We cross-checked all legal documentations in the boxes, and were about to release the consignment to the diplomat, when we found out that the boxes is lacking two very important documentation which as a result, the boxes has been confiscated and kept in our security vault.

According to section 229 subsection 31 of the constitution ratified in 1992, your consignment lacks proof of OWNERSHIP CERTIFICATE AND LEGAL DELIVERY PERMIT CLEARANCE CERTIFICATE from the joint team of the Federal Bureau Of Investigation and homeland security and therefore you must contact us for direction on how to procure the two certificates, so that you can be relieved of the charges of evading tax which is a punishable offense under section 12 subsection 441 of constitution on tax evasion.

You are therefore required to get back to me on this email {agmarkamorgan01@superposta.com} within 72 hours, so that i will guide you on how to get the needed documents. Failure to comply with our directive may lead you into problem; you may be arrested, interrogated and prosecuted in the court of law for money laundering.

We may also get the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on money laundering involved if you do not follow our instructions. You are also advised not to get in contact with any other institution, since your funds are here now in the United States of America and can be delivered to any country of your choice once you secure those required documents.

Yours in service

Agent Mark A. Morgan
Regional director
Federal Bureau of Investigation
E-mail: agmarkamorgan01@superposta.com

The Lilly Hill Scam

Here is another attempt to infect your computer with malware. The e-mail came with an attached .zip file claiming to be my invoices. When opened it most likely contains malware. If this was a real e-mail, you can rest assured the company that thinks I owe them money would have the company name, info, and why I am supposed to owe them money as well as contact info clearly visible in the e-mail. Why? Because real companies know that most people won't open attachments from people they do not know.

And that is the Tip of the Day:

• If you don't know who sent you an attachment, don't open it.

Scam e-mail Below:

Please find attached your invoices for the past months. Remit the payment by 02/04/2013 as outlines under our "Payment Terms" agreement.

Thank you for your business,

Sincerely,
Lilly Hill

This e-mail has been sent from an automated system. PLEASE DO NOT REPLY.

The information contained in this message may be privileged, confidential and protected from disclosure. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, or an employee or agent responsible for delivering this message to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify your representative immediately and delete this message from your computer. Thank you.

Bank of America Scam

This scam is tricky. It claims that a large sum of money has been deposited into my Bank of America account. The receipt is attached, and if there is any error, I should contact them. I would say there is a 99.999% chance that the attachment contains malware. Why would I think that? 

1. I do not have an account with Bank of America.

2. If I check the return address on the e-mail (which is labeled "Bank of America" the actual adress is miniaturesck34@gmail.com).

If you get an e-mail like this, don't open the attachment. call your bank (if you have a BofA account).

Scam e-mail Below:

Transaction is completed. $9142 has been successfully transferred.
If the transaction was made by mistake please contact our customer service.
Receipt on payment is attached.

*** This is an automatically generated email, please do not reply ***
Bank of America, N.A. Member FDIC. Equal Housing Lender Opens in new window
© 2013 Bank of America Corporation. All rights reserved

Another DHL Scam

So this came in the mail today with an attachment (that I am pretty sure has malware on it). I really appreciate the threat at the bottom about charging me $8.26 per day if I do not claim it. That would be illegal. The email looks very nice, and has all sorts of links that will probably take you to fake sites that ask for credit card numbers or other things they can use to steal your identity. I've attached a screenshot.


Scam e-mail Below:

DHL notification

Our company’s courier couldn’t make the delivery of parcel.

REASON: Postal code contains an error.
LOCATION OF YOUR PARCEL: New York
DELIVERY STATUS: sort order
SERVICE: One-day Shipping
NUMBER OF YOUR PARCEL: ETBAKPRSU3
FEATURES: No

Label is enclosed to the letter.
Print a label and show it at your post office.

An additional information:

If the parcel isn’t received within 15 working days our company will have the right to claim compensation from you for it’s keeping in the amount of $8.26 for each day of keeping of it.

You can find the information about the procedure and conditions of parcels keeping in the nearest office.

Thank you for using our services.
DHL Global

A Chinese Scam?

I'm not really sure if this is a scam, or if people in China haven't quite figured out e-mail marketing. Either way, I've been getting dozens of these emails recently, so I decided to share.

Suspect e-mail below:

贵公司你好： 本公司可代开全国各大城市部分的普通发票，
如：商品销售. 广告.服务.建筑安装等等发票，
税率按(0.3-1%)%计算，可先开票给贵公司验证后付款，
贵司如有需要。详细请来电洽谈。
代理人：李嘉玲
联系电话： 13622386616
联系Q Q：876754824
如有打搅，请见谅！谢谢！

Using Google Translate, this comes out to:


Company Hello: the Company on behalf of ordinary invoice open in major cities nationwide part
: Merchandise sales advertising. Services construction and installation invoices
The tax rate (0.3-1%), can be billed to your company verified payment
Your company if necessary. For details, please call to discuss.
Agent: Li Jialing
Tel: 13622386616
Contact Q Q: 876 754 824
If disturbed, and please forgive me! Thank you!

