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. It is interesting to note that the “hook” in this particular Nigerian Email scam is that you are being compensated for your being a scam victim who has lost $1,800,000.
From: “Investigations Department”
To:
Sent: Fri, Apr 1, 2022 at 1:39 AM
Subject: Your Compensation payment
U.S INTERPOL Washington
U.S. National Central Bureau
Washington, DC 20530-0001
Attention:
Foremost, we introduce this commission, The INTERPOL. We fight global crime including internet fraud and money laundering. Our commission has rounded-up well over 27,000 fraudsters and we are still battling these nefarious individuals. We are aware that quite a lot of people have been conned into parting with huge amounts.The United Nation has vowed to combat these crimes. As such due to their efforts and contributions, we have been able to recover over Twenty Eight million Three Hundred Thousand United States Dollars(USD$28.3 Million Dollars ) till date.Amongst the details yours was found to include your email. Our aim is to return all lost assets including funds to legitimate individuals identified.After a mandated investigation of the apprehended persons, the United Nations has approved the total sum of one million eight hundred thousand United States Dollars only ($1,800,000.00 usd), as compensation to the funds you lost. This amount will be paid to you in the oncoming days with your co-operation as we commence to conclude the investigation on your case. Please we want to confirm if you are dead or alive, because one woman Mrs Juliana Adenson came to our office three day back to claim your compensation fund of one million eight hundred thousand United States Dollars only ( $1,800,000.00 usd) with your death certificate that you are no more alive and she related to you is that true? There will be a series of questions we will ask to aid us in rounding-up your case file. Please respond with your full names and address, country of origin,your valid identification card company’s name and position (if any), current occupation, daytime mobile (phone) number for easy communication for ratification and to redeem your fund.We await your swift response to this notification.through this email address: (
investigationsdepartment11@gmail.com )
Regards Deputy Director
W. Salzgaber
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.
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