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. 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.
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, funds you have been randomly selected to receive.
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.
Dear Recipient,
You have successfully been granted the cumulative sum of $20.5Million USD from Berkshire Hathaway Inc for poverty alleviation Programmes. For more information, Kindly get back to me with your full name so I know your email is still valid. This was organized through Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation (STBF) in partnership with Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to give this amount to randomly selected individuals worldwide, This grant can be used for any purpose you choose—though I would encourage you to use it for humanitarian purposes such as poverty alleviation, educational purpose and personal development, Aims to reduce the rate of poverty in the country by providing proper access to food, monetary help, and basic essentials to the households and families belonging to the below the poverty line.
Your email was among those selected online through Google database.
Provide your details below for my record purpose before I forward it to the bank.
Your Full Name:
Current Address:
Country of origin:
Telephone:
Marital Status:
Occupation:
Date of Birth:
Kindly confirm receipt of this email.
Warren Edward Buffett
CEO of Berkshire Hathaway
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.
The faulty grammar and punctuation in this particular email is another indication that it is a scam, although with AI, scammers can make these emails appear more legitimate.
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 legendary investor Warren Buffet. 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.
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