If you search the number on google, it seems this is a scam of some sort.

The Tax Return Scam

The email below is a scam. it is a fisher e-mail trying to get your info. It is very well down, and looks authentic. It even appears to come from an intuit.com e-mail address. I was suspicious when I saw it because I have not done my taxes yet. I went to the real Turbotax website, and signed in. According to them I haven't done my taxes yet either. So I called Intuit, and verified. This is not a legitimate email from TurboTax or Intuit. It is a fisher attempt. If you get an e-mail like this, do not open the attachment.

Scam e-mail Below:

Your State Return has Been Rejected!

What This Means:
Your 2012 Personal Return "TAX_521172618" has been rejected. All information has been reviewes and validated by Intuit. Please find more information attached. You will be prompted to open (view) the file or save (download) it to your computer.

Need copies of your tax returns for your records?

You can sign in to TurboTax any time and print or save copies for your records by clicking on the Print Center tab in the upper right corner of your screen.



Note: If you e-filed a federal return, you will receive a separate status email about that return.

We recommend keeping copies of all status emails for your records.

Thanks for using TurboTax!

Note: This email was automatically generated. Please do not respond to this email address; it comes from our automated alert system, which is not monitored for responses

FBI Anti Terrorist Scam

This is an obvious scam. I just received this e-mail, and it has all the halmarks of a scam: It wants to much info, it uses "legitimate" agency names, yet all the e-mail addresses are not to that agency. it mentions Nigeria... Don't fall for this one.

Scam e-mail Below:

FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION.
Anti-Terrorist and Monitory Crimes Division.
Federal Bureau Of Investigation.
J. Edgar. Hoover Building Washington D.C


FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION.

HELLO, YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE:

THIS OFFICE HAVE BEEN ALERTED BY FINANCIAL SETTLEMENT BOARD OF AFRICA. THE SETTLEMENT BOARD OFFICE HAVE PREPARED A CASH DISPATCH PACKAGE OF US$15.5 MILLION FOR YOU. WE WERE TOLD THAT THE SOURCE OF THE FUND IS A OVER DUE PAYMENT WHICH HAVE BEEN UNCLAIMED FOR OVER 8YEARS NOW.

THE US EMBASSY IN NIGERIA HELPED THEM TO VERIFY AND GAVE AN ABIDING ATTESTATION FOR YOU TO BE THE LEGAL OWNER OF THIS FUND.

SO NOW YOU WILL CONTACT THE US EMBASSY SECRETARY (TROY CARTER) ON HIS E-MAIL: mr.charlespaul001@live.com
PLEASE NOTE WHILE CONTACTING THE US EMBASSY IN NIGERIA, YOU WILL QUOTE HIM YOUR DETAIL IN THE FORMAT BELOW WITHOUT MISTAKE:

YOUR NAME IN FULL:
CONTACT ADDRESS:
TELEPHONE NUMBER:
SEX:
AGE:
OCCUPATION:
POSITION:

HAVING FILLED THE ABOVE, PLEASE YOU SEND IT TO: mr.charlespaul001@live.com
CONTACT PERSON: TROY CARTER
UNITED STATE EMBASSY, LAGOS OFFICE
EMAIL ADDRESS: mr.charlespaul001@live.com
DIRECT TELL +234-7046144294


BEST REGARDS,
Robert S. Mueller III
Federal Bureau of Investigation
J. Edgar Hoover Building
935 Pennsylvania Avenue,
NW Washington, D.C.
20535-0001, USA

Another Nigerian Scam

Does anyone take e-mails like this from Nigeria seriously?

Scam e-mail Below:

DEAR.

I AM DR. HEATH OTEGAR, THE SPECIAL ADVISER TO THE PRESIDENT NIGERIA ON
FINANCIAL MATTERS.

I HAVE A BUSINESS OF $65.3MILLION DOLLARS FROM OUR FOREIGN CONTRACTORS WHO
HAVE EXECUTED CONTRACTS WITH OUR NIGERIA NATIONAL PETROLEUM COOPERATION
{NNPC} AND THEY ARE FULLY PAID WITH THEIR CONTRACTS PAYMENTS. THIS
$65.3MILLION DOLLARS WAS OVER-INVOICE WHICH I MADE DURING TIME OF
PAYMENTS TO OUR FOREIGN CONTRACTORS.

I WANT YOU TO BE MY PARTNER TO RECEIVE THIS $65.3MILLION IN YOUR ACCOUNT
AS FOREIGNER. I WILL GIVE MORE VITAL INFORMATION OVER THIS BUSINESS
SHORTLY AFTER HEARING FROM YOU. I WILL GIVE YOU 30% OF THE TOTAL AMOUNT
AFTER RECEIVING THE SAID AMOUNT IN YOUR ACCOUNT.

