Today’s Scam of the day was sent to Scamicide by one of its readers and is another version of the Nigerian email scam that continues to plague the online community. Although it may seem that the Nigerian email scam began in the era of the Internet, the basis of the scam actually goes back to 1588 when it was known as the Spanish Prisoner Scam. In those days, a letter was sent to the victim purportedly from someone on behalf of a wealthy aristocrat who was imprisoned in Spain under a false name. The identity of the nobleman was not revealed for security reasons, but the victim was asked to provide money to obtain the release of the aristocrat, who, it was promised would reward the money-contributing scam victim with a vast reward that included, in some circumstances, the Spanish prisoner’s beautiful daughter in marriage.
In the various versions of this scam circulating on the Internet today, you are promised great sums of money if you assist a Nigerian or someone elsewhere in his effort to transfer money out of his country. Variations include the movement of embezzled funds by corrupt officials, a dying gentleman who wants to make charitable gifts or a minor bank official trying to move the money of deceased foreigners out of his bank without the government taking it. The example below of the email I received involves transfer of funds owed to you. In all the variations of this scam, although you are told initially that you do not need to contribute anything financially to the endeavor, you soon learn that it is necessary for you to contribute continuing large amounts of money for various reasons, such as fees, bribes, insurance or taxes before you can get anything. Of course, the victim ends up contributing money to the scammer, but never receives anything in return.
Here is a copy of the email presently being circulated as sent to Scamicide by one of our readers.
“From: HSBC London Office [mailto:Sargon@rtctechlv.com]
Sent: Saturday, August 04, 2018 8:44 AM
Subject: CHECK YOUR EMAIL
HSBC BANK PLC LONDON UK.(REGISTERED NO.1026167).
ADDRESS: 8 CANADA SQUARE , CANARY WHARF , LONDON E14 5HQ , UK
This letter is from HSBC London UK Financial Conduct Department. We have been authorized by the World Bank in conjunction with IMF to release some funds that has been own to you and your company base on the resent United Nations report. Kindly get back to us with your full name, address and direct phone numbers where you can be reach for onward release of the funds to you in USA.
Yours Sincerely,
Mr. John M. Flint
Group Chief Executive Officer & Executive Director
HSBC Bank PLC London”
Even a cursory reading of this email discloses errors of spelling and grammar. IN addition HSBC, while a legitimate bank, does not have a Financial Conduct Department.
TIPS
This is a simple scam to avoid. It preys upon people whose greed overcomes their good sense. If you receive such an email, the first thing you should ask yourself is how does this possibly relate to you and, in other variations of the scam, why would you be singled out to be so lucky to be asked to participate in this arrangement. Since there is no good answer to either question, you should merely hit delete and be happy that you avoided a scam. As with many such scams, which originate outside of the United States, the punctuation and grammar are often not good. Often the emails are sent from an email address that has no relation to the purported sender which is an indication that the email is being sent through a botnet of hacked computers. In addition, it is important to note that nowhere in the email is your name mentioned. The scam email is obviously being sent out as a mass mailing.
Many people wonder why cybercriminals and scammers send out such ridiculously obvious scam letters that anyone with an ounce of sense would recognize as a scam, but that may be intentional on the part of the scammer because if someone responds to such an obvious scam, they are more likely to fall prey to the scam without much effort by the scammers.
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