Scam of the day – February 19, 2022 – The Nigerian Email Scam is Still Alive and Well

Steven Weisman, Esq.

4 years ago

Today’s Scam of the day comes from a regular Scamicide reader 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 origin 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 most common 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. While we refer to this type of scam as the Nigerian Email Scam, as indicated in the email below, not all versions of this scam have a connection to Nigeria as indicated in the email copied below. Common variations of the scam include the movement of embezzled funds by corrupt officials, a dying man who wants to make charitable gifts, a minor bank official trying to move the money of deceased foreigners out of his bank without the government taking it or, as in this case, abandoned funds. In most 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 increasingly 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 paying money to the scammer, but never receives anything in return.

Here is a copy of the email presently circulating. I have deleted the email address used to send the email and the email address of the recipient.

From: Agent Pieter Heerden
Sent: Friday, February 11, 2022 6:49 PM
To: xxxx@gmail.com
Subject: Your Abandoned Package.

I am hopeful that you and your family are safe. I am is Pieter HEERDEN, a United Nations special agent currently stationed at Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Atlanta, Georgia. I have been tasked by the U.N security council to probe into activities of money laundering, terrorism financing and other related act by means of forensic analysis of all abandoned diplomatic consignment packages across US Airports. After a closer analysis, careful examination and undergoing a specialized infrared scan of a consignment that is registered in your name and abandoned at the airport facility for a number of reasons, the results of which revealed that the actual content of the consignment package is cash in 100 US dollar bills totaling six million.

I decided to contact you after due diligence & with the understanding that all issues that led to it being abandoned I can resolve. Per your agreement and indulgence I will take on the delivery responsibility and complete the delivery processes if you accept to share the contents of the consignment with me on delivery to your nominated address since the original handler disappeared without trace. More information will be provided when you respond to this Email.

I will appreciate your response on this matter.

Regards,

Agent Pieter Heerden

Administrative service and inspection unit.

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 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. Often as with this email, 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. The email address of the sender of this email has absolutely no relation to the purported sender of the email. In addition, it is important to note that nowhere in this particular version of the scam email is your name mentioned. The scam email is obviously being sent out as a mass mailing.

Finally, it is interesting to note that in some instances, the scammers sending these emails intentionally make them completely outrageous such as this one is in order to weed out people who are not the most gullible and greedy so they can focus their attention on those people who are more likely to respond and fall victim to such obviously ridiculous emails.

For those of you receiving the Scam of the day through an email, I just want to remind you that if you want to see the ever increasing list of Coronavirus scams go to the first page of the http://www.scamicide.com website and click on the tab at the top of the page that indicates “Coronavirus Scams.” Scamicide has been cited by the New York Times as one of three top sources for information about Coronavirus related scams.

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