NOTE,THERE IS NO RISKY INVOLVED AT ALL IN THIS VERY TRANSACTION, I
SINCERELY PROMISED. ALL THE FIRST CLASS ARRANGEMENTS
TO MOVE THE SAID AMOUNT INTO A FORIEN ACCOUNT ARE EVER READY. THE NEXT
SHALL BE FORWARDED TO YOU SHORTLY AFTER

YOURS IN PRESIDENCY
DR. HEATH OTEGAR
FINANCIAL ADVISER TO THE PRESIDENT NIGERIA
E-MAIL: drheathotegar@zhot.net

The Mr. William Billington Scam

This one is very short and simple. I have no blind trust for anyone, so it is obvious to me that this is a scam. A quick google search verifies that.


Scam e-mail Below:

This is based on blind trust, hoping that you will expand my wishes as desired. I have US$200 Million for charity projects. You will be getting 20% of total funds as your commission if interested.


Regards,
Mr. William Billington

The 2013 GLOBE Award Grant Scam

This is a scam. a quick internet search of 2013 GLOBE Award Grant reveals that there is no such thing. Another quick way to determine a scam is to understand how internet domains work. When you see an e-mail address like the one in this scam e-mail (@yahoo.com.hk) you will notice the .hk at the end. That is a Honk Kong domain. The com before the .hk is the registered domain name, and the yahoo. at the beginning is a subdomain on the com.hk website. This is not related to Yahoo.com in anyway. ( Yahoo's Hong Kong website is http://hk.yahoo.com/ ). That shows a lot of deception right off the bat, and is clearly a sign that this e-mail is not to be trusted.

Scam e-mail Below:

Attention, Good Morning.

The Board of Directors, members of staff and the International Promotion Department of the IMF/WORLD BANKFoundation is proud to congratulate you as one of the 2013 winners of the GLOBE Award Grant valued US$2,500,000.00. under the IMF/WORLD BANK programe.

Each email address was attached to a ticket number and your email address with ticket number: (GF/529/MX/03RY4) was randomly selected as the star prize winner amongst other consolation prize winners.Please contact Mr. Craig Fred (DIRECTOR)with the E-mail (imf_wb9@yahoo.com.hk), for further details.

Regards,
Mrs. Elizabeth Time

The CARRIER CRESCENT,COTONOU.BENIN REPUBLIC. Scam

Here is yet another scam email. I am sure you are beginning to notice they all look similar. This one even asks you to be on the look out for other "Scanners" (sic).

Scam e-mail Below:

HON;Mr.Alex Soulaman.
MINISTER OF FINANCE(MOF)
OPERATIONAL TOWERS;8/10
CARRIER CRESCENT,COTONOU.BENIN REPUBLIC.
HOT-LINE(00229)96-87-38-09
EMAIL;mr.alexsoulaman@yahoo.fr

 ATTN: Sir/Madam.

I am HON;Mr.Alex Soulaman, minister of finance (M.A.R),I monitor offices and control the affairs of all banks and financial institutions in Benin republic concerned foreign contract payments. I am the final signatory to all foreign transfers of huge funds moving within banks both the local and international levels in line to foreign contracts settlement. I have before me the list of foreign contract payment files, which are due to be transferred to their nominated accounts.

Meanwhile, we identified some of these accounts to be ghost accounts, unclaimed deposits and over invoiced sum etc. I wish to have a deal with you as regards to the unpaid fund. I have a file before me and hope the data's are correct and un-tampered. As it is my duty to recommend the transfer of these surplus fund to the Federal Government Treasury and Reserve Accounts as unclaimed deposit. I have the opportunity to write you based on the instruction I received two days ago from the senate committee on contract payment/foreign debts to submit the list of payment reports expenditures and audited reports of revenues. Among several others, I have decided to remit the total sum of USD10.2 million following the idea that we have a deal/agreement and I am going to per fact the paperwork legally.
MY CONDITIONS

1.You will have to provide foreign account where the funds will be transferred.
2.This deal must be kept secret forever, and all correspondence will be strictly by private email /telephone for security purposes.
3.There should be no other third parties as most problems associated with such payments are caused by their agents or representatives. If you AGREE with my Conditions, contact me directly through this email address;(mr.alexsoulaman@yahoo.fr) will advise you on the next line of action and immediately the funds transfer will commence without further delay as I would proceed to fix your name on the payment schedule instantly within the next 5 working days.

 NOTE:DUE TO THE HIGH RATES OF INTERNET SCANNERS,IF YOU ARE REPLYING TO THIS EMAIL,DO WRITE "YOUR BROTHER" AT THE SUBJECT OF YOUR REPLY ,THAT SERVES AS OUR SECRET CODE FOR THIS TRANSACTION,BECAUSE I DO NOT WANT YOU TO FALL VICTIM OF ANY CIRCUMSTANCES.

THANKS,

YOURS FAITHFULLY
HON;Mr.Alex Soulaman